myEPG to lobby regulator for accurate Australian Electronic Program Guide

Adam Turner
Thursday, 24 July 2008 08:10

IT Industry - Strategy

Frustrated Australian PVR owners are lobbying the government regulator to force the networks to provide a true Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for everyone.
An online petition and information campaign at myEPG.com.au is designed to force the Australian Communications and Media Authority to make the provision of accurate EPG data a licence condition for Australian networks. The move comes as the Network Seven-backed TiVo and Foxtel-backed iQ2 PVRs hit the market, both offering access to full EPG data.

Late last year FreeTV Australia, the group representing free-to-air broadcasters, struck a deal to include an EPG in broadcast signals to work with "all" Personal Video Recorders. That same day FreeTV Australia sent a confidential letter, obtained by ITWire, to hardware manufacturers saying that PVRs that allowed viewers to skip advertisements were "not authorised" to use the new broadcast EPG. FreeTV Australia refused to detail how the ban would be enforced as ad-skipping PVRs automatically extract the new EPG from the broadcast signal.

Six months later the broadcast EPG is still a "grossly sub-standard product", says Mike Hancock - founder of xpmediacentre.com.au , one of Australia's largest online forums dedicated to the Personal Video Recorders.

"The information is poorly formatted, often contains spelling errors and the naming conventions for shows change frequently. All in all, the data is poor," says Mr Hancock, who is also involved with myEPG.

"In addition, due to the lack of specific requirements or conditions for FTA broadcasters to provide useful guide information to the consumer, some appear to be manipulating the data in an attempt to disrupt the use of modern PVR equipment.  This is the same equipment which can be used throughout the rest of the world without a problem."

"Whilst [FreeTV Australia] could try to argue they now provide guide information, it's a grossly sub-standard product in its current form. We have no idea which model they used to develop what we have now, our best guess is that they've made it up as they gone along without any reference to industry standards elsewhere in the world."

The myEPG lobby group is now targetting politicians and the Australian Communications and Media Authority in order to ensure Australians enjoy the same unrestricted access to EPG data as television watchers in other countries.

"We believe that enabling a free, unencumbered and open EPG must be a condition of being granted a free-to-air broadcast licence in Australia," Hancock says.

 "It is madness that Australian FTA TV broadcasters think that the Australian public deserves so much less than the rest of the world. The fact that the biggest software company in the world, Microsoft, has been unable to negotiate any kind of program guide in Australia demonstrates how much control the television networks have been able to exert over our broadcast spectrum and, as a result, how far behind in this area we are when compared to the rest of the world."
 
"The ACMA's job is to regulate FTA TV broadcasters, but it seems to only rely on feedback from FreeTV - which of course represents the FTA broadcasters. Now for the first time, an independent group has formed called myEPG with the goal of explaining and raising the profile of this important issue with the Australian public and politicians as well as those who control the media and FTA licensing."

The launch of myEPG comes as independent Australian EPG provider IceTV continues its drawn out legal battle with the Nine Network. CONTINUED