New Mitsubishi displays will have built-in TV Guide

Establishing deals with practically every hardware manufacturer, Gemstar's program guides have already found their way onto millions of screens. Today's announcement just keeps up the pace.

Gemstar-TV Guide announced a multi-year licensing deal with Mitsubishi to build its Digital G-Guide interactive program guide (IPG) directly into new Televisions and DVRs in Japan. Gemstar claims that more than 20 million CE devices and personal computers in Japan use G-Guide.

In Asia, Gemstar's G-Guide already has Sony, Matsushita, Hitachi, JVC, Pioneer, Sharp, Funai and LG as licensees. The company secured its first deal for supplying program guides in China with Changzhou Broadcast & TV Information Network in December.

Furthermore, the company's version of the IPG for handsets called G-Guide Mobile has 13.75 million users on NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and SoftBank, according to D2 Communications.

The United States' equivalent of G-Guide is TV Guide on Screen, which has licensing deals with Hitachi, LG, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.

Macrovision, parent of Gemstar-TV Guide, recently sold off its struggling casual gaming division in an apparent effort to streamline for the company, focusing its resources on TV software and video copyright solutions.