{"id":1030,"date":"2010-07-08T14:27:24","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T13:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2010-07-08T14:27:24","modified_gmt":"2010-07-08T13:27:24","slug":"freeview-epgs-a-brief-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/2010\/07\/freeview-epgs-a-brief-history.php","title":{"rendered":"Freeview EPGs – A brief history"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the recent switching off the the Multiguide \/ 4TV service<\/a> there has been some\u00a0confusion\u00a0on several forums and Twitter about what EPG services there are and have been. This does not\u00a0surprise\u00a0me. In the past created the link between\u00a0Unique\u00a0Interactive’s EPG\u00a0solutions\u00a0the the BBC systems for feeding the EPGs, and I still get confused. In total we have had about 5 EPG services and today, after the loss of the Multiguide service, we still have three. This is my attempt to\u00a0summarise\u00a0what has happened from memory. If there is anything you would like to add or if I have recalled wrongly then please\u00a0comment on the post.<\/p>\n

Now and Next<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original EPG was and still is a now and next service that is still transmitted today. It does exactly what it says by saying what is on now and what is coming up next.\u00a0This information is transmitted on every multiplex.\u00a0Originally\u00a0the information sent appeared to differ on the different multiplexes but today the\u00a0information\u00a0seems to be the same.<\/p>\n

NTL Interactive<\/strong><\/p>\n

The name implied to me that this was supposed to be part of NTL’s push in to the interactive TV market, but I remember it\u00a0solely\u00a0as a 1\/2 day TV guide on On Digital. This was\u00a0available\u00a0on all boxes that supported MHEG, that was most at the time.<\/p>\n

I vaguely\u00a0remember this service being overtaken by a Teletext EPG (TV Navigator)\u00a0with comparable\u00a0functionality, and then this was upgraded so it did not function with my box. For the sake of this blog I am regarding all these as one EPG,\u00a0although\u00a0I fully\u00a0acknowledge\u00a0they were two\u00a0completely\u00a0different EPGs utilising the same\u00a0technology\u00a0in the same way.<\/p>\n

Multiguide (4TV Interactive<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally introduced by 4TV and later maintained\u00a0by InVision. Originally a 7 day service it was expanded to 14 days around the same time the Freeview 7\/8 day guide (below) was launched. As a result many devices that are\u00a0labelled\u00a0as supporting 7 days that would actually support 14 days worth of listings. The service was funded by\u00a0receiver\u00a0manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Sadly for those of us who used it the service stopped in June 2010. As soon as a free and open Freeview EPG service was launched the Multiguide days were numbered and the last box was\u00a0allegedly\u00a0manufactured in 2006.<\/p>\n

Freeview 7\/8 day<\/strong><\/p>\n

When ITV Digital (formally OnDigital) failed in 2002\u00a0there were several groups that\u00a0offered\u00a0proposals. The winning group were the people behind Freeview (including BBC, BSkyB, and Crown Castle).\u00a0As part of this plan a\u00a0native\u00a0Freeview EPG\u00a0service\u00a0was created and is used by most devices today.<\/p>\n

Teletext Extra<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 14 day service\u00a0launched\u00a0in April 2007. The service funded by adverts that are shown on the listing page and is generally accessed by the guide button on a\u00a0comparable\u00a0device’s remote control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the recent switching off the the Multiguide \/ 4TV service there has been some\u00a0confusion\u00a0on several forums and Twitter about what EPG services there are and have been. This does not\u00a0surprise\u00a0me. In the past created the link between\u00a0Unique\u00a0Interactive’s EPG\u00a0solutions\u00a0the the BBC systems for feeding the EPGs, and I still get confused. In total we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4t60H-gC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.agm.me.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}