If I was interested in creating a site that listed television channel
schedules such as http://www.tvguide.com/ and http://www.gist.com/, is
there a process to ‘sign-up’ with cable and broadcast companies in
order to get regular listings in an electronic format?

Not only do these websites do it, but so does your local paper when
they display the listings, etc… I would imagine that this is
information that should be freely available – and that the cable and
broadcast companies should have a service, and be willing to give this
out.

I’m not looking for the exact source (yet). I just want to know what
is the process for getting the listings.

I'd like to know what the process is, what is the cost, requirements, etc..

Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by jroff-ga on 14 Mar 2003 08:35 PST

Let me change my question since it doesn't look like anybody has an
answer for this...

Find me at least one site that is similar to http://www.tvguide.com/
or http://www.gist.com/ that has a developers program that allows
software to interact with their online listing information.

I am only intersted in the US and sites that have access to all (most)
of the television channels in the US. I'm not looking for interacting
with an individual network or cable company.

Thanks.

Hi Jroff,

I was going to post the following as an answer, but I believe that
there is an easier way (at least to some extent) - I think there is a
clearinghouse which offers raw listings to thirdparty publishers, I
just cannot find it, unfortunately. So I will post this information as
a comment - it is based, to some extent, on what I had to go through a
few years ago to get the same information.

---

I am basing my answer on experience in New Zealand with local
broadcasters, and with satellite-based networks, while working for a
digital TV service.

In general terms what you want is fairly simple, however, there are
some problems.  Firstly, there is no once place to go and get all the
info you need (aside from sources such as the two sites you mention,
which maintain a copyright over the information they present). The
second problem is that some people will be more picky than others over
who they will provide listing information to (it is, to some extent,
commercially sensitive).

Other problems you will face in a market the size of the US, is
localised listings. One days listing for one network could include
four or more variations. Managing this information is going to require
some thought. Also, while electronic format listings should be
available from all providers, you may find that they vary from place
to place, making it slightly harder to reconcile them all into a
single database.

So, assuming all the problems can be overcome, the next thing to do is
make contact with all the providers you wish to list. The hurdle here
is going to be one of credibilty - without being attached to a known
site or publication, it maybe difficult convincing some people that
you are genuine.

Here are a few lists of television broadcasters in the US:
http://archive.museophile.sbu.ac.uk/broadcast/#USA
http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Television/Networks/
http://pw1.netcom.com/~gstuart1/tvlink.html

None of these seem entirely complete, however between the three of
them most things seem to be covered.

Your initial contact should probably be addressed to a couple of
people at each network: Director of Programming, and Scheduling Dept.
-- These are fairly generic titles which should make it to the right
people within the various organisations.

Beyond networks however, there are regional stations - these are going
to be the hardest to get, as there is a lot of them, they are hard to
find, and many of them operate in quite different ways, depending on
size, resources and affiliations.

Yahoo has a listing of TV stations, broken down by region:
http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Television/By_Region/U_S__States/

However I have no way to verify the accuracy or completeness of the
list.

sycophant,

Is this the method you used to obtain the data? What was your
reasoning for needing the data?

Do you know if a clearinghouse exists or is that something you are
assuming? If you believe one exists, do you pay for it (of course) and
how much does it cost (ballpark - $1 - $1M).

You can post your answer to these questions as the answer to the
question.

sycophant gave a good answer. Some people who have the information
won't share it unless you pay them well. Some others consider that
unethical but don't want to do the work for free. Some are afraid they
will make more errors in their primary job if they try to supply
accurate information to one more place. Persons with second hand info
are reluctant to share as errors are corrected at the last minute, so
you may not get all the corrections.  Occasionally nearly everyone is
surprised at what actually is broadcast.   Neil

HI Jroff, 

I won't post this as an answer because I still don't think it helps
you much, but here are the answers to those questions...

I was collecting this information when I was working for a satellite
broadcaster. I collected information from a variety of networks (CNNi,
CNBC, BBC World etc) - I think three of these networks emailed us
data, the rest had websites we could access.

I then had to enter this information into our own inhouse scheduling
database.

I don't know if such a clearinghouse does exist, but I assume there
must be something like that available.

Good luck with your search