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Welcome to the public-schedule wiki!

Introduction

Public Schedule is an XML format for exchanging data within the TV and broadcasting industry. It's purpuse is to have a common open standard for exhanging information between internal systems at a broadcaster or distributor, as well as exhanging this type of data between organizations.

The XML structure in brief

The XML format of Public Schedule is divided into three different structures, Content, Event and Material.

Content contains metadata of programs, such as for example title, synopsis, image and participating actors.

Event contains information about the transmission of the program on a linear channel, such as the channel's name and when the transmission starts and ends.

Material contains technical data of the transmission or video file, such as aspect ratio, resolution and subtitling. Material also contains rights for the programs, for example if it is allowed to be viewed on a tablet or allowed to be recorded and available for on demand viewing.

To represent a program that is transmitted on a linear channel (for example to be able to generate an Electronic Program Guide), all three structures (Content, Material and Event) are needed. Such a case is called "Schedule operation" and is wrapped by a corresponding <schedule> element in the XML.

To represent a program that is to be published as Video On Demand, only Content and Material are needed. Such a case is called "Publish operation" and is wrapped by a corresponding <publish> element in the XML.

Versions in summary

• Version 2 https://github.com/june-ab/public-schedule2/ was the first version that was released in 2010.

• Version 3 https://github.com/june-ab/public-schedule3/ was released in 2011 and had some limited support for metadata structure for episodes of series.

• Version 4.0 https://github.com/june-ab/public-schedule4/ was released in december 2014 with a much improved structure for series, images, sports metadata and also new demands in rights management, such as network PVRs etc. In may 2015 version 4.1 was released which included better support for genres.

Supporters

These companies and organisations are known to have integration and support for Public Schedule:

Distributors

• TeliaSonera
• Canal Digital
• Teracom Boxer

Broadcasters

• Turner Broadcasting System, Nordics
• Sveriges Television
• MTV Oy
• TV4 Group
• Horse1
• HBO Nordic

Broadcasting systems manufacturers and others

• June
• TT
• Universum
• ComSpace

Background

Public Schedule was invented by a joined effort from two of the major TV channels in Sweden, TV4 and Sveriges Television. The reason behind the effort was the lack of a common standard within this area, that also would enable organizations to exchange information and adapt to new demands and changes in the way TV is consumed. It was also important that this would be kept an open standard, not proprietary to any of the founders, and that the format should evolve over time. Seeking broad acceptance for Public Schedule is also important for enabling it as a standard. TeliaSonera, one of the major distributors in the Nordics, was an early adopter of the standard. When it was time to develop the next version (4) of Public Schedule, TeliaSonera took the lead, and it was also at this time June was involved as contributor.

When Teracom Boxer, one of the other major distributors in the Nordic decided to support this standard, a decision was made within the supporter group to let the Public Schedule standard be supervised by an external, independent organization, and they chose June to perform this duty.