How Much Would You Pay For EPG Data?

[bdgbill]

Would you pay for reliable EPG data? How Much (per year)?

With the end of zap2it threatening my tv life as I know it, I am ready to pay Tivo prices of $120.00 per year if I have to but would be comfortable with $50.00 or so.

[madcat]

The problem is, that for me nothing is settled yet. I love GB-PVR and been using it for over a year, donated and tried to contribute. But I may as well find myself using something else in the future. one example is switching to HD. I don't have much options to get it OTA. If I went and took a HD box from my provider, I would probably turned my PVR into a media server only, and rely on the provider's STB to provide PVR functionality.

[-Oz-]

I'd say $25/yr but I'd need to be able to get as many different listings as I want because I have PVRs in different cities.

[madcat]

I'd say $25/yr but I'd need to be able to get as many different listings as I want because I have PVRs in different cities.

"as many" is a little pushing it. Then we could all register under one name, and have "as many" listings we need...

[-Oz-]

thats true, i guess there would have to be some sort of limit...

[kayak4ever]

There's a lot more that I like about GB_PVR than just the fact that it is free. I think $50 is an amount that I would be willing to pay but then again, I pay over $60 a month for the cable in the first place so my choice is likely low. I want to keep gb-pvr very much and I am confident that a solution will be found, even if I can't contribute to the solution (virtually no programming ability:although I was very proud of my ability to modify my irremote.ini by myself!). If you need a Canadian user to test something out, let me know.

[soccerdad]

I got into this because I wanted a free toy to play with. Hopefully I have given back enough to support my weight. Obviously I have a ton of $ in hardware, but that is just because I can't build cards and chips in my garage. I can't write code, but if someone posts some basics on how to "scrape" this data out, then I will do it just for the learning. My only problem is the WAF. I can take a lot more pain than she can. I am confident that the community can come up with a bullet proof solution. It is likely that it will be even better than zap2it. As they say, what does not kill you makes you stronger.

As a side note, I think we should not try to push this off on Sub. He has more important things to work on.

[flyswatta]

Even the pay model has issues - how do they ensure that someone doesn't pay $25/year, and then redistribute the data, like say in a 3rd party software. That's where it gets into a grey area. They would then have to somehow have a client that would allow you access to the data, and your PVR software would have to be compatible with it. I imagine that the development/support cost of a tvlisting client would cost more than they would make for such a small number of consumers.

[goninzo]

Stenography would be the best method. By embedding data that is unique to each person, you could at least find out who was breaking the rules. Small things like having typos in show descriptions. That way, you could find the things you deliberately put in there, pull the new offending source, and figure out which one of your customers is pirating the source. I'm sure with time, some pirates could find the differences by comparing listings, but it would prevent some users at first.

[cosmocat]

Its a form of advert so you can see what they are broadcasting. It's in THEIR interest to have you watching, its how they make their revenue by getting viewing figures for the adverts in the shows.
To extend the logic, EPG data to PVRs provides a more reliable veiwer as it makes sure the viewer gets the program (and adverts) over the "casual" viewer who might miss the show.
You would think that the broadcasters would be pushing for a good EPG service for their product.