[mythtv-users] Data Direct Subscription Expires?

[David Levine]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 20:17:00 -0800, Brad Templeton
<brad+myth at templetons.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 03, 2005 at 10:41:08PM -0500, David Levine wrote:
> > Zap2It, at least in my neck of the woods (Westchester, NY) on
> > Cablevision, is the provider of the "on screen program guide" on
> > channel 15.  This is for ALL cable viewers, whether or not they have a
> > PVR.  It seems like the simplest thing for Zap2It is to maintain and
> > provide the exact same data over DataDirect that they show
> > "over-the-air".  Or are you saying that stations might provide them
> > with multiple sets of data covering the same time periods, with
> > instructions that one set of data is for online use and one set of
> > data is for their on-screen program guide?
> 
> No, I don't think it's very likely, while of course anything is popular.
> 
> But if, as you suggest, the stations are subsidizing the distribution
> of the data, then it seems strange to me that they would like to
> subsidize most the PVR users, who don't watch their commercials, while
> the other users (newspapers, cable/satellite on screen guides) have to
> pay for the data.
> 
> In theory, if the TV stations are really paying the bills here (which
> still surprises me if it's true) it certainly makes sense they might
> tell Tribune not to give the data to PVR users at all, or at least
> to charge them (more) for it.

The thing is that non-PVR users can go to the Zap2It or TVGuide
websites just as well as PVR users, and still want to look up when
their shows are on (via a webbrowser instead of DataDirect, I
suppose).  It's just not really feasible to know who is doing what. 
The stations want viewers to know when their shows are on.  Granted,
what they really want is to be able to tell how many people watch
their shows, but that's what Neilsen ratings are for, not listing
services.

Besides, even if stations had some way of easily knowing when viewers
who skip commercials were requesting scheduling data, the stations
would STILL want them to watch their shows because (I think) ratings
data doesn't currently take into account who watches commercials and
who doesn't.  The stations want the advertisers to see the highest
numbers possible.  And even if advertisers know commercials are being
skipped, many shows now have product placement within the shows
themselves, separate from the commercials (and this will only increase
in the future).

I wonder, actually, if it might be feasible for stations to publish
scheduling feeds online themselves.  Then companies like Zap2It would
simply aggregate those feeds and redistribute it - - the added-value
they provide would be knowing which channels you get based on your
location, so you don't have to go searching for each station's feed
yourself (plus maintaining lineup changes for each of the cable
providers).  But if you wanted to get the raw data from each station
yourself, you could.