Aertel to be switched off. Any memories?

Used it for news, sport, TV guide.

folks used to use it to get lotto numbers / results…

ohhh and any visitors / family flying in from abroad the flight arrivals on 571 I think was dead handy…

im surprised it’s taken this long for it to be canned. Can’t be cheap to operate/update….

Two blasts from the past there…

silly Keeping it going this long, loads of people 80+ are internet savvy these days, enough to look at news, sports, tv listings and so on.

Our neighbour who had no TV had us scalded for the Horseracing results most evenings for years. There was a time when I was so familiar with the Racecourse names here and the UK I could name them all.

One night my other half was watching snooker when our neighbour came in to get results. My OH could take no more and told him to go and buy his own fkn telly.

He never darkened our door or ever spoke to us again.

Dad used to check his shares every day on it

180 for the days films I think was my main one. Then obviously the rest of the tv listings.

I vaguely remember then putting up the college cao points listings so that consumed an evening or two in August .

I'm surprised at this news. I thought it was gone years ago.

I think the only reason it was left on for so long was because RTE were legally obliged to carry a teletext service. That was removed in one of the recent media bills so they're free to close it now.

Cue protests from some pensioner in her 80s from the backarse of Roscommon who still uses Aertel.

For me it was page 369 for the TV ratings.

I would point out that this is part of RTÉ very clear 2024 stratgic plan.

So expect some more amazing changes at RTÉ!

No it'll be from some middle aged grump doing the "won't someone think of the old people" routine. Same as any time mention of buying a ticket online or paying with a card comes up.

Now that brings back memories. Played that game so often.

"Watched" a few Champions League games in pubs on Aertel back in the day. Essential if you were a not a Premier League centred soccer fan.

Oh many memory's. I used it for cinema listings, TV guide, bus timetables, news etc.

Have not used it in a decade at least. Don't even think I can get it on my current TV lol not that I want to anyway.

I remember reading on a page and it would change before you finished reading it so annoying so would have to go back.

Sometimes it would work great other times it would drive you absolutely nuts.

Will be missed no.

I remember going to 180 just to see what was on the other channels :) When TnaG and TV3 came along, they were at the bottom of the list for years.

Aertel 221 (or was it 232?) for the football scores. Then you would miss the page and have to wait for it to loop back around. I am not sure what year it was but I remember checking aertel one Saturday afternoon in my grandparents house for football scores, and remember Aertel saying Mark Hughes got a bad gash. I cannot remember what match it was but must have been early 90's.

Edit - it was 1995 Vs Newcastle.

Checking me prize bonds! (Never feicin win mind)

looking up the results when Mary coughlan lost her seat in sw donegal in 2011

You could be right. Was 221 for the fixtures / latest scores and 232 for the results - I can't remember now! Didn't they also put the irish goalscorers in green too. Hard to believe that was almost 30 years ago.

Hadn't used it since the early 90s I'd say.

Didn't even realise it was still active.

In my opinion it was the precursor to the internet.

You could find out the news, scores, weather, tv guide right up to the minute.

Channel 4 used to have some good entertaining stuff on theirs as well, like Digitiser, a lot of which was fairly mental. I used to laugh and laugh at the nonsense that they would put on there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitiser

The Digital Version or the Analogue version? I assume the digital version will remain on available on most digital TV into the future. RTÉ choose not to role out Digital AERTEL on cable and on Satellite.

Look I could careless if AERTEL is drop or not but making it out to be a huge cost saving, without actually telling us what the cost was, seems a little disingenuous.

As I say this comes out of the 2024 Strategy, and one of the strategy was purely temporary. Closing or keeping AERTEL isn't going to save RTÉ and RTÉ pretending that digital AERTEL doesn't exist.

It seems to me that we should believe everything in an RTÉ strategy (a strategy that has now largely been disposed of) and that of an RTÉ press release.

Happy to be proven wrong on Digital AERTEL and the vast amounts of money RTÉ are going to save.

Aertel was amazing in the days before we all had Internet access, but I assumed it was already closed. We never got a paper (parents refused to buy any once the Evening Press closed), so it was the only way to get certain information.

The news on 103, football 220, TV listing 180. It was essential for the cinema listings and reviews. Entertainment news with the latest celeb gossip, and a list of celeb birthdays for that day. The children's section was also great in its day with book reviews. 448 rings a bell, not sure what that was.

Package holidays used to be advertised too, and I remember scrolling through with interest, though my family never went abroad so it was totally irrelevant to me. They used to make little palm tree pics and the like appear on screen. Cutting edge it seemed at the time.

There was a lonely hearts section too with personal ads which I found fascinating as a young teen.

Also a huge Bamboozled fan here.

Post and latterly email in, and someone would have typed or copy/pasted (an email) in.

Save Long Wave was one radio anorak, they won't care about a TV thing.

Aertel (and the other teletext services) were absolutely integral back in those pre-internet days. Favourites were the soccer pages (220+), music news and album reviews, tv films, and the young people's letter page (including the mysterious 'Karma Policewoman').

Incidentally I took a photo of the main news page on Aertel on Paddy's day 2020, during the early tempestuous days of Covid. I recall thinking the headlines had an "end-of-days" quality, which matched the bizarre atmosphere of the time ("Church Bells Ring in Unison" 😬)

Could still access it on my parents’ spare TV. Would occasionally check it when down there. Left my phone in my own house one weekend earlier this year so used it to check football scores.

Hopefully somebody records the last hour or so to see what the goodbye message is. I remember getting up to watch the farewell of Ceefax in 2013 and that testcard classic Bart by Ruby was the last track played.

Yes that was amazing, twas like early version of Google