Oct 21, 2013

of low thia khiang questions cancellation of teletext, says many elderly affected

Mr Low Thia Khiang asked why Mediacorp was in "such a hurry" to terminate the teletext service before government programmes had ensured seniors were sufficiently prepared to switch to and use the alternatives.

Dr Yaacob replied that his ministry and Mediacorp had indeed received feedback, especially from the elderly, about the shutdown of Teletext. But in fact "a long list of programmes" had been rolled out "long before 2011" to help the elderly learn how to use the internet. So far about 77,000 seniors have been trained under the ongoing Silvercomm Initiative Programme.