Editing Ceefax (section)

===Closure===
[[Image:Ceefax.png|right|thumb|Ceefax page, seen on 5 October 2008.]]
[[Image:Last second of BBC Ceefax.png|right|thumb|Ceefax page at the moment of switch off, seen on 23 October 2012.]]
Until 2012, the BBC's Ceefax service was still providing information on topics covering News, Sport, Weather, TV Listings and Businesses. The pages were kept up to date until the UK digital switchover was completed on Tuesday 23 October 2012.

In 2002, the BBC stopped broadcasting Ceefax on the digital satellite [[Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)|Sky Digital]] service, but later brought back a limited service, including a TV schedule for [[BBC One]] and [[BBC Two]]; and subtitles.

The BBC has tried to reuse the old Ceefax page numbers where possible on the [[Freeview (UK)|Freeview]] and digital satellite [[BBC Red Button]] Ceefax-replacement services.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pressred/2009/05/assigningpagenumbers.shtml How we assign our page numbers] BBC Blogs</ref>

It was announced that Ceefax would not be replaced when the analogue signal was switched off in October 2012.<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="Test Cards and Ceefax"/> The [[BBC Red Button]] service was seen as an alternative to Ceefax and since 2007 the number of regions with a Ceefax-supported analogue signal had declined as digital switchover progressed across the UK.<ref>{{cite news|first=Chris |last=Tryhorn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/nov/13/digitaltvradio.television |title=Whitehaven analogue TV switch-off nears |work=The Guardian |date= 13 November 2007|access-date=25 May 2012}}</ref> As of the end of 2011, three-quarters of the UK TV regions had completed or were in the process of being switched over.<ref>{{cite web|author=Meridian |url=http://www.digitaluk.co.uk |title=Home |publisher=Digital UK |date=31 March 2011 |access-date=25 May 2012}}</ref>

Ceefax was the last remaining text service available via analogue TV transmissions in the UK, as [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] and [[Channel 4]]'s [[Teletext Ltd.|Teletext]] service closed in December 2009. [[Channel 5 (UK)|Channel 5]]'s "Five Text" ancillary service closed in 2011. A limited analogue teletext service through ITV and Channel 4 was still available through terrestrial until the digital switchover was completed on 23 October 2012.

At 23:32:19 BST on 23 October 2012, Ceefax was switched off after 38 years of providing news, weather and sport information when the [[Olympic Games]] champion [[Mary Peters (athlete)|Dame Mary Peters]] turned off the last analogue TV signal in Northern Ireland. A series of graphics on Ceefax's front page marked its 38 years on the BBC.<ref>{{cite news|first=John |last=Hand |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20032882 |title=Ceefax service to end after 38 years on BBC |publisher=BBC |date= 23 October 2012|access-date=23 October 2012}}</ref> BBC News' website also has memories of Ceefax.<ref>{{cite news|first=Priya |last=Shah |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20035713 |title= Ceefax: your memories |publisher=BBC |date= 23 October 2012}}</ref>

In a [[tongue-in-cheek]] article on the [[2017 United Kingdom general election|2017 general election]], ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave political satirist [[Lord Buckethead]] a "Best Policy" award for the latter's [[manifesto]] pledge to bring back Ceefax.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/08/the-2017-election-awards-from-best-eating-of-a-pringle-to-biggest-dolt|title=The 2017 election awards: from best eating of a Pringle to biggest dolt|first=Stuart|last=Heritage|date=8 June 2017|work=The Guardian}}</ref>