In the days of linear-only TV, the EPG (electronic programming guide) was the easiest way to find out what you might like to watch. Presented as a simple grid, or even just a list, it would tell you what’s on now, next and, if it was very sophisticated, tomorrow and the rest of the week too.
EPGs evolved with the advent of digital and Pay TV – to incorporate all the extra new channels – and again as video-on-demand took off (remember backwards EPGs?).
Now, in a world where so much TV viewing is OTT, what does the future hold for electronic programming guides? That was the topic of this week’s OTT Question Time.
Together with Rose Hulse, CEO and founder of ScreenHits TV, Pat Byrden, VP Business Development & Strategy at Xperi and Esti Rodero, Sales Manager at Red Bee Media, we discussed:
- A quick history of EPGs
- How, with so many devices to cater for, EPGs are put together
- In an OTT world, who decides which TV “channels” get the most prominence on EPGs?
- Whether EPGs are still the best way of surfacing content
- And how EPGs might develop over the next few years
Watch the video below!
**
ABOUT KAUSER KANJI
Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 19 years, formerly at Virgin Media, ITN and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live.