ORACLE (teletext)

ORACLE

Broadcast area	National UK
Launched	1978
Closed	31 December 1992
Replaced by	Teletext
Owned by	ITV

A typical ORACLE page, here showing news from ITN.

ORACLE (from "Optional Reception of Announcements by Coded Line Electronics"^[1]) was a commercial teletext service first broadcast on ITV in 1974 and later on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, finally ending on both channels at 23:59 GMT on 31 December 1992.

History

It was developed and launched by a consortium backed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority at about the same time as the BBC's Ceefax service. Due to the lack of available receivers, exact launch dates have been left obscure. Receivers became popular around 1980.

ORACLE moved away from being an experimental engineering department and more towards being a content provider. Under the original plans for the ITV franchise renewal, they were to have been scrapped at the end of 1992 and the few scan lines they used given to the highest bidder. ORACLE successfully campaigned for the creation of a franchise for the teletext service on ITV and Channel 4, only to find themselves outbid by Teletext Ltd., a consortium originally comprising Associated Newspapers, Philips Electronics and Media Ventures International, who started broadcasting at midnight on 1 January 1993.

The end

ORACLE began to disappear at 23:31:09 on 31 December 1992. It continued until 23:55:55 and it said ORACLE Gone 1978-1992.

Because of the rivalry between the two companies, ORACLE did not carry television listings beyond its midnight closing time on New Year's Eve 1992. It merely stated "00.00 The End of Oracle, Now the Nightmare Begins".

Legacy

Even now Oracle is perhaps best remembered^{[citation needed]} for its advertising slogan "Page The Oracle".

See also

• Park Avenue, a teletext based soap which appeared on ORACLE for several years written by Robbie Burns and Steve Regan.
• Gareth Herincx, editor of ORACLE's Buzz magazine for teenagers and writer of daily journals Debbie's Diary and Josh's Diary.

External links

• Information and screenshots of Oracle from mb21
• Debbie's Diary: "a bit like Belle de Jour but without the sauce" (The Guardian)

References

1. ^ Channel Television Through The Years (corporate website)

This article about television technology is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: ITV franchisees Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Defunct media companies of the United Kingdom Teletext Acronyms Companies established in 1974 1974 in British television Television technology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? Locataire (candidat) National Liberal Progressive Look at other dictionaries: Oracle (disambiguation) — An oracle In Greek and Roman polytheism was an agency or medium, usually a priest or a priestess, through which the gods were supposed to speak or prophesy. In generalized usage, an oracle can also be: divine revelation in Christianity Urim and… …   Wikipedia Oracle PowerBrowser — 1.5 Oracle PowerBrowser was a web browser created in 1996 by Oracle Corporation. It featured a multiple document interface and offered the possibility to act as a web server allowing users to host webpages on their computers. It pre dated CSS and …   Wikipedia teletext —    Teletext is a system of carrying data, graphic and textual information on top of the normal television broadcast signal. With an appropriately equipped television set in 40 percent of households in Britain (in 1992), many viewers are able to… …   Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture Teletext — This article is about the teletext system as a whole. For the UK company whose teletext services are also branded as Teletext , see Teletext Ltd. For the obsolete communications system, see Teletex. Teletext (or broadcast teletext ) is a… …   Wikipedia Teletext Ltd. — Infobox ITV franchisee name = Teletext based = London area = National owner = DMGT airdate = 1 January 1993 old captionb = closeddate = replaced = ORACLE replacedby = website = [http://www.teletext.co.uk teletext.co.uk] Teletext Ltd is the… …   Wikipedia teletext — An information service in which pages of text are transmitted to the home or office for display on a television set. The information is given under various headings, with a menu call up system, and includes latest stock exchange prices. The two… …   Big dictionary of business and management oracle — n. 1 a a place at which advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity. b the usu. ambiguous or obscure response given at an oracle. c a prophet or prophetess at an oracle. 2 a a person or thing regarded as an infallible guide …   Useful english dictionary ORACLE — • Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine ( > IEEE Standard Dictionary ) • Optimal Reception of Announcements by Coded Line Electronics Teletext Dienst der IBA ( > Lexikon der Text und Datenkommunikation ) • Oracle On Line Inquiry… …   Acronyms ORACLE — [1] Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine ( > IEEE Standard Dictionary ) [2] Optimal Reception of Announcements by Coded Line Electronics Teletext Dienst der IBA ( > Lexikon der Text und Datenkommunikation ) [3] Oracle On Line… …   Acronyms von A bis Z Oracle — / ɒrək(ə)l/ a UK teletext service broadcast by the IBA …   Marketing dictionary in english 18+ © Academic, 2000-2025 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”