It was a thing for most of the world, I just don’t believe it really caught on in the US, it was called teletext and was really widely used.
we still have teletext in Ukraine even though noone really uses it. (and also we don’t have analogue tv anymore, but it’s still possible to use them somehow afaik)
there’s even an online version of the most popular one (Intertext) which has a realtime chat feature (you can text a specific number to send your own messages, kinda like discord lol)
http://intertext.com.ua/
I kind of miss Ceefax, the BBC’s Teletext service. The immediacy meant that headlines were often broken first on Ceefax before TV or radio, but the limitations meant there was little room for overly-verbose fluff. I remember using it in the early nineties for realtime flight arrivals at our local airport, so we knew when to set off to collect my grandparents.
I remember reading about a system used somewhere else in Europe where you would call a phone line and use your phone’s dialpad to navigate the Teletext on your TV - that sounds very clever.
I believe you’re thinking of France’s minitel (wikipedia) . I never used or saw it myself. Living in a neighboring country, i did see quite some adds mentioning it on their tv stations. Trente-six-quinze-minitel! Club Dorothée FTW! :)
