TV Listings Service Recognises Online Programming
TV search engine TV Genius is to react to Britain’s growing interest in online video by adding internet TV to its comprehensive and popular guide.
The popular TV listings site will now provide users with information on premium online video sources, such as the BBC, Fox, CBS, RooTV, the Internet Archive and Forbes alongside listings for broadcast television.
Tom Weiss, co-founder of TV Genius, explained the need for an online listings service, stating: “An amazing number of high quality videos are freely available on the internet. You only need to search for Popeye, Neighbours, or Coldplay to find good quality content you wouldn’t find on regular TV.”
“Our goal is to index all the legal, free video available on the internet and present the content to our users as another channel that sits alongside conventional television listings. The television market is clearly going to change significantly as people watch more television over the internet, and we’re planning to be right at the heart of that change.”
The move follows a rise in interest in online video from traditional broadcasters, making increasing amounts of premium content available via the web.
Last month saw ITV become the latest traditional broadcaster to embrace online TV technology, launching a pilot broadband TV service aimed at viewers in the Brighton and Hastings areas (see ITV Latest To Launch Web TV Trial).
Elsewhere, the BBC has begun the second stage of testing for its online TV service, recruiting 5,000 trialists to evaluate the service and provide usage data ahead of a full roll out in the near future (see BBC Enters Second Phase Of Web TV Trial).
News provider ITN has also jumped aboard the online TV bandwagon, becoming the first broadcaster to provide material for GreenGrass, a new technology firm promising to make web TV a viable experience for viewers (see ITN Signs Up For GreenGrass Web TV).
However, services such as TV Genius are not alone. Earlier this year internet search giant Google began streaming television broadcasts over the internet after signing up American broadcasters and holding negotiations with the BBC (see Google To Host Online TV Service). The company also allows users to search online videos using keywords culled from programmes’ subtitle feeds (see Google Enters TV Search Business With Google Video).
TV Genius: www.tvgenius.co.uk