The Australian TV Guide was the first online television schedule guide published in Australia, and one of the first online electronic program guides in the world.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Electronic program guides (EPGs) and interactive program guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming. Some guides also feature backward scrolling to promote their catch up content. They are commonly known as guides or TV guides.
Created in 1994 by Professor Lesley Goldschlager of Monash University and his internet company Sofcom, a pioneering producer of online content in Australia in the 1990s, the Australian TV Guide was the first publication in Australia to provide internet users with a local and searchable online television guide.
Monash University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1958, it is the second oldest university in the State of Victoria. The university has a number of campuses, four of which are in Victoria, and one in Malaysia. Monash also has a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy, a graduate research school in Mumbai, India and a graduate school in Suzhou, China. Monash University courses are also delivered at other locations, including South Africa.
It was initially supported by all major Australian television networks, except for the Seven Network, which came on board in later years. The first guides produced only covered the major capital cities of Australia. In November 1999, Sofcom introduced schedules for regional Australia. [1]
The Seven Network is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia. Channel Seven head office is based in Sydney.
The Australian TV Guide was supported by online advertising and syndication of its listings, providing content to portal sites such as Yahoo!, Bigpond and Looksmart.
Yahoo! is a web services provider headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and owned by Verizon Media. The original Yahoo! company was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 2, 1995. Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s.
In 2003, the Australian TV Guide was acquired by eBroadcast Pty Limited and later syndicated to other television sites such as OurGuide and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It also introduced pay TV listings into its program guide, including daily schedules for Foxtel, Fetch TV and TransACT.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's national broadcaster founded in 1929. It is currently principally funded by direct grants from the Australian government, but is expressly independent of government and partisan politics. The ABC plays a leading role in journalistic independence and is fundamental in the history of broadcasting in Australia.
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between News Corporation (FOX) and Telstra (TEL). With Fox being the 65% and Telstra the 35% shareholders. It shares many features with the Sky service in the United Kingdom, including iQ, the electronic program guide, a similar remote control, and Red Button Active.
Fetch TV is an Australian IPTV provider that delivers a subscription television service over a user's regular internet service. Fetch TV launched in 2010, backed by its Malaysian parent Astro All Asia Networks, which owns 75% in the company.
In 2014 eBroadcast Pty Limited expanded into the United States [2] and later into Canada [3] and the United Kingdom [4] with a spin-off site called On TV Tonight, producing electronic program guides for international channels and audiences outside of Australia.
