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Teletext is dead: Happy Christmas, luddites!

Today is Nate's birthday. To celebrate, Teletext is being switched off. A rubbish present if you ask us. But unfortunately it was just too much of a cash drain

Nate Lanxon Special to CNET News

Today is Nate's birthday. To celebrate, Teletext is being switched off. That's a birthday-present fail if you ask us.

The service's owners, Associated Newspapers, confirmed the analogue and digital TV editorial offerings were being shut on 15 December, claiming they "had been loss-making in recent years and no viable business model could be found."

The hearing-impaired needn't worry, as the p888 subtitle service will continue to operate, and non-editorial parts of the business, such as TeletextHolidays and TeletextCars, are unaffected.

But as for all that news and sport editorial on your TV, which has been there since the 70s, you'll need to refocus your viewing spheres to Teletext's giggling murderer: the Internet. It was only a kid in the 80s, but now it's old enough to drink and own guns. Turns out that was bad news for Mr Telly McText.

The BBC's Ceefax service is unaffected by all this, incidentally. But Teletext's Bamboozle trivia game, which we have fond memories of playing as a kid in our gran's house, is as dead as said gran.

Leave your nostalgic comments below.

Image credit: alx_chief, licensed under CC.