I am building a small front-end for a television client. I know the basic database structure but do not want to spend manually inserting all the channel names and show names and timings into the database. Are there any sample databases that I can just use? For instance, I am looking for a database containing tv related information with a set of channels, with their logos and perhaps the shows that are being aired on these channels.
+2
A:
Take a look at TVRage.com. They have various feeds that might be useful to you. It's not complete by any means. I'm assuming you just want this for development and debugging?
The BBC has an API.
Nosredna
2009-11-22 02:06:13
Thanks a lot. Actually my main application has nothing to do with the database. I am sure the client will plug in their own data adapter. But in order to arrive at a certain UI action, I am just trying to design some initial screens. As of now, I have hard coded channel names and show names so I was thinking it would be nice to write my own small web server that serves some sample data. Thanks for the link. It has almost everything except for channel-specific shows and icons. I will try to hard code that part.
Legend
2009-11-22 02:13:39
The BBC one is simply amazing. I'm exploring it currently. Thanks once again.
Legend
2009-11-22 02:15:25
Just goes to show you, worth it to ask even if you think the answer must be "dude that's hopeless." :-)
Nosredna
2009-11-22 02:17:47
lol... no seriously... I didn't really think anyone would reply to this question :D I think I will just go with the BBC one. I will prepare a small backend that just adds one more attribute of image and I am done. :)
Legend
2009-11-22 02:22:23
+2
A:
I remember being there myself...
When I used to work for a start-up compressing and transforming TV Guides for broadcast on the Mobile TV, we relied heavily on the 7 days of programs provided by the BBC in the TV-Anytime format: http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/data/7DayListingData?v=16wk
The BBC data is updated every day and it was the most complete source of TV programs available for free (for non-commercial use) at that time (2005-2007).
Some of our customers used data from the XML TV project (which comes from what I heard, from scrapping TV Guides from HTML pages of broadcasters...). It seems from the documentation that you need to install and run the software on your own PC to get data feeds.
Eric Bréchemier
2009-11-22 18:44:08