Prestel, Oracle, and Ceefax are telephone based video text systems currently in use in Great Britain. Rather than being considered as competitors, they should be viewed as complementary media with separate functions based on their differences. All use home television sets to receive information in print, and all broadcast on spare TV lines in the vertical interval, or space between the pictures. Prestel is an interactive system in which viewers can send messages to a computer and interact with the system. After viewing a table of contents, viewers can request specific pages from the computer. Prestel has the capacity to carry hundreds of pages dedicated to special information needs of consumers, such as a specific sector of industry. Oracle and Ceefax are teletext systems sponsored by ITV and BBC, respectively, in which the viewer can only interact with the receiver and must wait for the page wanted to come around on the cycle. A hundred page cycle now takes about 22 seconds; improvement of access time is planned. Teletext is now a broadcast service with no charge that provides entertainment pages and television related information such as serial updates, film reviews, and program listings. Future possibilities for the teletext systems include supporting television with advertising, subtitling, regionalization of services, and increased telesoftware programs. (MKM)