Interactive TV program guide on your mobile phone

The popularity of the TV Guide has parallelled the growth of television and been part of viewers' lives for many decades. And now, as television goes digital and portable, the humble TV guide is following suit. Telecommunications company 3G has announced unlimited access to the mobile version of the popular yourTV website- for only $1 a month. Think of it as the Google Guide to TV - program data at your wireless fingertips! The 'yourTV on 3' service will offer a comprehensive two-day guide to free-to-air and Pay TV programs. 3 customers will be able to synchronise the mobile version of yourTV with the yourTV.com.au website, allowing them to update preferences on their mobiles in real-time. Similarly, any updates made on the yourTV.com.au website will automatically be made on yourTV on 3.

The popularity of the TV Guide has parallelled the growth of television and been part of viewers' lives for many decades.

And now, as television goes digital and portable, the humble TV guide is following suit. Telecommunications company 3G has announced unlimited access to the mobile version of the popular yourTV website- for only $1 a month. Think of it as the Google Guide to TV - program data at your wireless fingertips!

The 'yourTV on 3' service will offer a comprehensive two-day guide to free-to-air and Pay TV programs. 3 customers will be able to synchronise the mobile version of yourTV with the yourTV.com.au website, allowing them to update preferences on their mobiles in real-time. Similarly, any updates made on the yourTV.com.au website will automatically be made on yourTV on 3.

3's Peter Burr said of the new service, "we are offering a service that maximises convenience for customers by making sure they have access to the latest up-to-date information on their mobile phone while they're on the move."

The announcement by 3 is part of greater industry interest in Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) following the growth of digital television worldwide. IPGs help end-users to find a TV program, movie or sporting event from among listings of thousands of available options, and then make it easy for them to select the program for viewing, tag it with a reminder for later, or even set up a recording to capture the show for time-shifting on a Personal Video Recorder.

Industry leader In-Stat/MDR said in a recent report that it expects the worldwide IPG market value to grow to nearly $1 Billion by 2008. The research firm reports that Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) are becoming the entertainment portal for TV viewers, and will be the "killer application" for enhanced interactive television services.

So now you can plan your night in while you're on the way home, with the yourTV IPG from 3.

http://www.three.com.au