BBC Red Button BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a branding used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. The service was launched in September 1999 as BBC Text. It was relaunched in November 2001 under the BBCi brand and operated under this name until late 2008, when it was rebranded as BBC Red Button. The "red button" name refers to the common interface on remote controls for digital televisions and set-top boxes, a red push-button which launches digital teletext services. Although initially marketed as
Electra (teletext) operation. A few other services were offered by some large-market TV stations in the US throughout the 1980s, such as "Metrotext" from KTTV in Los Angeles and "KeyFax" from WFLD in Chicago. Electra also carried another teletext service on its higher-numbered pages, a service called "Tempo". Tempo mainly carried sports (and other miscellaneous) information on its pages. At the time of Electra's closing in 1993, it was the only existing teletext service in the USA. Electra (teletext) Electra was a teletext service in the United States that was in operation from the early 1980s up until 1993, when it was