According to IceTV's business development & marketing manager, Matt Kossatz, "An integrated Electronic Program Guide (EPG) solution has been the one element holding back the EyeTV and Mac solution in Australia from rivaling PC's running Microsoft's XP Media Center Edition 2005 as it does in other countries around the world".
As a result, IceTV and Elgato Systems, makers of the EyeTV Mac PVR solution, are attempting to change all that with the recent announcement that the 2.3.2 update to EyeTV will include complete integration of the IceTV EPG service for EyeTV users in Australia.
Down under, EPGs are a huge sticking point between media companies and makers of EPG program data.
This is the case due to a bizarro law that considers TV guide like data copyrighted by the channels who provide it. This obviously has a huge effect on the PVR market in the country being that electronic program guides are essentially the central nervous system of a PVR.
It's worth noting that even the juggernaut that is Microsoft is having issue getting an EPG built into the imminent release of Windows Vista.
The integration of the IceTV EPG with EyeTV is a pretty bold move for the small company since it is already in the midst of litigation with powerful Australian media company Nine, which claims IceTV is breaching copyright by providing its television line-up via their service.
Fortunately, IceTV doesn't seem to care much for tyranny and archaic ways of thinking, and is making a full EPG available via a widget to EyteTV users despite the threat big media poses to their 11 employee shop. Here's to hoping they succeed.
