On-Screen TV Guide

Gemstar’s TV Guide has a life well beyond the paper edition, the channel and online listings, it’s hard-coded into TVs, digital video recording devices and other consumer electronics products. TV Guide On-Screen reaches a reported 10 million households in CE products and is said to expand its installed base at the rate of about one million TV sets and one million DVR products per year — though some of that is replacement. On-Screen has a panel advertisement that takes endemic and non-endemic buys. Ads for broadcast shows link to programming within the guide while consumer products and other advertisers get to offer information to consumers, though the transmission is at this time only one way.

Two-way communications on enabled devices is in the works, which could expand advertising capabilities and allow the guide to compete with on-screen plans of companies like MeeVee. That’s according to Thomas Carson, president of Gemstar-TV Guide On-Screen, though obstacles are present. “Not every TV manufacturer wants to burden sets with Ethernet connections,” he said.