Electronic Program(me) Guide (EPG)

Also known as Interactive Program(me) Guide (IPG) or Electronic Service Guide (ESG), EPG is an on-screen guide to scheduled broadcast television programs, permitting a viewer to browse, select, and discover contents based on time, title, channel, genre, etc, using their remote control, a keyboard or a phone keypad. This technology is predominant in the digital television and radio world however EPGs exist that rely upon analogue technology (using the VBI—or vertical blanking interval). EPG broadcasts data to an application residing within middleware in a set-top box which connects to the television set and enables the application to be displayed. The signals may arrive via cable TV, satellite TV, cable radio, satellite radio, or via over-the-air terrestrial broadcast stations. If the users want to see more information about the current program and future programs they have to just navigate through an EPG on a receiving device and in the same way a viewer can plan his or her viewing and also record broadcast programs to a hard disk for later viewing when EPGs are connected to PVRs, or personal video recorders.