WebSchemas/SchemaDotOrgTV

This page documents discussion of TV-related extensions to the Schema.org vocabulary, as part of the WebSchemas group.

See also a more specific proposal: TVRadioSchema that came out of these discussions

Background

At launch, Schema.org contained basic vocabulary for describing TV-related entities.

TVEpisode: director, actors, producer, trailer, productionCompany, partOfTVSeries, partOfSeason, episodeNumber, musicBy
TVSeason: trailer, episodes, partOfTVSeries, seasonNumber, numberOfEpisodes, startDate, endDate
TVSeries: director, actors, producer, trailer, productionCompany, episodes, seasons, numberOfEpisodes, musicBy, startDate, endDate
Movie: duration, director, actors, producer, trailer, productionCompany, musicBy

This captures a lot of existing structured data available in the consumer-facing Web. However it is missing some pieces that are already available in structured data form.

For example, the BBC's Programmes Ontology describes TV-related entities (Brand, Series, Episode, Programme, Broadcast, ...). There are also other metadata initiatives from EBU, TV-Anytime and others that provide potential basis for extensions and improvements.

Discussion

Jean-Pierre Evain (EBU), Yves Raimond (BBC) and Dan Brickley (for Schema.org) have had some preliminary discussions. Partial notes from Dan/Yves F2f chat transcribed here by Dan, with follow-up comments from Jean-Pierre on the list:

Topics that are missing or could be expanded:

broadcasts, availabilities, segments, tracklist etc.
availability? being a window saying this programme is available from this time to that time, ... including geographic territories.
Segments - covering tracklists, ... segmentations of programmes into sequenced parts.
- => see Playlist modelling (Bob Ferris, 10-24-2011, 1:20 pm)
perhaps also versions as well; is something signed (for deaf) -- accessibility
topics: tags, ... supported by schema.org already, loose associations between items and associations

Other sites like bbc/programmes? who else, other big broadcasters in UK... Yves has contact at C4; Jean-Pierre Evain has many contacts in Europe and worldwide.

Terminology choices

Note that the current Schema.org markup makes a North-American use of "Series" and "Season", and that "Series" at least in UK-English professional use, corresponds roughly to the US notion of a "Season". Wikipedia has notes on this issue. It may be impossible to find neutral terminology, but perhaps documentation fixes can make the distinctions clearer for an international audience.