New TVguide.ca
p2pnet.net News view:- The Canadian version of TVguide would cease production of the magazine, moving to a “web publication,” Transcontinental, the company behind it, recently announced.
While you may think the resources freed up by going online would go into creating a really great web site, nothing could be further from the truth.
Currently, if you visit tvguide.ca, you’re immediately redirected to MSN’s servers and in fact, the site looks very much like MSN’s Entertainment page with a coat of red paint.
TV listings are provided after inputing a postal code and choosing a provider. Then you’re presented with listings on a plain black and white grid. And unfortunately, that’s is as far as it goes. There are no other tools available, except for a simple search engine.
What makes this so-called web launch of TVguide Canada so disappointing, is that MSN has already been providing TV listings to Canadian viewers for at least a year.
While MSN’s main TV listings leave much to be desired, the grid is at least color coded by category, and you can also browse by category, viewing only movies for example.
And if you have Windows Media Center on your PC, recording a show takes just a couple of clicks. Even the actual web address for MSN’s TV listings is nicer – MSN: http://tv.msn.com/tv/guide/
TVguide Canada: – http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/TV_Guide/TVListings/
Many cool features that could have been provided to make TVguide.ca a good resource for Canadians, are simply not available. These include:
- an advanced search page (search by date, title, description, etc.)
- customized channel lists
- show favorites
- email reminders for shows
- VCRplus codes
- Email alerts (similar to Google’s news alerts. Be informed if a movie/show you are looking for plays in the future.)
- a message forum & chat room
You can find some of the above features using Zap2it’s listings. Even Yahoo!’s TV listings for Canadians are presented in a better format.
The web launch of TVGuide Canada is a big flop and brings nothing new to the Internet, whch is really kinda sad since the web site was being hyped as the next big thing for Canadian TV viewers.
It could have been so much more.
Chad Bertrand – p2pnet, Quebec, Canada
[Bertrand has been working as a DJ/technician at CHIP FM radio in Fort Coulonge, Quebec, for more than eight years years. "I work with the music business and use the Internet for music information and downloads everyday, " he says. He and a friend are currently building the PontiaTV.ca web site.]
Also See:
Transcontinental – TV Guide makes strategic move to web, October 19, 2006
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December 7th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
UNACCEPTABLE !!!!! go BACK to the printed tv guide. i subscribe & have it mailed right to my door. loved to read it. what about all the people that DON”T have a computer !!!
PLEASE reconsider !!!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
PLEASE go back to printing the ORIGINAL TVGuide. Listing by the station call letters is a pain to read. I’d gladly pay more to have the listings start with the lowest channel number and a discription of the program for my area than just one guide for all of Western Canada. I also had a subscription.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 am
I am watching TV in Truro, N.S. , and although the clock reads correctly on the TVguide channel, the guide itself is frozen at 3:00 AM between channels 19 and 23. Who’s asleep at the wheel there? Oh, that’s right. there probably isn’t anyone there doing anything, and it will likely be Tuesday before anyone actually reads this. Keep up the good (sarcasm) work!!!!??