Moves by Teletext to relaunch its holiday service and enable advertisers to take advantage of digital display ads is the latest step in modernising the ageing TV news and classified medium.
Although Teletext is now on the digital platform and has an online spin-off, teletextholidays.co.uk, its image among many media agencies remains that of a clunky, outdated, time-consuming service.
Those who do use it will be well acquainted with its drawbacks. It isn't interactive and its pages, on analogue TV, are broadcast on a cycle. So if you see a nice cheap holiday but don't have a pen to hand to take down the telephone number, then you can wait for what seems an eternity for that page to come around again.
The belief is that it is a medium that only exists at present because there remain households without home computers and, hence, no access to the search-based websites, particularly travel sites, that provide direct ways of purchasing.
Yet despite its technology disadvantages, Teletext commands a large slice of the late deal holiday business, accounting for around 1.5 million bookings a year through the TV service and its associated website. Most are thought to come through the TV service. The teletextholidays.co.uk site, launched in 1999, had 994,000 unique users in December 2005, according to comScore data, but it is only 21st in the list of the UK's most popular travel websites.
New services
Stephen Dunk, recently appointed deputy managing director of Teletext Holidays on TV, says the new-look holiday service is only the beginning and that in the coming year advert-isers will be offered a broad range of new services.
Yet Paul Frampton, head of digital at Media Planning Group, is still to be convinced about how much further the text service can go in attracting advertisers to its TV outlet. Frampton, who occasionally uses Teletext for Camelot ads and travel clients, says the service does not perform as well as it used to because of the growth of the internet.
He adds: "Until interactive TV becomes a reality and you can interact with Teletext, then I cannot see why consumers would use it when they log onto a website and get the information in a fraction of the time." The future for Teletext, says Frampton, must lie in the migration of the TV service to the web.
Yet Dunk says there is no plan to fully migrate operations online. "We recognise that people want different platforms, but what we have on the TV platform is unique. Teletext is free. You may say that going online is easier, but why would you bother when you can do it from the comfort of your armchair?"
Dunk believes that it is this easy availability of bite-sized chunks of information which is Teletext's USP. He says: "If you go online to search for a holiday, you will get millions of responses and it can take some time. The offers on Teletext inspire and encourage people to impulse-buy."
Kevin West, media director at Carat, hasn't used the medium much outside of holiday bookings. While he recognises the strides forward that Teletext has made in getting people to interact with their TV handsets, he feels more could be done to show what kind of effect Teletext has on campaigns.
Of the recent changes to the service, he says: "It should open up a new audience, but the problem is getting new people to use it, and my guess is a younger demographic are more used to the internet than Teletext."
Continue investment
Frampton at MPG agrees and points out that in order to survive and thrive, the company should continue to invest in its digital offerings. He says: "They need to be at the forefront of where TV is going in terms of richer content, but the technology is not there for them yet. In five years' time it will be the norm and Teletext may come back into play."
Dunk says Teletext is looking into other communication streams, such as mobile and broadband TV, but he believes it will be at least four years before the broadband connection will be up to scratch.
Yet for Teletext, technology developments are as much a threat as an opportunity. As more people, including so-called "silver surfers", go online to take advantage of broadband and telephony, the chance is that they will discover websites that can get them that last-minute holiday deal quicker and easier.
INTERNET TRAVEL SITES
Total December audience (000s)
1. Expedia - 4,823
2. Lastminute.com - 3,514
3. Easyjet.com - 2,527
4. TUI Group - 2,097
5. ATOC - 2,070
6. British Airways - 1,911
7. Ryanair - 1,662
8. Trainline - 1,506
9. tfl.gov.uk - 1,429
10. Cheapflights - 1,359
11. Trip Network Inc - 1,277
12. Virgin Travel - 1,269
13. National Express Group - 1,188
14. First Choice Holidays - 1,171
15. British Midland - 1,113
16. Viamichelin.com - 1,089
17. AOL Travel - 1,086
18. MyTravel Group - 1,085
19. Airline-network.co.uk - 1,080
20. Thomas Cook - 1,057
21. Teletextholidays.co.uk - 994
22. ebookers - 980
23. InterContinental hotels - 930
24. Holidaybreak - 899
25. Opodo - 883
26. Priceline.com - 829
27. Travelsupermarket.com - 796
28. information-britain.co.uk - 787
29. Yahoo! Travel - 779
30. BAA Airports - 773
Source: comScore.
.jpg)
.jpg)