Results of the Project Electronic Programme Guides Presented

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The results of the project Navigators and Electronic Programme Guides (EPG): the Market in Orientation Guides for Digital Television Environments were presented at an EPG-workshop on 22. October 2008 in the Preußischer Landtag (Prussian State Legislature) in Berlin. The analysis was conducted on behalf of the Association of State Media Authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany (ALM) and the satellite operator SES ASTRA, and has now appeared in book form.

  • go to Project description
  • Hasebrink, U., Schröder, H.-D., Stark, B. (2008): Elektronische Programmführung im digitalen Fernsehen. Nutzerstudie und Marktanalyse. Berlin: Vistas (Schriftenreihe der Landesmedienanstalten, Bd. 40). go to Publisher

Every receiver, every set-top box for digital television needs at least a basic navigator, so that the individual programmes can be found amidst the digital data stream. An Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), also capable of assessing information about individual programmes and presenting it on the screen, is, however, lacking in many models. To bring a new EPG onto the market requires cooperation between the manufacturers, the platform providers and the programme makers, each of whom has their own interests. The purchase of the set-top box decides the availability of an EPG – a uniform platform allowing various EPG’s to be used with one device does not exist yet.

In the first workshop panel, Dr. Birgit Stark of the Austrian Academy of Sciences presented the users’ experiences of and their assessment: regular use of the EPG occurs in only half of households equipped with an EPG-compatible device. That relates to the fact that digital television’s expanded offerings are being taken up only hesitantly. Many viewers initially retain their old habits of use with the new technology too.

In a second panel, three EPG providers presented their products and their strategies. Petra Schmietendorf from NDS reports that her company has already developed 80 EPG’s internationally, among them for Premiere in Germany. Christina Hirsch presented what tvtv offers as a Sony subsidiary cooperating with, among others, cable network providers to enable remote control of hard disc video recorders per mobile or over the internet. Stephan Zech reports on the plans of Axel Springer-Verlag (publishers) to offer a new EPG initially intended as accessible only over the internet.

The subsequent podium discussion tackled the question of the social models. Martin Herkommer, from the cable network provider KabelBW, reported on his firm’s intention to cooperate with NDS in establishing its own middleware, which can function as a basis for various EPG’s. Kai Flatau, from Pro Digital TV, stressed the problems small television providers have in just being located at all amidst the myriad channels. Christian Töpper, business manager of the dpa subsidiary PPS, made the contrasting interests particularly clear: whilst many television broadcasters want the greatest possible control over their programme information, the editors of newspapers, magazines, internet portals and EPG’s want the contents to be displayed in line with their audiences’ interests, and as a service provider, PPS is right in the middle of these tensions. Klaus Hoffmann from ProSiebenSat.1 confirmed this state of affairs. From his viewpoint, EPG’s are doomed to fail, if all of those involved do not derive some advantage from them.