Improved electronic television program guide schedule system and method

Abstract

An electronic program schedule system which includes a receiver for receiving broadcast, satellite or cablecast television programs for a plurality of television channels and a tuner for tuning a television receiver to a selected one of the plurality of channels. A data processor receives and stores in a memory television program schedule information for a plurality of television programs to appear on the plurality of television channels. A user control apparatus, such as a remote controller, is utilized by a viewer to choose user control commands and transmit signals in response to the data processor which receives the signals in response to user control commands. A television receiver is used to display the television programs and television program schedule information. A video display generator receives video control commands from the data processor and program schedule information from the memory and displays a portion of the program schedule information in overlaying relationship with a television program appearing on a television channel in at least one mode of operation of the television programming guide. The data processor controls the video display generator with video control commands, issued in response to the user control commands, to display program schedule information for any chosen one of the plurality of television programs in overlaying relationship with at least one television program then appearing on any chosen one of the plurality of channels on the television receiver.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]This invention relates to an electronic program schedule system, which provides a user with schedule information for broadcast or cablecast programs viewed by the user on a television receiver. More particularly, it relates to an improved electronic program guide that provides the user with a more powerful and convenient operating environment, while, at the same time, increasing the efficiency of navigation by the user through the guide.[0002]Electronic program guides for television systems are known in the art. For example, one prior system used an electronic character generator to display textual schedule information on the full screen of a television receiver. Other prior systems presented electronically stored program schedule information to a user for viewing while allowing the user to select display formats. Still other systems employed a data processor to input user-selection criteria, then stored only the program schedule information meeting...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system that will allow the user to view a broadcast program while, at the same time, interactively viewing program schedule information for other programs.

[0016]It is another object of the present invention to provide the user with the ability to select from among a plurality of display formats for the program schedule information.

[0018]It is a still further object of the present invention to provide the user of the electronic program schedule system with the capability of setting programmable reminder messages for any future program.

[0019]It is yet a further object of this invention to provide the system user with comprehensive information about pay-per-view events, premium services or other packaged programming to which the user does not subscribe and the capability to automatically purchase such programming on demand or impulse.

[0020]It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic guide system that provides a reliable and efficient method of updating or replacing the application software programs that implement the electronic guide at the user sites.

[0025]It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a system in which the user can access his current billing information on demand.

Problems solved by technology

Collectively, the prior electronic program systems may be difficult to implement and cumbersome to use.

They also fail to provide viewing capabilities that address in a more realistic manner the viewing habits of the users of these electronic program systems.

Moreover, many of these systems are complex in their design and are expensive to implement.

And, as the number of television channels available to a user increases dramatically with the advent of new satellite and cable-based technologies, the utility of these prior systems substantially diminishes.

These prior-art systems also fail to provide the user with sufficient information, for example pricing and the like, about pay-per-view events, premium services or other packaged programming to which the user does not subscribe, nor do they provide the user with the capability to automatically purchase such programming on demand or impulse.

Moreover, these prior-art systems are deficient in that they fail to provide an efficient and automatic method of updating or replacing the application software programs that implement the electronic guide at the user sites, relying instead of manual or other cumbersome forms of revision or replacement or hardware-based systems that can not be updated without physical replacement of integrated circuits and / or other parts.

Nor do these prior electronic guide systems have the capability of linking the user to other applications or information systems which are not part of the electronic program guide application or data.

Nor do these prior electronic guide systems provide video promotion of television programs and services that are functionally linked and visually displayed in an integrated fashion.

The prior electronic program guides also fail to provide the user with a simple and efficient method of controlling access to individual channels and individual programs.

Despite this availability, the feature is seldom used by parents.

The main impediments to its effective use are the cumbersome ways in which it is generally implemented, as well as the requirement that entire channels be blocked in order to block access to any objectional programming.

A channel-oriented parental lock is unfair to other programmers on the blocked channel—who, for example, offer adult-oriented programming in the evening and youth-oriented programming the following morning—and inconvenient for viewers who want access to such programs.

The prior electronic program guides are also deficient in that they do not provide the user with the ability to view on demand current billing status and, thus, a need exists for a system which can provide the user with current billing information on the user's demand.

An additional problem with prior program guides is that when displaying schedule information in grid format, i.e., columns representing time slots and rows representing channels, program titles generally are width-wise truncated to fit into the cells of the grid.

Some systems simply cut off the description of a program without abbreviating it in any way, such that the user is unable to determine the subject matter of the program.

For example, a recent television program display included the following text in a grid cell: “Baseball: Yankees v.” Although some systems partially alleviate this problem by providing two lines of text in each grid cell, this solution is not ideal because program descriptions may still be truncated.

A similar problem arises as the time slots change, either automatically or in response to a user control command.

In the case where a 30 minute shift causes a 30 minute size grid cell to display, e.g., a two-hour movie, it is likely that the full title of the movie will not fit into the cell.

The prior electronic program guides also lack a method for creating a viewing itinerary electronically while still viewing a program currently appearing on the television receiver.

Moreover, these prior program guides leave much guess work for the user as he navigates through a sequence of channels.

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