Goodbye Cruel World - Ceefax readies itself for sign off as digital switchover nears completion
Ceefax, the teletext information service first launched in 1974, will today broadcast its last page with the digital switch over near completion.
The final phase of the digital switch over from analogue across the UK will be completed in Northern Ireland today, meaning the end of the information service broadcast by the BBC, and now considered obsolete in the age of mobile internet.
The service broadcast up-to-the-minute information on news, sport, travel and entertainment, decades before the World Wide Web became a common occurrence within households, albeit at a slower pace.
A spoof sign off page (see picture) has emerged online which features the final line from the service being ‘goodbye cruel world’.