All I wanted was to know what was on at eight. To get an answer, one of the big guide sites wanted me to accept its cookies, sit through a car insurance video, and then sign up for a newsletter. It’s a schedule. Reading it should not be a negotiation.

So I built my own. It’s at uk-tv-guide.allanson.org - you open it, you see what’s on.

It’s a grid, like the one you already know

The main view is a Sky-style channel grid - channels down the side, time along the top, a red line showing where you are now. 87 channels on by default, 430-odd if you want more, eight days of listings, and a search that works as you type. There’s a Now & Next view for when you can’t be scrolling, favourites you can pin to the top, and watch buttons that jump you straight into iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5 or JustWatch for whatever you’re looking at.

After your first visit it works offline, and it installs to a phone home screen like a proper app, which is where most of my looking happens.

There is no server

The site is a directory of static files on GitHub Pages. No backend, no build step, no database, no accounts, no ads, no analytics. Your browser does all the work.

The listings come from epg.pw: a free JSON API, CORS open to everyone, no key. The browser calls it directly, so nothing passes through anything of mine - that’s the whole reason I don’t need a server. Without them this site doesn’t exist, so: thank you, epg.pw. The listings themselves belong to their providers; this is a personal-use tool that I’ve shared.

Free means free

I didn’t build this to make money from anyone, and there’s nothing here that could. A TV guide is a public service that got wrapped in adverts somewhere along the way, and it turns out you can unwrap it with a directory of static files.

The guide is live, and the source is on GitHub.