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"New" vs. "Old" Program Guide
By Dale Cripps
Founder & Co-Publisher
Posted on October 24, 2007
Category: General Interest
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Dear Readers,

A month ago we found it necessary to discontinue the old program guide data service (Tribune Media) and introduce to our site the program guide provided by TVGuide. Change invariably produces rough-edged comments and, while many of you were supportive, others were less-than enthused. They believed we had regrettably cheapened our product.

We gathered up your comments and have talked candidly with TVGuide about them. They assured me just today (as they did when we were negotiating their carriage) that whatever features and services we had with the old vendor we can soon-enough have with TVGuide. They do need your feedback in order to know what you want and how you want it. I am assured that they welcome it even when delivered in less-than flattering forthrightness. Not only that, they assure me that they will incorporate your good recommendations into their product and meet their own goal of making TVGuide the superior product among all others.

Did you know that they have over 200 people doing nothing but gathering information from all of the television sources? Just recently they installed $28 million worth of new equipment to support that job for us.

We are their collective eyes. When you see something which is deficient -- something that doesn't work for you, or, has missing stations or is mislabeled (e.g., program listings claiming to be in HD but are not) or just some feature you want them to noodle out for you, just email me or Shane. Your comments and suggestions will go directly to the people who have the authority at TVGuide to make changes. It's a terrific opportunity to influence this long-standing icon of television. The guide is their bread and butter. The more they get it right the more butter there is for everyone.

Dale and Shane

Posted by Dale Cripps, October 24, 2007 03:05 PM

Reader Commentary

See Forum Topic: TVGuide vs. "Old" Program Guide (19 replies)
Oct 24, 5:01pm
Dale, I know things change, but at the moment, the "New" TV Guide is a poor replacement for the "old" programing guide at this time. :cry: As an example the new programing guide doesn't give me a description of the con
Oct 24, 5:44pm
I wondered why I could no longer find the program guide. Now I find it's become a pay feature. With the comments on the quality I can't see paying even a couple dollars a month to view an inferior product as I already have two other subscriptions that pr
Oct 24, 7:31pm
I'm with hdtvJim all the way on this. His comment, 'the "New" TV Guide is a poor replacement for the "old" programing guide' is a masterpiece of understatement. Dale wrote: > whatever features and services we had with the old vendo
Oct 25, 12:41am
A $50,000 per year cash loss for the last three years forced us out of the raw data contract with Tribune Media Services. There are only two guide providers that can hope to meet your demands. One is Tribune and the other TVGuide. Each have different busi
Oct 25, 4:24am
I am one of your first subscribers ...going back to 2000 (I think). I paid $35 for a lifetime subscription which was your rate back then. Your associate (a fellow named "Howard") and you assured me that no matter what, my charter subscription would be h
Oct 25, 5:13am
I would like to see a way to get what I was getting before. I was getting a daily email with only the channels I selected and it was restricted to HD programming. It's that simple. When I look at TV Guide I don't see any indication that a program is in
Oct 25, 7:34am
fmaia 25 Oct 2007 06:24 am I am one of your first subscribers ...going back to 2000 (I think). I paid $35 for a lifetime subscription which was your rate back then. Your associate (a fellow named "Howard") and you assured me that no
Oct 25, 8:29am
Dale, I've already reported to Shane that the new guide, for some reason, doesn't work at all with my browser (Internet Explorer 6.0, SP2). That is, when I input my Zip code and provider info, it comes back with a blank screen (actually the Zip/provider
Oct 25, 10:27am
From another long-time 'life-time' subscriber, happy to contribute every year... I couldn't agree more with Randy about the necessary business model changes over the years. Frankly, I was impressed that you guys stuck with the goal... to provide (and i
Oct 25, 3:41pm
I really don't know how to respond to this because you are certainly right--we did offer such a bargain. And, to my knowledge, you have everything you paid for (some of it now with less restricted access) and with the improvements coming in TVGuide it sha
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About Dale Cripps

Dale Cripps is a professional journalist who has focused two thirds of his career on the subject of high-definition television. Upon completing his education in business and service in the military he formed Cripps and Associates, South Pasadena, California, in 1964, which operated as a market-development company for aerospace services. In 1983 he turned to television and began what has become a 20 year campaign to pioneer HDTV. For fifteen of those years he published the well-regarded HDTV Newsletter (an international monthly written for television professionals). During much of this same time he also served as the HDTV-Technical Editor for "Widescreen Review Magazine." On November 16, 1998 he launched the Internet distributed HDTV Magazine, which remains the only consumer publication devoted exclusively to high-definition television. In April of 2002 he co-founded with Tedson Meyers of Coudert Bros, the High-definition Television Association of America, which is presently based in Washington DC. Cripps is the president of this organization. Mr. Cripps is a charter member of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers and honored by that organization with the DTV Press Leadership Award of 2002. He makes his home in Oregon.