RTÉ’s teletext service, Aertel, is today celebrating its 20th birthday.
The analogue text service was officially launched on June 22, 1987 by the then Director General TV Finn, who described it on the day as an 'electronic newspaper' available to all those who had teletext enabled televisions.
The service began by offering news, sport, weather, farming, finance and a special magazine for the members of the deaf community. The service has grown considerably over the years and in addition to the services mentioned above, which are all still available, it offers much more including an entertainment news and listings service, TV & Radio listings, a dating service and bookie information.
The latest research shows that half the Irish population uses RTÉ Aertel at least once a week while one out of five people in Ireland use the service daily.
Aertel is also available on the internet at www.rte.ie/aertel where it normally attracts over four million page impressions per month.
Recently the service also became available on mobile phones.
Click here to watch Gerry Reynolds' news report about the launch in 1987.
