Multimedia can also be used for services which are not connected directly to a single television programme. One of the most important types of such services are electronic programme guides or EPGs. 

The electronic programme guide provides information about programme schedules, and can be arranged to take the viewer to the programme itself with the click of a button on top of the programme listing. 

Programme schedule information is part of a whole new range of information data that will be eventually be broadcast alongside the programme. This will be a kind of indexing system which will allow the viewer to search and retrieve programme stored on a 'hard disc' in the receiver. 

These systems are being developed in an international collaborative programme 'TV Anytime' . The specifications for TV Anytime are not quite complete, though some programme providers have, in any event, started selling receivers in advance with their own private systems.