Optus has announced plans to stop producing a print guide for subscribers to its pay TV service, claiming that most people now use the electronic program guide (EPG) to find what they want to watch. What’s your preferred method for keeping track of what’s on the box?
Picture by theducks
TV Tonight reports that Optus’ pay TV guide will cease production from February. Optus hasn’t been signing up new TV bundle subscribers since earlier in 2009, so the move isn’t exactly unexpected. However, TV Tonight’s David Knox thinks this is a bad idea:
TV Tonight is a firm believer that as necessary as online and EPGs are, they are never a replacement for a traditional print Guide, particularly for such a vast landscape as Pay Television where viewers are overwhelmed by content. There is nothing that can replace being able to browse through detailed information, circling highlights, being attracted to shows from photographs, and reading interviews and stories.
I haven’t personally gone near a printed TV guide in years — for casual viewing, the digital EPG is plenty, and if I want to plan viewing, I’ll go to the relevant web sites for the channels. If you use a PVR device, you’re likely to be even less concerned about when regular series are actually on, and the same applies to Channel BT. For the biggest pay TV channels, there’s often listings in newspapers, and Foxtel subscribers can still pay $3.50 a month for a print guide.
How do you keep track of what’s coming up on TV, or did you stop caring long ago? Tell us in the comments.
Optus TV dumps monthly magazine [TV Tonight]
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