Multichoice plays hardball
A petition was recently set up trying to convince Multichoice that users “are entitled to EPG data that is accurate and up to date, furthermore, that the data is freely available in an open standards format.”
“We believe that we, as customers, should be given a choice whether to receive this data in an open electronic format, via the printed monthly Dish magazine or both,” the group says.
In the past it was possible to provide such a service through a process called ‘web scraping’ where information about the DSTV programming guide was gathered from the DSTV website and distributed in XMLTV format.
Multichoice not impressed
Multichoice is however not impressed and according to the group one individual, Colin Savage, producing this information was sent a ‘cease and desist letter by lawyers representing MultiChoice.’
“The net result of this is that Colin was forced to stop providing the ZaEpg service as well as the XMLTV files. The Media Center community in South Africa has had to resort to other more complicated methods to obtain EPG data,” the group said.
Multichoice’s General Manager for Corporate Affairs, Jackie Rakitla, says that her company has the responsibility to protect itself from instances which may compromise the integrity of its broadcasting platform. “These may include piracy and instances where our content or that of our channel providers is unlawfully copied.”
“MultiChoice would like to reiterate that our broadcast content is intended only for transmission to our set top box, and not for transfer thereafter, to any other third party set top box/ device in which our encryption / AC software is not present, as we cannot guarantee that it will not be copied or pirated,” said Rakitla.
“The company will continue to take actions against parties who are copying our EPG for purposes of transferring, and pirating or copying our channel providers content,” Multichoice concluded.
The petition group said that at some point in the future the petition data will be collated and forwarded to MultiChoice Africa, the competitions board of South Africa and the vendors of the various consumer devices and software.
“All parties will be made aware of the location of this petition to enable them to track the public opinion surrounding this issue,” their website states.
So far the petition has attracted 421 signatures.
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