Iowa Public Television

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

What Happened to the TV Guide Data Service

On November 1, 2012 many PBS stations were required to discontinue transmitting the TV Guide data that many consumer products use. This was a decision reached by the supplier of the data, Rovi Corporation (http://www.rovicorp.com/) and the local PBS stations had no choice in the matter. I raise this issue because within hours of discontinuing the service, Iowa Public Television began receiving calls from viewers wondering what had happened to the service and questioning why we had stopped supplying it. We have had to repeated explain to our viewers that the service was not discontinued by us but by the originator and we were not consulted prior to the decision to cease delivery. I suspect this is happening in many locations throughout the USA. I have had no reponses to any of my inquiries to Rovi regarding this decision and as of today (November 20, 2012), I was unable to find any helpful information on the Rovi website regarding what consumers should do. I will keep trying and update this blog posting when and if I receive any replies. Until then, my best advice is to go to the Rovi website and leave a message for them, perhaps if they get enough messages they will acknowledge the questions and respond. I also recommend contacting the manufacture of the device that used to get the TV Guide data and see what they advise.