Can we be Frank for a moment? In the trust tree, with the nest? Yeah? Okay here goes. (Deep breath) At the risk of understating it, we want to acknowledge that the Plex experience as it relates to Live TV metadata, schedules, and lineups over the past 12 months has been a painful one. There, we said it. You know it, we know it, our provider knows it, my wife knows it, my mailman knows something’s been bothering me but honestly we’ve drifted apart over the last few months…thanks COVID. While our international friends might opt for far more colorful language (and you have!), the fact remains that the promise of an “as good, or better” experience with an alternate provider ended up falling well short of everyone’s expectations.
It has been a little over a year now since Plex implemented a replacement guide provider after finalizing a deal that included coverage for video and music metadata, as well as license to an extensive IP portfolio. While the music metadata has performed well, and the IP license was critical to maintaining Live TV & DVR functionality in Plex, the video metadata that serves as the foundation of our TV experience fell flat.
While some have interpreted our lack of an official statement up to this point as proof that we were unconcerned with the state of Live TV & DVR in Plex, nothing could be further from the truth. These issues had daily visibility, dedicated weekly (or biweekly) partner calls, and the almost constant attention of @sa2000, who I’m pretty sure, based on the timestamp of forum posts, emails, and Slack messages, hasn’t slept since July of last year.
I think it’s safe to say that many of us at Plex, especially those responsible for the service, have collectively experienced 4 of the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression) but in no way are we willing to accept the current state of things. To that end, we wanted to make the community aware that we have secured a deal with a video metadata (EPG) provider that we know well, and trust to deliver an experience that meets our expectations. While it’s premature to provide any estimates on when the transition back might be fully implemented (the ink is literally drying today) we wanted to let you know as quickly as possible that this work starts NOW. We’ve been acutely aware of the frustrations voiced over the last year, and as users ourselves, we’re highly motivated to bring this chapter to a close, and extremely excited to begin working on a whole host of new features and improvements for Live TV & DVR in Plex.
Eric
