On 16/05/2025 08:58, Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

I cancelled my subscription last year after using it for 20 years, mainly due to massive reduction in new scripted drama being shown on satellite channels, as much of it moved to Paramount, Disney and Prime.

I find it useful as a quick way to check what is on or going to be on.

I just wish it also worked on mobile phones.

Sometimes it is not correct but so is the off air EPG - the broadcasters
must know what they are putting out and planning for later so can never understand why they cannot keep it correct.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Maybe it's time to find an alternative to Digiguide?

I cancelled my subscription last year after using it for 20 years, mainly due to massive reduction in new scripted drama being shown on satellite channels, as much of it moved to Paramount, Disney and Prime.

Sky Max used to have 10 or more series a week running much of the year, three hours most Sunday evenings, now almost nothing, ditto Sky Witness. Fox and Bravo disappeared completely. E4 and More4 show almost no new drama now. Sky Atlantic still has good HBO shows, but they disappear next year when the Sky contract ends and HBO starts streaming them instead.

I find Geektown almost as useful for new shows.

https://www.geektown.co.uk/uk-air-dates/

Angus

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 16/05/2025 09:10, JMB99 wrote:

On 16/05/2025 08:58, Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

I cancelled my subscription last year after using it for 20 years,
mainly due
to massive reduction in new scripted drama being shown on satellite
channels,
as much of it moved to Paramount, Disney and Prime.

I find it useful as a quick way to check what is on or going to be on.

I just wish it also worked on mobile phones.

Sometimes it is not correct but so is the off air EPG - the broadcasters
must know what they are putting out and planning for later so can never understand why they cannot keep it correct.

It is a particular problem at times of rapid change - eg the death of
the Queen. Scheduled programmes were cancelled and replaced by
Queen-related tributes, but even *those* were not broadcast at the
publicised times and were changed at a few hours' or even a few minutes' notice. If I wanted to record any of the tributes, I had to set a very
large pre/post-padding contingency to allow for late changes to the
schedule.

The problem was that the on-air EPG was not kept up to date, and right
up to the moment of broadcast still listed programme times that were
complete fiction. Digiguide and RadioTimes.com rely on polling a feed
from the broadcaster, so will potentially be a bit out of date, but
there is no excuse for a broadcaster's EPG to ever be wrong. But then
you have the problem that PVRs (hardware, or software solutions such as TVHeadend) only poll the EPG infrequently. I had to set my TVHeadend to
poll multiple times a day during that period to stand any chance of
recording what I wanted. I don't mind when it is live events which may
overrun, but studio-based discussions and interviews should stick to the
times that they announced a few hours ago.


On my Android phone, I use "Cisana TV+ UK", though that only gives 7
days of listings. It doesn't allow you to select favourite channels (ie
don't show programmes relating to other channels), so you have to scroll
up and down the channels to find the one you want and hence the
programmes on that channel. I'm not sure whether channels are even
listed in LCN order.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 16/05/2025 13:53, NY wrote:

It is a particular problem at times of rapid change - eg the death of
the Queen. Scheduled programmes were cancelled and replaced by Queen-
related tributes, but even *those* were not broadcast at the publicised
times and were changed at a few hours' or even a few minutes' notice. If
I wanted to record any of the tributes, I had to set a very large pre/ post-padding contingency to allow for late changes to the schedule.

But it happens on fairly minor routine changes.

Even when the Queen died, they must have know what they were putting out
and what was planned for later.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 16/05/2025 18:38, JMB99 wrote:

On 16/05/2025 13:53, NY wrote:

It is a particular problem at times of rapid change - eg the death of
the Queen. Scheduled programmes were cancelled and replaced by Queen-
related tributes, but even *those* were not broadcast at the
publicised times and were changed at a few hours' or even a few
minutes' notice. If I wanted to record any of the tributes, I had to
set a very large pre/ post-padding contingency to allow for late
changes to the schedule.

But it happens on fairly minor routine changes.

Even when the Queen died, they must have know what they were putting out
and what was planned for later.

I don't know if they still keep them up to date, but there used to be regularly updated plans for such events as well as pre-recorded
obituaries for the more notable politicians, people of iterest and pop
stars.

There should already be a plan in place for the King's death and the
coronation of his heir.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 16/05/2025 20:40, John Williamson wrote:

On 16/05/2025 18:38, JMB99 wrote:

Even when the Queen died, they must have know what they were putting out
and what was planned for later.

 I don't know if they still keep them up to date, but there used to be regularly updated plans for such events as well as pre-recorded
obituaries for the more notable politicians, people of interest and pop stars.

There should already be a plan in place for the King's death and the coronation of his heir.

And sometimes those obituaries get released prematurely! I think it was
the Queen Mother whose tribute programme was prematurely broadcast while
it was being updated with new information to keep it current - or maybe
someone in the studio happened to see the work being done on it and
broke the "story".

And newspapers aren't immune. Dave "Swarb" Swarbrick of Fairport
Convention was seriously ill in hospital with a respiratory problem and
a newspaper accidentally published his obituary. He recovered and I saw
him and Martin Carthy at Nettlebed Folk Club a little while later and
there was a lot of banter about "for a dead man, he plays very well" ;-)
Mind you, he did not look at all well: he was hunched over and was
wearing "nasal prongs" to administer oxygen from a cylinder beside him.
This was in the days before indoor smoking was banned, but that night
the club enforced a no-smoking rule because of the oxygen.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025/5/16 9:10:42, JMB99 wrote:

On 16/05/2025 08:58, Angus Robertson - Magenta Systems Ltd wrote:

I cancelled my subscription last year after using it for 20 years,
mainly due
to massive reduction in new scripted drama being shown on satellite
channels,
as much of it moved to Paramount, Disney and Prime.

I find it useful as a quick way to check what is on or going to be on.

I just wish it also worked on mobile phones.

Sometimes it is not correct but so is the off air EPG - the broadcasters
must know what they are putting out and planning for later so can never understand why they cannot keep it correct.

If you mean the EPG, it's just sheer laziness/costcutting. Much the same
as subtitle errors, or more gross errors (e. g. picture/sound faults)
that make it clear that monitoring of what's actually going out is rare
these days. But yes, almost _any_ change in scheduling tends to render
the EPG - even (perhaps especially?) the now/next - wrong/useless.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf


--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)