Fans happy: Teletext has returned its beloved football button | Show

The regular Teletext visitors were completely confused when the NOS put a new operating system online yesterday, which still harbored a number of technical errors. For example, several shortcuts and the diaeresis – the two dots above the vowel – had disappeared. These so-called bugs have now been resolved, NOS reports appropriately via Teletext page 160 (see photo).

The commotion was not understood by everyone. Why were people concerned about the location of a green or red dot (the shortcut keys), was the criticism. And who still used this ancient medium anyway? More people than expected: about 3.5 million people visit Teletext on television every week and about 1 million people via the app.

By the way, it is not the first time that the regular fan base has gone crazy due to an adjustment or malfunction at Teletext. In recent years, several pages have disappeared, such as lottery results and horoscopes. The latter predictions were made in the 1990s completely invented by Radio 2 DJ Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte. “For example, it was never ‘you will be run over by a truck’, but always ‘put on something warm’ or ‘bring some flowers’. I don’t think I have destroyed lives,” the DJ previously confessed to this site.

By the way, there is also a nice anecdote to tell about the Flemish Teletext – which was closed in 2016. An employee confessed on one of the pages posted private messages for her husband for years.

The Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organization (VRT) decided to stop broadcasting teletext in 2016. The commercial Belgian channel VTM already did this in 2014 and the British BBC pulled the plug in 2012. The Netherlands is one of the few countries where Teletext exists. On Thursday, X (formerly Twitter) welcomed the rapid repairs by the NOS. ‘Long live Teletext!’ it sounded.

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