Well if you live in Australia and own a Media Centre you will know of the stupidity around getting EPG or EIT data.  The ongoing nonsense from the FTA networks in trying to stop guide data availability, etc.  Even MS hasn’t been able to crack this one!

 

A group of enthusiasts have started a campaign to lobby the appropriate parts of the federal government to rectify this.  All information can be found at www.myEPG.com.au.  If you are Australian and want a proper guide I suggest you have a look and be a part of the campaign.

 

This campaign is not being run by any commercial entity or group with a vested interest, just end user enthusiasts, many of them represented on this site.  I have been part of setting up the myEPG campaign, and while more active in other forums, I have been a member here for some time thought there would be others interested.

What a great idea. I have just signed the petition and then used the Templates available to send e-mails to my local goverbment member as well as Freetv. All Australians need to support this site and send at least one letter showing their disapproval with the current status of EPG in Australia.

Great work guys. Only around 24 hours since launch and petition signatory numbers are growing steadily. Already the campaign has recieved some Newspaper coverage through the Melbourne Age and sources close to the campaign indicate a press release is imminent. There are posts on virtually all of the major DTV and associated forums in Australia and the pace is accellerating with interested parties contacting their local media outlets to spread the word. This is a great shot in the arm for the campaign organisers and bodes well for the chances of success.

This project is really starting to come together. Over 500 people have already signed the petition, hopefully they are also using the letters on the site to send e-mails to the people that we need to make aware in order to get change. If you have signed this petition, then why not send a link to all of your friends that own pvr's or that may one day want one as this affects them too!

Well as one of those involved in the campaign, I have to say seeing the petition get over 800 on the weekend (ie less than a week) was very encouraging.  I just hope that we can continue to get people from different walks of life to take notice and wite a few emails to those that matter.

Hopefully Australia can have EPG / EIT like the rest of the world soon!

I do feel for you guys in Australia when it comes to EPGs.  My Mum lives in Melbourne and just bought a DVR this weekend.  I was trying to help her set it up over the phone (not a good idea!!!) and was shocked to find that it only has a 7 day EPG.  I was even more shocked to read later that night of the tricks the networks play with the EPG (e.g. not updating it to reflect changes in the schedule) to prevent people from using it properly.  The whole thing is like a pathetic joke.

Good luck getting this to change though.  Australian TV is so bad I wouldn't expect the networks to do anything and the government is too busy brown-nosing with industry to do anything for consumers.  I also expect that the networks will try and limit a proper EPG to CH7's Tivo now that that is appropriately hobbled.

Well the big glossy Tivo adds are being run madly as the olympics start.  Of course we still haven't got consistent EIT or HTML based EPG data yet.  Too many examples of mismatched show titles to descriptions, incorrect data, data in ALL CAPS then not, differnt spelling of shows, every sports broadcast on Nine with the same title, etc, etc.  So the Tivo adds should really be saying, "never miss that show again, if the networks produce proper data!"