Tuesday 19 November, 2024

9 things we'll miss about old-school Aertel

The digital switchover means the traditional colour-on-black pages will be a thing of the past. Here’s what we’ll miss.

THE SWITCH-OFF of the analogue TV signal is now only just over a fortnight away – meaning we’re now in the final month of the traditional Aertel service.

Though Aertel lives on in the Saorview world, its newer incarnation is a fancy interactive version which is much more in keeping with the 21st century – but far removed from the glitchy, blocky wonder that we all grew up with.

So, to mark the departure of old-school teletext from Ireland, we thought we’d recap some of the things we’ll really miss about the old version.

God speed, you black beauty.

9 things we'll miss about old-school Aertel

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1 - Dodgy blocky artwork
2 - Waiting forever for cinema listings to come around
3 - Watching a match via teletext
4 - Using page 180 to find out what this film's called
5 - The prank-free zone of the Lotto results
6 - Typing in the wrong number for a page
6 - Typing in the wrong number for a page
7 - The race against time to find the 'Hold' button
8 - Not being able to read a bloody thing
9 - So long, Bamber Boozler

Screengrabs, except where indicated otherwise, from RTÉ.ie. The online version of white-on-black Aertel is also being killed off from October 24. Sob.

Explainer: What is Saorview, and what do you need to do about it?

Author

Gavan Reilly

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