IceTV have won their legal battle against the might of Channel 9, after "an epic three year legal battle". For those unfamiliar with the story, IceTV basically had EPGs (Electronic Programme Guides) for use in PVRs and media player software. Channel 9 had a cry, claiming copyright infringement.

IceTV first won their case back in 2007. Then:

The Nine Network then appealed the decision and the matter was heard by the Full Court of the Federal Court in February, 2008. In May 2008, the ruling made by Justice Bennett was overturned by the Full Court. IceTV immediately complied with the Court ruling, modifying its compilation practices as required and continues to provide a professional EPG service, including scheduling information for Channel Nine.

IceTV immediately sought and was granted special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia and the case was vigorously defended in Canberra in October 2008.

If you run a PVR or any sort of media centre thing, check out their website for more. Good news for Australians!

Jerk, just cause you write good and stuff.

Didn't Channel 9 also have a cry when The Panel took samples from their shows to take the piss out of them?

heh exo sorry mate, I woulda promoted yours but I'd been working on that one for a while and didn't see your post come in while I was doing it :)

I'm shattered - no really. This is my shattered face.

yay! so when will vista support a free epg?

Now that litigation and legal costs aren't hanging over their heads I'm sure they're gonna have awesome amounts of time to focus on awesome projects.

Man, this is just win for common sense. What a bunch of drop-kicks at Nine. Hope we see a fierce 'my EPG is better than your EPG' battle now between the stations, with preview images and streaming video for each show ;-)

yay! so when will vista support a free epg?

Windows 7 already has a working free EPG for Australia in its Media Centre, so probably never... :P

There was also a rollup that was RTM only that enables the guide for Vista. I think it actually picks it up from the TV signal IIRC.

Only available to OEM's though (unless you look hard).

Of course, it goes without saying that Channel 9 could totally destroy IceTVs business model by just providing their own free EPG service and encouraging the other stations to do the same, right?

Of course, it goes without saying that Channel 9 could totally destroy IceTVs business model by just providing their own free EPG service and encouraging the other stations to do the same, right?

Possibly... Freeview was meant to do something like that.

Frequently asked questions
Does Freeview offer an EPG like IceTV does?

Yes they do, but with much less functionality than the IceTV service. Utilising the interactive features unique to IceTV, users are able to access a comprehensive suite of tools that allows them to specifically tailor their recordings. This means that IceTV users have the ability and flexibility to automatically record any programmes they desire.

last edited by mongie at 13:59:34 22/Apr/09

Mandatory "free-to-air TV is s***-house" post.

FYI: FreeView Info.

Channel 9-2: August
Channel 7-2: October

Freeview set top boxes to support MPEG4 + Special Guide + No ability to skip ads.

Networks have agreed to have an online portal for watching TV, iView technology believed to be the prefered option.

No free to air channel is ever going to offer the tools to skip ads as it is one of their major sources of revenue. I'd be almost willing to put on a tin foil hat and suggest that's why Nine tried to shut them down in the first place :P

Channel 9... Who care's. They are a spent force from the 80's/90's.

Vista (with the TV Pack installed) has support for the over the air EPG, but the data is pretty s***. Windows 7 has support for the over the air EPG out of the box. I use FreeEPG from epgstream.net. It uses the oztivo guide data, and its awesome, no blank spots in my guide and pretty accurate. And once recorded DVRMStoolbox goes to work, removes the ads and converts it to h.264 avi files.

Unfortuately in AUS I don't think we'll see the networks release a propper EPG, they are too worried about ad stripping technologies becoming more popular if they make media centres etc easier to use.

mpeg4 support is cool whenever it actualy comes in, free's even more bandwidth for future channels. (possibly Catchup services +1 / + 2 channels like foxtel).

i cant remember what it was for, (one of the DVB-TS programs for recording TV) had a script that would pull the ads out on post processing, ( looked for the tell tale lines that would appear in the top right hand corner for the change of aspect etc) worked pretty well at the time, now however, most ads stay within in the same confines of the show.

one day my dream will be realised and XMBC will come with TV-Tuner support =]


last edited by 3x0dus at 08:49:14 24/Apr/09

Unfortuately in AUS I don't think we'll see the networks release a propper EPG, they are too worried about ad stripping technologies becoming more popular if they make media centres etc easier to use.

They are going to release a proper guide, but they will probably go to great lengths to ensure it doesn't work on pc's. Thats half of what "freeview" is.

No free to air channel is ever going to offer the tools to skip ads as it is one of their major sources of revenue. I'd be almost willing to put on a tin foil hat and suggest that's why Nine tried to shut them down in the first place :P

I think the point is - they are able to do it now with the various PVR devices that are available on the market, but to gain the "freeview compatible" branding, they CANNOT allow the user to skip ads, only FFWD.