Zap2it Labs to shut down, no free TV listings after September 1st
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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:
- Confidence growing in a MythTV EPG solution
- CT TV Listings - an alternative to Schedules Direct
- Schedules Direct cuts price in half
- It’s official - the replacement of Zap2It Labs is “Easy TV Data”
- It’s official - the replacement of Zap2It Labs is “Easy TV Data”
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Comments
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.
[...] 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 [...]
Guess I’m a little ignorant… what were the ‘misuses’?