Interlinking sports and television program listing metadata

• US 20060088276A1
• Filed: 09/23/2005
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cho, Wei Wei Ada, San Jule, Todd, Clement, Samuel D., Deeds, Paul D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,506 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Matching metadata for sporting events with television program listing data. A global sports format enables the import of sports metadata from various providers. The metadata is interlinked with the television program listing data via configurable match rules or criteria. An enhanced electronic programming guide is created to display, to a user, the interlinked metadata.

Claims

1. A computerized method of interlinking sporting event metadata and television program listing metadata, said computerized method comprising:

receiving sports schedule data from a sports data provider, said sports schedule data comprising metadata for a plurality of sporting events;

receiving television program listing data from an electronic programming guide provider, said television program listing data comprising television program listings corresponding to at least one of the plurality of sporting events;

receiving, from a rules provider, one or more configurable criteria defining characteristics of the sporting events;

interlinking the received sports schedule data with the received television program listing data based on the received configurable criteria; and

creating, for display to a user, an enhanced electronic programming guide as a function of the interlinked sports schedule data and the television program listing data.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein interlinking the received sports schedule data with the received television program listing data comprises:

querying the television program listing data for candidate program listings based on the criteria; and

matching the candidate program listings to the metadata in the sports schedule data.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the sports schedule data comprises one or more of the following for each of the plurality of sporting events:

a title, a description, a start time, an end time, and a duration, wherein the television program listing data includes an episode title and reduced description for each of the program listings, and wherein interlinking the received sports schedule data with the received television program listing data comprises;

comparing the title in the sports schedule data with the episode title in the television program listing data; and

comparing the description in the sports schedule data with the reduced description in the television program listing data.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the metadata for the plurality of sporting events is organized into one or more leagues, wherein each of the leagues comprises one or more games.

5. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving season data defining a season for each of the plurality of sporting events; and

validating the sports schedule metadata by comparing the sports schedule metadata with the received season data.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising receiving override data identifying a portion of the sports schedule data and a corresponding program listing in the television program listing data.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the sports data provider comprises a first sports data provider, and further comprising:

receiving additional sports schedule data from a second sports data provider; and

interlinking the additional sports schedule data with the sports schedule data received from the first sports data provider.

8. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the criteria to account for changes to one or more of the following:

the sports schedule data and the television program listing data.

9. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the computerized method of claim 1.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components for creating an enhanced electronic programming guide, said components comprising:

an interface component for receiving sports schedule data from a sports data provider, television program listing data from an electronic programming guide provider, and one or more configurable criteria defining characteristics of the sporting events from a rules provider, said sports schedule data comprising metadata for a plurality of sporting events;

a comparison component for querying the television program listing data for each of the plurality of sporting events based on the configurable criteria to identify one or more television programs corresponding to each of the sporting events;

an interlink component for matching the metadata for the plurality of sporting events with the television program listing data as a function of the querying by the comparison component; and

a publication component for creating, for display to a user, an enhanced electronic programming guide with the metadata for the plurality of sporting events matched to the television program listing data by the interlink component, wherein a computing device executes the interface component, the comparison component, the interlink component, and the publication component.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein a change to the configurable criteria accounts for a change to the sports schedule data or the television program listing data, and wherein the comparison component, the interlink component, and the publication component include compiled binary files responsive to the change to the configurable criteria without recompilation.

12. A system for interlinking sporting event metadata and television program listing metadata, said system comprising:

a memory area storing sports schedule data including metadata for a plurality of sporting events, an electronic programming guide including television program listing data, and configurable match rules; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

querying the television program listing data based on the configurable match rules for each of the plurality of sporting events;

identifying, from the queried television program listing data, one or more television program listings corresponding to each of the sporting events;

merging the metadata for the plurality of sporting events with the television program listing data for the identified television program listings; and

updating the electronic programming guide with the merged metadata.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure representing override data that explicitly links a sporting event with a television program listing, said data structure comprising:

a league identifier field storing a value representing a league identifier;

a game identifier field storing a value representing a game identifier; and

a program identifier field storing a value representing a television program listing.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure representing a global sports format for storing sports schedule data, said data structure comprising:

a league field for storing a league identifier; and

a game field storing a game identifier and start date value and a start time value associated therewith.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data structure further comprises a team sports field storing a home team identifier, a visiting team identifier, and an event name associated with the game identifier.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the game field further stores a geographic location identifier storing a value associated with the game identifier.

17. The system of claim 12, further comprising binary files embodying the computer-executable instructions, wherein the processor is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions for reconfiguring the match rules, and wherein the computer-executable instructions for querying, identifying, merging, and updating execute responsive to the reconfigured match rules without recompiling the binary files.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the match rules comprise geographic criteria.

19. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

computerized means for storing sports schedule data in a global sports format; and

computerized means for interlinking sporting event metadata and television program listing metadata.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the memory area further stores in-season data to validate the sports schedule data, said in-season data defining in-season time periods for each of the plurality of sporting events.