From their website http://labs.zap2it.com/ztvws/ztvws_login/1,1059,TMS01-1,00.html :

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007.

We thank those users who have honored the terms of the agreement, and we suggest you consider the many TV listings options offered by the commercial licensees of TMS TV listings data.

If you would like to discuss how to license TV listings for commercial use, please let us know by e-mail (labs@zap2it.com) and include your company name, telephone number and the best time to reach you. We will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.

We anticipate this decision will generate discussion and invite you to respond via the Zap2it Labs forum. We will do our best to respond to relevant questions posted on this forum in a timely manner.

Sooooo are there any alternatives on the horizon for the proxy?

Kevin

Yeah, sad… I guess we’ll need to use XMLTV or something. MythTV will probably find an ‘ok’ solution soon enough… Let’s wait and see.

- Guillaume

Would this site work?

http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/television/tvlistings/results.aspx

-daystar

Or this site?

http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/TV_Guide/TVListings/

No. We need the data in an easily parsable format (XML or similar). Any website that provides TV listings won’t do.

- Guillaume

Darn! Thanks for the reply tho. -daystar

Soooo what’s the implication of this:

August 9, 2007
Zap2it Labs received many emails inquiring if television listings could be provided on a paid for basis once the current service is discontinued. Today we are pleased to announce an agreement that will allow for many of you to continue to have access to your personal television listings data.

In collaboration with Schedules Direct, a non-profit organization created by founding members of MythTV and XMLTV, an agreement has been reached that will continue to support the open source and “freeware” communities. As of September 1, 2007, there WILL BE an alternative television listings source for certain Zap2it Labs users who become members of Schedules Direct, which includes a membership fee.

While Schedules Direct will continue to support the open source community and the users of “freeware”, it will not support users of “commercial” products, such as DVRs, that were purchased from either a retail outlet or a company that used Zap2it Labs as its television listings source.

For those of you who lived by the original spirit and intent of Zap2it Labs and wish to continue to have access to listings, we encourage you to visit Schedules Direct for more information at http://www.schedulesdirect.org

Most probably, that EEP will soon allow users to use data from Schedules Direct as a data source, instead of Zap2It. Users who want to use Schedules Direct will need an account with them. I contacted them earlier today to get more info on how I can implement Schedules Direct data access in EEP.

- Guillaume

That’s great Guillaume! Hope it is an easy fix.

Kevin

Here’s the reply I got from Schedules Direct:

Sorry, but Tribune will not allow us to sell data that will be used in a commercial application,
even if that company doesn’t sell to the US or Canada.

This includes 3rd party OSS “plugin” or “proxy” solutions even if the company doesn’t
acknowledge or even know about the solution.

We don’t like it any more than you do, but such products are a minority and we’re trying
to provide data for as many as we can.

So it looks like I won’t be able to use Schedules Direct data in EEP, since it would make the data available in a commercial app.

Their license agreement is available here

- Guillaume

So what can we do to still get listings???

For now, nothing you can do will give you listings. Sorry.

- Guillaume

Hm… Presumably the company is just making the data available. It would be our problem if we didn’t follow the license agreement. Obviously, I’m not recommending this, but it’s not clear how they could tell.

Guillaume, would you have any interest in 3rd party scrapers? My friend writes these for a living, he can reach into any web site, even ones with logins, encryption, frames, you name it, and scrape off the data into a useful format. I’m absolutely sure that the examples above would be trivial for him to do.

However, he is a commercial programmer and does this for a living. I’m sure he would want to charge for these services. Is this of any interest to you?

Maury

No thanks. Data scrapping is illegal, and I won’t endorse it.

What you guys do on your own PC is your own business, but there’s no way I’ll publish or endorse a practice such as data-scrapping Web-based EPG. Sorry.

- Guillaume

Just wondering if there is any news on this? Has anyone found an alternative. I’d be happy to pay a reasonable price for TV listings in Canada

Not sure at all, but does Commercial app mean an App you charge for or simply something which is not Open Source or Free? Not sure what your intentions are mon ami, but if you had the intention of making this Open Source or Free, perhaps you’d qualify?

EEP is open-source and free.
It doesn’t qualify with SchedulesDirect because the end-result is that EPG data is made available in EyeTV software, which is commercial.
If you can convince Elgato to open-source their EyeTV software, then it might work. :)

- Guillaume

Wow, so glad I came back to the source to see what was going on with my schedules. I’ve been going nuts for the last month trying in vain to reload the channels, etc to get the guide to work with no luck. As I was setting up the EyeTV for this years new schedule, I sure was missing the automation. I’ll keep checking back here to see what else we can do… Thanx while it lasted.

—chris

Wow, I really miss the integrated listings in EyeTV and have been watching here to see if there has been a solution found or posted.

I have subscribed to Schedules Direct and am using MacProgramGuide here in Canada. It works fine. It’s just that it requires an extra step or two to record a program. However, once you select the show you want to record in the guide, and click the EyeTV logo in MPG, everything else is automatic unless there is a conflict. A good solution for now at least. I remember I had tried this last year before we got full integration with Zap2it.

I really wish Elgato would release a listings service compatible with some of the Canadian providers, they’ve been kind of promising it for years now… Oh well, thanks for the great info here. It’s appreciated.

Hi
This is for makemineamac or else,

I am also interested to subscribe to Schedule Direct but I don’t understand very well what needs to do, not with them.. but to direct Eye TV to my new-account-to-be.

Thank you very much and thanks to Guillaume for his dedication!

CF