Comcast XFINITY TV → [Other] Comcast program guide switching from Rovi/TV Guide to Gracenote

Since Wednesday, I noticed the text on Comcast's EPG (at least on the Memphis system) had changed, with the program descriptions about the same (word for word) as those on Zap2it.com. There were some slight variations in the program titles. They used to get their listings from TV Guide. Is this happening on other Comcast systems or with other providers?

Likely related to this:

»www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/ ··· d=68036/

WOW, this is SO ironic...lot of us Tivo folks have been having fits with EPG data issues since back in August, due to Tivo (VERY abruptly!) switching to their Rovi guide data, since Rovi bought Tivo. Many of us ONLY found out AFTER our DVR's posted a message saying they were out of EPG data, & we basically had to go thru an initial setup again, to get them even partially functioning again!
It's affecting BOTH OTA & cable Tivo users:

»www.tivocommunity.com/ti ··· t=542760
(there's several threads going on here about this mess on TCF)

Yet Comcast is actually switching to something BETTER...for a change - who would have thought!

Looks like the x1 guide. How will this work on older boxes like the dct 2000 or dct 2500 or dct5100?

I never had any issues with my tivo switching over.

Oh come on, are you (bleep) kidding me?! I went with an X1 because of their use of Rovi! I'm not happy.

I thought x1 was gracenote?

Nope. Same program data/descriptions and cover art that I see on TiVo after they switched to Rovi is what I currently see on the X1. I really like it, it's much more detailed and in depth, much more rich compared to what Gracenote offers. I cannot convey the depth of my displeasure regarding this news. In short, I'm royally pissed off.

 

In my area, ever since TiVo switched to Rovi, the TiVo program guide has been a mess,

Wrong episodes listed, right episode number but wrong description, "to be announced" (no show info at all for a timeslot), no descriptions for far too many shows, incomplete and sometimes missing actors listings, missing cover art for the many shows, original air dates missing, etc., etc.

Whatever guide service TiVo used before they switched to Rovi was a far, far better service.

According to Comcast, they are still using Rovi:
»forums.xfinity.com/t5/Ch ··· 8#M78432

FYI:

Nielsen in Advanced Talks to Acquire Gracenote to Get Better at Content Recognition
By Janko Roettgers, Variety - December 8, 2016
»variety.com/2016/digital ··· 1937498/

quote:

---

Nielsen is in advanced talks to acquire Emeryville, Calif.-based media data specialist Gracenote from Tribune Media, Variety has learned from multiple sources. An announcement could come as early as this month.

There's no definitive word on how much Nielsen will be paying for Gracenote, but one source pegged the deal size at between $450 million and $500 million. Spokespeople for Gracenote and Tribune Media declined to comment. Nielsen didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gracenote started out as a database for CD metadata some 18 years ago, and has since grown to offer a variety of media data services, including audio and video content recommendations, TV guide data and sports data. Some of its customers include Apple, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Sony, Amazon, Ford, and Toyota.
:
Tribune Media acquired Gracenote from Sony in 2013 for $170 million, and subsequently merged it with its own TMS subsidiary, which had been selling TV guide data to operators for decades. Tribune went on to significantly invest into Gracenote in 2014, acquiring film data provider Baseline for $50 million, and in 2015 following up with the acquisition of sports data specialist SportsDirect for $54 million.

However, Tribune Media has seen its losses mount in 2015, forcing the company to explore a number of strategic alternatives at the beginning of 2016. Tribune first floated the idea of selling off Gracenote in February, and started a formal sales process in the following months.

From the beginning, Tribune was looking to sell Gracenote for at least $450 million, according to a source with knowledge of these plans. It approached a number of strategic investors and also got significant interest from private equity companies, with one source estimating that the price tag at one point rose to $600 to $700 million.

However, interest in the private equity world cooled significantly following Rovi's acquisition of TiVo, according to another source. That source also cautioned that a number of Gracenote's existing contracts may be up for renewal, adding some uncertainty to the company's business outlook. ...

---

 
Based upon train wreck I continue to see with the Rovi guide (errors of omission, errors of commission, immature program descriptions), I'm not convinced that Gracenote has too much to worry about regarding competition from Rovi in the guide area.

I personally think so as well.

See, what's weird is that I did see that "to be announced" issue on a few channels in certain timeslots every day, like the 2pm block on ABC, on my TiVo using Rovi, but not on my X1 when it too was using Rovi. I'm guessing that the X1 just gets updated more frequently throughout the day or on-the-fly when a program change occurs verses TiVo's once-a-day method?They were using Gracenote.

 
Methinks you've latched on to something.

The TiVo box in our living rooms (or where ever) is updated from TiVo's main guide database once every day or so. It is a pull process.

The TiVo main guide database seems to be updated on a different schedule. Sometimes multiple times per day, sometimes a day or two or three between updates.

X1 may skip the daily batch-mode updates TiVo-box-style of updates altogether, falling back to a more transactional update-as-things-change type of schedule, maybe more of a push process.

I don't think X1 buffers much, if any, guide data on the box itself. It's almost entirely server-based. X1 is more like a thin-client than a standalone cable box.

 
Agreed, that's was I was thinking.

I could have worded it better, saying "X1 system" instead of just "X1."

It's a done deal now:

Tribune Media to Sell Gracenote for $560 Million
Company to Focus on Core Television and Entertainment Business; Company Announces Intention to Repay Debt and Declare Special Dividend of Approximately $500 Million in First Quarter of 2017
Tribune Media press release, PR Newswire - December 20, 2016
»www.prnewswire.com/news- ··· 851.html

and

Nielsen Acquires Gracenote
Global Leader in Audience Measurement Acquires Industry's Premier Provider of Media and Entertainment Metadata
Nielsen press release, PR Newswire - December 20, 2016
»www.prnewswire.com/news- ··· 855.html

Does this mean now that all Guide Data ( no matter if it is Comcast, Vz FiOS etc, because many providers use Tribune/Gracenote ) will need to change anything? I mean that the transition to Tribune a couple of years ago was a pain to get the correct Data. So it this transition going to be the same hassle?

Or can we expect everything to be the same, with no problems with Guide Data?

On the Comcast forums, there was a thread about this, and they said they were still using Rovi. I do know a few months ago there were some changes. Some shows changed titles, and single episode shows (annual Christmas specials, etc...) no longer show the year.

I've been away the past few days and noticed that the guide data on Verizon's FiOS matches the guide data on the Xfinity TV app.

And some movie titles get so abbreviated that you cannot tell what the movie is. What good is a title like "John Carpenter Presents" when there are several different movies that bear that moniker?

Hmm, I had this happen with my TiVo and didn't really investigate at the time other than to reset everything. I like TiVo a fair bit less now, that could have been avoided...

Well, it looks like Comcast has moved to Gracenote now:

Comcast replaces TiVo/Rovi with Gracenote for metadata
By Daniel Frankel, FierceCable - January 6, 2017
»www.fiercecable.com/cabl ··· metadata

quote:

---

Gracenote has replaced TiVo Corp. as the principal metadata vendor for Comcast’s X1 platform, sources close to the transition told FierceCable at the CES trade show.

According to these individuals, the switchover involved an 18-month conversion process involving 50 Gracenote staffers, with Gracenote taking over the metadata for Comcast’s advanced video platform following the August presentation of the Summer Olympic Games.

Neither Comcast, Gracenote nor TiVo immediately responded to FierceCable’s inquiry for comment and confirmation.

The switchover isn’t necessarily a state secret, either. In November, a month before Tribune Media announced the sale of Gracenote to Nielsen, Tribune CEO Peter Liguori noted that in September, “Comcast rolled out Gracenote's video metadata to 22 million set-top boxes across the country. Gracenote powers Xfinity, Comcast's state-of-the-art video offerings, with real-time up-to-the-minute sports, video and music data. This promises to be a major addition to Gracenote's revenue, profitability and innovation for years to come.”

Gracenote metadata is used for a wide variety of X1 functionality. For example, it powers sports features that allow a user to call up a football player's stats merely by asking for them via the X1 Voice Remote.

According to one source, Comcast made the switch due to its ongoing patent litigation with TiVo. Before Rovi purchased TiVo for $1.1 billion last year and changed its name to TiVo, it filed a lawsuit against Comcast alleging violation of 14 patents, some of which relate to remote DVR recording through X1.

A TiVo exec, who wasn’t authorized to speak to FierceCable, said he had no knowledge as to when and if that suit might be settled. ...

---

They mention X1, but I doubt if the iGuide and DTA's are using different data, are they? I know the data on my DTA and iGuide box are the same, so I wonder if someone has X1 and a DTA (with it's mini-guide) can check to see if the show descriptions are more or less identical?

You could compare your program descriptions with the Xfinity TV app or Xfinity TV website. »tv.xfinity.com/ From what I've discovered, the program descriptions there match up to what my X1's descriptions are.

I guess it's probably the same, based on a few rough checks. As I think I mentioned before, there was a change in titles and other info a few months ago. That's probably when the real change took place. I do wish they would get years back into the descriptions of one-off programs.

I think X1 is fancier in that it also has logos and cover art, and maybe that took awhile to finalize.

At the bottom of all descriptions in the TWC/Spectrum ODN guide, they all say Gracenote (c).

Are they going to start saying "Nielsen" in the next few months when the transaction closes?

It's a possibility. Personally I'd think it'd be more effective not to since "Gracenote" is already an established name in its respective field, and it'd be cheaper to not have to rename everything unless they do a "Gracenote by Nielsen".