Controlling content presentation and display of program information in an electronic program guide

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10356458-B2
Application number	US-201715451077-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2017
Priority date	Mar 6, 2017
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

Presentation of content and display of program information in an electronic program guide (EPG) can be controlled. A content manager component of a device can control or modify display of program information in the EPG based on user information selecting favorite programs on various channels or applications. Based on the modified EPG, the content manager component can switch to respective channels or applications presenting respective favorite programs at respective times of presentation of the respective favorite programs. The content manager component also can modify the EPG to prominently display a defined number of most popular programs for respective time slots in the EPG to facilitate presentation of popular programs to the user via the EPG and selection of popular programs by the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
based on favorability-related information associated with a user identity and in accordance with a defined favorability criterion, determining, by a system comprising a processor, first items of content associated with respective time periods that are to be assigned a higher favorability than second items of content associated with the respective time periods, wherein the first items of content and the second items of content are respectively received from respective content provider devices associated with respective content provider identities, wherein the first items of content comprise a first item of content and a second item of content that are associated with a first time period of the respective time periods, wherein the first item of content is determined to be a favorite item of content of the user identity based on input information received from the user identity, and wherein the second item of content is determined to be a popular item of content among a group of user identities based on ratings information relating to respective popularity ratings of respective items of content, comprising the second item of content;
displacing, by the system, the popular item of content from a first favorability ranking to a second favorability ranking for the first time period, in response to assigning the first favorability ranking to the favorite item of content for the first time period based on the input information received from the user identity, wherein the first favorability ranking is higher than the second favorability ranking; and
controlling, by the system, a first presentation of first information relating to the first items of content relative to a second presentation of second information relating to the second items of content in a third presentation of an electronic content guide with respect to the respective time periods based on the first items of content being determined to have the higher favorability than the second items of content, wherein, for the first time period, the first presentation of the first information presents a first information portion associated with the favorite item of content at the first favorability ranking and a second information portion associated with the popular item of content at the second favorability ranking.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in accordance with the electronic content guide, at the first time period of the respective time periods associated with the first item of content of the first items of content, receiving, by the system, the first item of content from one of the respective content provider devices via a channel; and
communicating, by the system, the first item of content to a presentation component to facilitate a fourth presentation of the first item of content.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
arranging, by the system, respective first information portions of the first information relating to the first items of content in relation to each other in a first portion of the third presentation of the electronic content guide based on the respective time periods associated with the first items of content and respective favorability rankings of the first items of content, in accordance with the favorability-related information and the defined favorability criterion, wherein the respective first information portions comprise the first information portion and the second information portion, and wherein the respective favorability rankings comprise the first favorability ranking and the second favorability ranking.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the third presentation of the electronic content guide comprises a grid comprising a column associated with the first time period, and wherein the arranging the respective first information portions of the first information relating to the first items of content comprises arranging the first information portion relating to the first item of content higher than the a second information portion relating to the second item of content in the column of the grid of the electronic content guide based on the first item of content being determined to have the first favorability ranking that is higher than the second favorability ranking of the second item of content based on the favorability-related information and the defined favorability criterion.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
arranging, by the system, respective second information portions of the second information relating to the second items of content in relation to each other in a second portion of the third presentation of the electronic content guide based on the respective time periods associated with the second items of content and respective channels associated with the second items of content, wherein at least a third portion of the second items of content are determined not to satisfy the defined favorability criterion based on the favorability-related information.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the system, at least a portion of the favorability-related information via an interface from a device associated with the user identity, wherein the favorability-related information indicates favorite items of content that are favored by the user identity, wherein the favorability-related information comprises the input information, and wherein the favorite items of content comprises the favorite item of content; and
analyzing, by the system, the favorability-related information to facilitate the determining the first items of content associated with the respective time periods that have higher favorability than the second items of content associated with the respective time periods.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the system, at least a portion of the favorability-related information from a device associated with a data service identity, wherein the favorability-related information indicates that at least a portion of the first items of content are more popular among the group of user identities relative to the second items of content, and wherein the portion of the favorability-related information comprises the ratings information; and
analyzing, by the system, the favorability-related information to facilitate the determining the first items of content associated with the respective time periods that have higher favorability than the second items of content associated with the respective time periods.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the portion of the favorability-related information is a first portion, wherein the favorability-related information comprises preference information relating to a preference of the user identity to have a defined number of items of content of the first time period presented as popular items of content in a second portion of the third presentation of the electronic content guide relating to the popular items of content, and wherein the controlling further comprises:
in accordance with the favorability-related information, controlling the first presentation of the first information relating to the first items of content in the second portion of the third presentation of the electronic content guide with respect to the respective time periods to have a first number of respective first information portions of the first information relating to the first items of content presented in a first guide portion of the electronic content guide associated with the first time period and a second number of respective second information portions of the second information relating to the second items of content presented in a second guide portion of the electronic content guide associated with a second time period of the respective time per

Assignees

• Directv Group Inc

Inventors

• Engineer Hiten

Classifications

• H04N21/26283 Primary

  for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic programme guide data · CPC title

• H04N21/4826 Primary

  using recommendation lists, e.g. of programmes or channels sorted out according to their score · CPC title

• H04N21/4532

  involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title

• H04N21/4821

  using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time · CPC title

• H04N21/4583

  Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programmes in the same time slot · CPC title