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IceTV offers Australia’s only commercial electronic programme guide (EPG) for $3 a week, which essentially gives you one touch programme recording minus the ads.
Offering a similar service to the popular US Tivo or Foxtel IQ, IceTV says it gives you point-and-click recording, the ability to record more than one program at a time, time-shifting, live TV pausing (stop live TV while you answer the phone, or make a cup of coffee) and ad skipping – fast forward through ads when watching recorded shows. The latter is a feature that viewers love and TV companies don’t!
Readers have been quick to point out that some of these features are hardware rather than software related, i.e. that these features can all be achieved simply by using a Topfield PVR, for example.
IceTV’s Matt Kossatz said “That is indeed true. We like to push all the concepts and features on our Website – hardware as well as specific product features. This gives the mum and dad type of customer an idea of exactly what can be achieved by subscribing to an EPG service. In regards to the ability to record more than one program at one time – this is dependant on your PVR or media centre having two TV tuners. Most PVRs have two, Topfield ones have three I believe, media centres usually only come with one.
“As for pausing live TV, that is also definitely possible with an inbuilt tuner card. What IceTV brings to these devices is point-and-click recording via the EPG. This means that you can record simply by highlighting a show and hitting record. If you did not have an EPG on your PVR, you would have to set a timer, channel, date etc. PVRs and Media Centres are supposed to have EPGs – it makes things easier. IceTV also adds an extra feature to Topfield PVRs called Timer Padding. This automatically adds a specified time to a recording, for example, an extra 15 minutes at the end, so if the network runs over time, you don’t miss it.”
The company has teamed up with the likes of Optima, Topfield, Altech, Pioneer Computing, Claritas, Enspire Digital, Media Portal, SageTV, MediaStar and Toshiba to bundle up its EPG with the companies’ media centres or DVD recorders.
It has also recently announced that Mac users will now be able to access its EPG too as it will be bundled with latest version of EyeTV. This means Mac users will have the same watch, record and edit options as Media Centre owners.
IceTV is staffed by 15 employees, and has been trading since April 2005. It is owned by a private group of investors and suspended an intended float earlier this year due to Nine’s legal action.
“We issued out an IPO in April earlier this year to attempt to raise between 2.5 & 4 million in capital to put towards product development and marketing. We were very close to raising the required amount before receiving notices of litigation from the Nine Network. The timing of this was not coincidental and as a result of Nine’s action we had to suspend the intended float until further notice,” said IceTV’s Matt Kossatz.
The Nine Network is suing IceTV claiming that by providing its schedule to its several thousand active subscribers, IceTV is breaching copyright. The hearing began yesterday, and its result should have a huge impact on the way Australians will be able to view digital television.
 Click to enlarge |
| The new EyeTV EPG |
