What’s an EPG?

EPG stands for Electronic Programme Guide. When there are only five channels available, flicking through them with a remote control to find something you want to watch is easy. This is much more difficult to do in a 30-channel environment like Freeview’s, and virtually impossible in a 200-channel environment like Sky Digital's.

Most digital receivers therefore include an EPG application, which displays all the programming currently available as navigable text, on just a handful of screens. These can be browsed and clicked on in a similar manner to a Web page. Clicking on a particular piece of text will switch the viewer to the programme/channel in question (or perhaps, if it’s being shown later, ‘bookmark’ it so that a message is flashed onscreen when the programme’s about to start, or even automatically record in on your VCR). Often, an EPG can also be configured just to show your favourite channels and nothing else.

Increasingly, listings on EPGs can be expanded to show richer information than just the programme title, time and channel, for instance, a programme synopsis such as one would find in a paper listings magazine such as the Radio Time or TV Times.

For owners of personal video recorders (PVRs) or digital video recorders (DVRs), which are boxes containing a hard disk drive or a recordable DVD drive (click here for more information), EPGs allow programmes to be set to be recorded ahead of time just by clicking on the appropriate programme within the EPG. Depending on the model of receiver, TV listings can be viewed up to 14 days ahead.