Schedules Direct is a non-profit organization that provides a low-cost television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 program listing service for open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 and freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

 digital video recorder

Digital video recorder

A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...

s.

Developers from several different projects including MythTV

MythTV

MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...

, XMLTV

XMLTV

XMLTV is an XML based file format for describing TV listings. IPTV providers use XMLTV as the base reference template in their systems, and extend it internally according to their business needs.-External links:* * * * *...

, and GB-PVR

GB-PVR

GB-PVR is a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function is scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. This PVR also acts as a home media center with a digital video recorder, a radio station online tuner, a music and movie player, a library of images and other...

 founded Schedules Direct in response to Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...

's (TMS's) decision to shut down its free Data Direct program listing service as of September 1, 2007. MythTV and other such software use the data to display an on-screen

On-screen display

An on-screen display is an image superimposed on a screen picture, commonly used by modern television sets, VCRs, and DVD players to display information such as volume, channel, and time.-History:...

 electronic program guide

Electronic program guide

Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...

 (EPG), and to schedule upcoming recordings. For a small fee, presently $25 a year, Schedules Direct contracts with TMS to deliver its data—which TiVo

TiVo

TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...

and other commercial digital video recorders also use—to its subscribers.