TVNZ's Teletext service to end

Photo / Thinkstock

TVNZ's teletext service will be winding up next year, after operating for nearly 30 years.

TVNZ today announced the closure, citing obsolete teletext technology and the widespread use of the internet as the reasons for it ending.

"Over the last few years, the information services carried on the Teletext magazine have been overshadowed by the explosion of information available on the internet," TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick said.

Mr Kenrick said TVNZ had hung onto the service for as long as it could for the sake of a relatively small number of regular users.

Teletext services had been closing around the world for some time, he said.

"We just don't have the resources to maintain a fading service at the level of professionalism that we would want, particularly as most of the information is duplicated on our own or others' websites."

Teletext would wind up on April 2.

Teletext began in 1984 after funds raised in the 1981 telethon helped pay to get it started.