BBC Design & Engineering BBC Red Button launched in September 1999 as a branding 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, and is only available via digital television receivers. The service can be accessed via Digital terrestrial television(DTT) (DVB-T), satellite television (DVB-S) and cable television(DVB-C). The "Red Button" branding is no longer used within the BBC own website. In 2004, BBC Technology Ltd, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC who provided technology and broadcast support and services was sold to Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) under
Teletext to four lines a frame. While the basic teletext format has remained unchanged in more than 30 years, a number of improvements and additions have been made. A closely related service is the Video Program System (VPS), introduced in Germany in 1985. Like teletext, this signal is also broadcast in the vertical blanking interval. It consists only of 32 bits of data, primarily the date and time for which the broadcast of the currently running TV programme was originally scheduled. Video recorders can use this information (instead of a simple timer) in order to automatically record a scheduled programme, even