[1] Its name is a portmanteau of the word fios meaning "knowledge" or "information", and telebhisean ("television").
Five-minute bulletins were shown on weekday lunchtimes (and later, in the early evening) while a supplementary half-hour review programme, Telefios na Seachduinn, was broadcast on Saturday lunchtime.
It is sometimes wrongly stated that Telefios was actually the first Scottish Gaelic news programme.
In fact, Criomagan (meaning "little bits") was broadcast during the late 1980s and early 1990s by Grampian Television.
Following the axing of Telefios in 2000, no Scots Gaelic television news programmes were broadcast until September 2008 when the Gaelic digital channel, BBC Alba, launched a nightly half-hour programme entitled An Là and a weekly hour-long review programme entitled Seachd Là.