Zap2it Labs to shut down, no free TV listings after September 1st

Posted on June 20th, 2007 by

Tribune Media Services has announced that they will no longer provide free EPG data through Zap2it Labs after September 1st.

Here is part of the announcement:

“For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007. “

This is a big blow to MythTV users in United States and Canada. Without this service or some replacement there will be no EPG data, and without that MythTV is pretty useless.

So far no alternatives have come up, but I’m sure the community will come up with something. The biggest problem is finding a reliable place to grab the data.

There is about 70 days until Zap2it Labs is shut down.

Related posts:

  1. Schedules Direct looking into international expansion
  2. More info on the Zap2It Labs shutdown
  3. It’s official - the replacement of Zap2It Labs is “Easy TV Data”
  4. It’s official - the replacement of Zap2It Labs is “Easy TV Data”
  5. Schedules Direct licenses TMS Data for MythTV

Filed under: MythTV, Zap2it

« Parental filter in MythTV More info on the Zap2It Labs shutdown »

4 Responses to “Zap2it Labs to shut down, no free TV listings after September 1st”

  1. Bummed Myth, on June 23rd, 2007 at 12:45 am Said:

    Guess I’m a little ignorant… what were the ‘misuses’?

  2. Kobski, on June 25th, 2007 at 9:22 am Said:

    The rumors say that this was due to commercial products, i.e. prebuilt MythTV systems using the service, which was apparently not allowed in the license.

  3. Confidence growing in a MythTV EPG solution - MythTV News, on July 5th, 2007 at 9:23 pm Said:

    [...] the announcement by Zap2It Labs to discontinue their service by September 1st, there has been very little information from the MythTV developers - other than that they were [...]

  4. Schedules Direct looking into international expansion | MythTV News, on January 15th, 2009 at 11:50 am Said:

    [...] Schedules Direct is the company which was formed about 18 months ago to step in and supply North American and Canadian MythTV users with schedule data after Tribune Media Services announced that they would be shutting down their free service. [...]

Leave a Reply