EXCLUSIVE: Weeks after winning a High Court battle with Channel Nine over the reproduction of TV program information into an EPG, IceTV is now able to supply of free TV Meta data and program information for TV guides in a move that could hurt Ninemsn owned Company HWW.
Mr. Colin O’Brien the Chairman of IceTV, who this week hired a new business development manager, and who is set to relaunch IceTV after four years of fighting the Channel Nine Network has said that one of their current business plans will involve the supply of free daily TV information to print and electronic media organisation in return for free Ice TV branding.
“Right now a lot of media organisations including News Ltd and Fairfax are paying significant sums of money for their daily TV program guides. We are happy to supply this information for free. We are currently looking at new template formats that will allow us to deliver this content in an informative and easy to read format to print organisations. All we want back is branding exposure for IceTV as the authoritative source of TV program information”.
The move by IceTV to syndicate free TV information, say media companies could hurt Ninemsn owned Company HWW who currently charge for the supply of TV information.
Currently HWW is the leading supplier of TV program metadata to electronic media in Australia. They claim that they currently supply every major internet portal, every telecommunications carrier in Australia and to Foxtel’s Electronic Program Guide.
“What we can supply as a result of our High Court win is live daily TV data for every television program showing on every major free-to-air network. We will be able to supply this in a paginated page format or as Meta data for electronic organisations”.
A media analyst said “the battle between IceTV and Channel Nine was more HWW Vs IceTV. When Nine took their action against IceTV they wanted to protect the business interests of HWW. IceTV, by supplying free TV content, could well destroy the HWW model if media organisations decide to do business with IceTV”,
A HWW spoksperson was not available to comment formally on the IceTV service.
