Freeview EPG in June. Maybe…
It was first due in May 2009. Then the end of 2009. Now Freeview promises a June launch for its Electronic Programme Guide.
- Published by David Knox
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Freeview is promising its EPG will now arrive in June.
Its arrival will be a long way behind early promises, after being plagued by technological and copyright challenges.
It was first due in May 2009. Then the end of 2009.
The EPG will differ from current single-channel EPGs by offering a view of all Free to Air Channels at once, including community television, similar to the Foxtel EPG. It will be available only on Freeview branded TVs and set-top boxes.
Freeview CEO Robin Parkes says the EPG will be ”simple and easy to use” and allow viewers to record material by genre or program rather than by blocks of time.
Its catch-up TV service will be turned on in the last quarter of the year.
But Anthony Fitzgerald, chief executive of Foxtel’s MCN, said: ”It’s terrific they have finally come to the party, especially after the delayed launch of their multi-channels. They are so many years behind this could be too little too late.”
Source: smh.com.au
17 Responses
What a mess.
Perhaps more people would actually care about a FreeView EPG if the networks kept their own respective EPGs up to date and accurate to the minute.
Seven has started to keep their EPG up to date but only on select nights – usually when MKR is on they chose not to. Also, How I Met Your Mother is always late as I assume they hope people will see the last few minutes of Cougar Town and take to it.
Nine and GO yet to even try with their EPG meaning starts and ends of shows can still be missed if you don’t program overruns on either side.
stay away from freeview branded products. Firstly, they tend to cost about $50-100 more than non-freeview products and they do not allow ad skipping.
@Stan: That’s because a cellophane-wrapped turd is still just s#!t once you remove the pretty wrapper and I don’t want it, free or not.
Anyway, it’s not free – we’ve all had to invest in either a digital television or set-top box to be able to view the additional channels. That’s fine, no complaint from me there. However, those 50% of Australians who’ve taken up digital television are now being asked to buy another TV or box if we wish to access Freeview’s EPG. Being required to pay twice for something is not my definition of “free”.
Freeview hardware = locked in view, expensive hardware.
The article really doesn’t explain how the freeview EPG will differ in content from the free info available to all. Surely the actual program details are the same and it’s just the hardware manufacturers choice of chip/software that determines how it will be shown/interacted with.
You people below are unbelievable! It’s called *Free*view, but you still find reasons to whinge, bitch & moan.
Thank god i don’t have anything branded “freeview” !!!!!!!!!!
Never have never will.
it would be nice if the networks can now work with Microsoft and offer catch up tv via MCE. There us a perfectly good EPG with no way to catch up on things we missed
The standard (current) EPG will continue but the advanced EPG as described inthe article will be accessible from Freeview equipment from June.
I imagine the TV Catch up will have either mirror the Tivo method or possibly could be retaining a copy on your HDD until you decide the catch up content can go.
One thing which is funny is how Foxtel dismiss it outright when in theory it’s the same service as theirs. For a company to bag FTA as rubbish but then rebroadcast it shows how it’s a bunch of marketing/sales graduates who not wanting to work in real estate and delaing with normal people face to face and not educated enough for stockbroking/merchant banking pick the next best thing – superficial nonsense.
Excluding TiVo (which gets it’s guide from the Internet), how does this differ from the EPG that most PVRs already have? Surely freeview branded boxes use the same information that generic PVRs use, or am I missing something?
It is very unclear from the Herald article how the EPG (which is supposed to be sent over-the-air AFAIK) will work with the catch-up service which is apparently internet-based. It says the catch-up service will be accessed from the EPG but doesn’t say how that will work. Presumably you will have to have a TV/STB and/or a DVR that connects to the internet to view the catch-up service?
As usual with Freeview everything is very unclear and far off in the future.
It’s amusing how the industry attempts to punish the members of the viewing public who did the “right thing” and adopted digital early.
Not that not having Freeview equipment is a real penalty, in fact in many ways it’s a bonus. Still, that’s how they’d like it perceived.
Finally, but for those of us that spent $700 on a PVR two years ago, will we still get an EPG on that?
Freeview Australia is a joke. Where is the choice of channels? We need more if it is to compete with Foxtel. Also, everything seems to be moving at a snails pace – this is the 21st Century, why is it taking sooooooooooo loooooooooooooong for things to happen??
But with out services is it needed?
Freeview is ridiculous.
This organisation is so clueless on everything.
Marketing, EPG, Catch up TV, even their website.
It’s all pretty laughable really. These FTA networks just move so slowly when it comes to technology. How can it possibly take 10 years to get an EPG up?
And the fact that no one out there still really understands or gets what Freeview is – in my mind – makes it one massive failure.
Umm, I can already do that (view of all Free to Air Channels at once) on my current DVR and TV…