Zap2It Warning Email

[BubbaCanuck]

I just got this email from Zap2It.

I wonder what this means for us Canadians getting our TV listings.

Comments?


An Open Letter to the Zap2it Labs Community:

We at Tribune Media Services and Zap2it.com have been privileged to offer a TV listings service to the open source and freeware communities so that the many innovations in electronic program guides, digital video recorders, and recommendation engines could continue to flourish. This free-of-charge service is at risk, however, due to the actions of several businesses seeking to exploit our generosity so that they can make greater profits.

When you signed up for Zap2it Labs, you agreed to a contract that states the service is available for non-commercial, personal use only. A few commercial entities have chosen to ignore these contractual terms in order to receive television listings without paying. We know who these entities are; you know who they are.

These violations must end.

If you purchased a hardware or software product that receives its television listings from Zap2it Labs' DataDirect or, indirectly, through XMLTV, you may be violating our contract. It is critical that you and your vendor abide by our contractual terms, lest everyone suffer the consequences.

If you have any questions about this issue, or suggestions for how to ameliorate the situation, please feel free to contact us at mailto:labs@zap2it.com

Sincerely,


Jay R. Brodsky
VP/Technology
Tribune Media Services

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by BubbaCanuck

I just got an email from Zap2It.

I wonder what this means for us Canadians getting our TV listings.

Heck, I wonder what that means for everyone.

[McTurok]

Is this a problem for Sage.tv customers?

[pcostanza]

I got the exact same email and I just sent a reply back asking what this really means to us,the casual user. Sounds like it's going to be a paid service to me....not by the email but I get the feeling they are setting us up for future announcements. Or, maybe they are angry at the software companies....don't know about this one.

[chadwolcott]

I got the same email too, I did subscribe to the zap2it service to use xmltv for xlobby's epg. So I don't know which they are referring to.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by McTurok

Is this a problem for Sage.tv customers?

Nothing, Sage buys it's data from Zap2It/Tribune Media Services.

[kevthor]

Yeah and too bad Sage didn't buy its service from a company like Titan TV, since they have Pay per view information. I love the sage product dearly but that is one thing that has always bothered me from day 1! No pay per view data!!!

[whisperer]

Just received an open letter from zap2it.com complaining about "commercial entities" taking advantages of the free EPG data. I am wondering whether this applies to our usage of this data through the Canadian EPG plugin. Any opinions?

[chrysek]

Originally Posted by kevthor

Yeah and too bad Sage didn't buy its service from a company like Titan TV, since they have Pay per view information. I love the sage product dearly but that is one thing that has always bothered me from day 1! No pay per view data!!!

Maybe its a good thing that Sage does not buy its service from Titan TV, maybe thats why we dont have monthly subscriptions I hated Tivo just for that, I mean paying for cable or satelite each month is enough, adding o this monthly subscription for programming data would suck By the way the registration with Titan is free one...

After all maybe Sage should also utilize Titan TV services? many vendors do chose to use it, and you can login to that website and remotely schelude to record stuff. Prety cool stuff...
http://titantv.com/TTV/Grid/AboutPVRWatchFull.aspx

Chris

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by kevthor

Yeah and too bad Sage didn't buy its service from a company like Titan TV, since they have Pay per view information. I love the sage product dearly but that is one thing that has always bothered me from day 1! No pay per view data!!!

I have yet to see an app that has integrated programming info (like Sage) that use TTV, and that's a huge downside IMO, and one of the biggest features of Sage.

[kevthor]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I have yet to see an app that has integrated programming info (like Sage) that use TTV, and that's a huge downside IMO, and one of the biggest features of Sage.

Stranger89: I'm not sure what you mean, Sage has a big feature as it doesn't use TTV? Or its a huge downside of Sage that it doesn't use TTV? You seem to be contradicting yourself?

[stanger89]

Sorry I wasn't clear, let me rephrase

Of all the apps I'm aware of that use TitanTV, none of them have an integrated, in the program, don't leave the interface program guide. They rely on scheduling by clicking on a webpage. Having to leave your PVR interface for scheduling is a huge downside. With Sage, you don't leave the interface to see the guide/schedule, and that is one of the primary reasons I've gone with Sage.

Now I haven't actually used TTV since I switched to Sage (quite a while ago) but it seems to me that Sage's guide data is also much better/more complete in general than TTVs. And then there was that tiff between TTV and iTech (AccessDTV).

Hate to talk bad about a local company (DecisionMark/TitanTV is a local company here), but unless DecisionMark has a data feed like Tribune Media Services, we're much better off with what we have IMO.

[kevthor]

I agree our EPG data is amazing. I just WISH it had PPV data, if it had PPV data it would be PERFECT. And that is the only reason I suggested TitanTV is because I know they have PPV data. I frankly don't care what company it is just as long as it has PPV data.

[dkardatzke]

I don't see any PPV data being listed for either Comcast or DirecTV in Titan TV. Where do you see that data being listed?

The reason some of the PPV listings aren't available through Tribune is that the data is constantly changing by the service provider (i.e. Dish, Comcast, etc.) so it's hard to keep the data accurate through the zap2it service.

[kevthor]

I just checked Dish Network informaiton through TitanTV and yes it has PPV listings, between channels 500-533. I checked DirecTV a few months ago and it has PPV listings as well.

I know it changes frequently but it only not that frequent. Usually it is only once a week. And I believe Sage goes out to get guide data more frequently than that I don't know what the problem is. In fact I believe DirecTV changes their pay-per-view data on Thursday so why not have Sage go out and grab new information on Thursday at noon, everthing should be OK then? (Of course providing that PPV listings are being provided because as of right now they aren't via Zap2It.)

[kny3twalker]

TitanTV has always had PPV listings for DirecTV
at least for the past two or three years they have

and I know they list Comcast cable PPV listings as well
I got a friend's channel libe up in my TitanTV account

[PGPfan]

Dan,

The PPV stuff is definately there. I just came from the site, filled out the necessary sign-up info and in 'Step-2' of the member sign-up you simply choose "satellite - Pay per View" and finish the sign-up process. 15 seconds later, I was looking at the DirectTV 'PPV' listings with no trouble at all. Sage REALLY needs to add the ability to import the PPV listings into our Zap2it guides.

-PGPfan

[kevthor]

So is anything going to happen with this?

[dkardatzke]

We continue to explore additional EPG options and will make available what we can as they become available.

[kevthor]

Not to be rude but what is that supposed to mean? I've been a customer since 1.4 and the EPG data was has always been provided by Zap2It without PPV listings. So I'm a little confused on your statement "We continue to explore additional EPG options and will make available what we can as they become available." as nothing other than XMLTV has ever become available.