BBC teletext service, Ceefax, was introduced, created initially to provide subtitling, but developed into a news and information service. In 1978, BBC staff went on strike just before the Christmas of that year, thus blocking out the transmission of both channels and amalgamating all four radio stations into one. Since the deregulation of the UK television and radio market in the 1980s, the BBC has faced increased competition from the commercial sector (and from the advertiser-funded public service broadcaster Channel 4), especially on satellite television, cable television, and digital television services. In the late 1980s, the BBC began a process of
Park Avenue (teletext soap) Park Avenue (teletext soap) Park Avenue was a daily teletext based soap opera on ITV's ORACLE Teletext service, which was written by Robbie Burns. It was launched in 1988, and 1,445 episodes were written during its time on air. It later moved to Channel 4 after ORACLE was reorganised, before ending when the service lost its franchise at the end of 1992. The series was launched on Page 126 of ORACLE on ITV on Thursday 1 December 1988, with a new episode appearing at 5:00pm each afternoon (including weekends). Park Avenue was set in the fictional town of Parkfield (which