Electronic Programming Guides on TV are still living in the 20th century. They are not user friendly at all. Most of them look like interfaces for writing assembly level programming code. I think EPGs should be intelligent enough to suggest to the viewer what to watch based on the viewer’s viewing habits/preferences. If as a first generation proactive EPG, I had an integrated utility that gives me my usage statistics, I could use it for several things:
1. I would have an idea of what I like to watch because frankly speaking I don’t know what I like to watch. I am sure there must be several out there like me who just go over program synopses of 10 items and then end up watching none.
2. I could share certain parts of that info with others through the EPG interface. That could help the future TV bookmarking sites.
3. Through the sharing feature you could get to know what others are watching.
4. Parental control could be enhanced much more
5. You could add notes or rank programs
6. Targeted advertising, which studies viewer behaviour, is in its infancy. Self-stats could make it more accurate.
7. If there is a channel conflict your partner can argue …. ‘But you have watched that move three times before’