The Video Program Guide…

Another feature of digital television in Australia is the Video Program Guide (VPG), which runs on a separate channel of its own. All three of the commercial networks have their own VPG and the ABC has their own as well which runs on ABC2 when no programs are on late at night. SBS used to also have a VPG called SBS Essential, but at the start of 2007 it was turned off and the channel just now plays SBS1.

The ABC VPG is run on ABC2 late at night and has music branded with Dig Radio (a digital radio service from ABC) playing in the background. The VPG displays what is on and coming up on ABC and then switches over to show what is coming up on ABC2, as well as information about the song being played and an Australian Map displaying the weather.

Channel Seven’s VPG is probably the best one out of them all, as it is always updated with news headlines and with program information. The only part of it out of date would be the link to its news web site, displaying the old seven.com.au/news link where as it is now yahoo7.com.au/news. The VPG displays weather info, program info, news headlines, horoscopes and sunrise and sunset times.

Channel Nine have changed their VPG a number of times as they re-brand their on air presentation just about every year now. The first one is back when the nine dots were still present and the presentation changed colour everyday.

Next is Channel Nine’s 2006 VPG from when they first changed their logo and identity from the one above used up till January this year. It displays the weather, program promo’s and what is coming up next, with a window showing what is currently on Channel Nine.

Now this is the current VPG used by Channel Nine, and it is pretty much the same as the one above except for some changes with the new promos, logo and background. Also notice the new government colour coded rating system is now used as well.

Next is by far the worst VPG out of the commercial networks and most out of date one you could find. I’m talking about Channel Ten’s VPG which uses a rotation of their on air stars on the left hand side. What makes it out of date is that for starters most of the Neighbours characters used are no longer apart of the show, and the fact that Everybody Loves Raymond is no longer showing, and also the advertisement for Australian Idol has been sitting there since last year.

Finally is the SBS VPG called SBS Essential, and you could argue that this was the worst looking VPG, but at least it was up to date unlike Channel Ten’s. SBS’s was very news based with stories from World News Australia, and had the weather for the capital cities.

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