| NDS OpenTV
EPG's from around the world which are deployed on Newscorp
owned, or part-owned platforms operate in the same way and
follow the same design paradigms as we can see from these
three examples. 
BSkyB NDS
EPG
Sky Italia
NDS EPG
Foxtel NDS
EPG |
Around the
world, most Pay TV operators chose to provide a more
comprehensive seven day guide offering through their own
custom-built EPG applications, and built to their own design
and brand values. Some of the early EPG's were simple 'list'
based EPGs, following the European newspaper TV listings
paradigm of vertical columns of programme listings (Canalsat,
TPS etc) , whilst later deployments adopted the Grid
paradigm from the US. (As seen with all NDS EPGs e.g. BSkyB,
Sky Italia, Foxtel).
In some
'horizontal' markets where the operator was not responsible
for the such as digital satellite TV in Germany or 'Freeview'
Digital Terrestrial TV in the UK, each guide application has
been the responsibility of the set-top-vendor, providing a
standard DVB application as part of the basic feature-set of
the box. In these markets, broadcasters have used DVB
standards to provide 3-8 days of listings information, but
the experience is different on each box.
These markets
are the exception and most operators in Europe and the US
have chosen OpenTV or other middlewares to create their own
guide applications in-house or with the assistance of
various guide application developers.
OpenTV-based
guides in deployment around the world include Dish Network
(USA) BSkyB (UK) ExpressVu (Canada) Multichoice Africa (Sub
Saharan and South Africa) Nova (Greece) Sky Italia (Italy)
Viasat (Scandinavia) TPS (France) Digiturk (Turkey) Foxtel
(Australia) Austar (Australia) Starhub (Singapore). In the
late 1990s the Canal Plus group saw its own Mediahighway
middleware and guide products licensed to operators such as
Canal Satellite (France) Canal Digital (Scandinavia)
Digital+ / Canal Satelite (Spain) and Cyfra+ (Poland.)
Foxtel EPG
Customer Communications
(Foxtel Magazine)
Except for the
arrival of the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) or DVR (Digital
Video Recorder) there has been little change in the
fundamental principles of EPG design in the last ten years.
However, with the ever-increasing array of content now
available from both TV and the web, and with the
proliferation of devices, big changes are ahead as advanced
guide products begin to be introduced that incorporate more
sophisticated forms of search and personalisation.
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