Method and apparatus for providing enhanced electronic program guide with personalized selection of broadcast content using affinities data and user preferences
First Claim
1. A method of generating an enhanced electronic program guide (EPG) for broadcast programming, the broadcast programming being transmitted to a plurality of receivers and comprising various programs playing concurrently on a plurality of channels for selection and playback by the receivers, the EPG being available to all of the plurality of receivers and comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming, the method comprising:
- receiving the broadcast programming;
receiving and storing electronic program guide (EPG) data comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming during at least a selected time frame;
receiving and storing affinities data comprising at least one of cross-affinities among the plurality of channels, and cross-affinities among a group of topics that can be presented by the broadcast programming, whereby the programs in the broadcast programming are each assigned at least one topic selected from the group of topics;
generating user behavior data at the receiver comprising a history of the amount of time a user has listened to respective ones of the plurality of channels in the received broadcast programming over a designated time period;
determining a subset of the plurality of channels to recommend to the user based on the user behavior data and the received affinities data; and
generating an enhanced EPG output to the user that indicates the subset;
wherein;
when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the plurality of channels, each channel comprises a designated content genre and the affinities data comprises, for each given channel, an affinities strength value assigned to at least each of the other channels having a different content genre, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values indicating how much a typical user, who likes the content genre of a given channel, will like the different content genre of each of the other channels,when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the group of topics presented by the broadcast programming, the affinities data comprises, for each given topic, an affinities strength value assigned to each of the other topics which are different from the given topic, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values that indicate how much a typical user, who likes the given topic, will like the other different topics,andwherein the subset of channels recommended to the user comprises channels having at least one of (i) a different content genre and (ii) a different topic than channels represented in the user behavior data.
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Abstract
Apparatuses and methods are provided to inform a user of a broadcast stream, which has multiple, concurrently received channels of program content, about recommendations of a subset of the content currently playing across the available channels or to be played within a selected future time period. The subset of content is selected based on user preferences and system data (e.g., program topic and channel affinities among the broadcast content and channels) to recommend a more diverse subset of content than would be discovered if only user preferences were employed to make the selection of recommended content.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of generating an enhanced electronic program guide (EPG) for broadcast programming, the broadcast programming being transmitted to a plurality of receivers and comprising various programs playing concurrently on a plurality of channels for selection and playback by the receivers, the EPG being available to all of the plurality of receivers and comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming, the method comprising:
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receiving the broadcast programming; receiving and storing electronic program guide (EPG) data comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming during at least a selected time frame; receiving and storing affinities data comprising at least one of cross-affinities among the plurality of channels, and cross-affinities among a group of topics that can be presented by the broadcast programming, whereby the programs in the broadcast programming are each assigned at least one topic selected from the group of topics; generating user behavior data at the receiver comprising a history of the amount of time a user has listened to respective ones of the plurality of channels in the received broadcast programming over a designated time period; determining a subset of the plurality of channels to recommend to the user based on the user behavior data and the received affinities data; and generating an enhanced EPG output to the user that indicates the subset; wherein; when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the plurality of channels, each channel comprises a designated content genre and the affinities data comprises, for each given channel, an affinities strength value assigned to at least each of the other channels having a different content genre, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values indicating how much a typical user, who likes the content genre of a given channel, will like the different content genre of each of the other channels, when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the group of topics presented by the broadcast programming, the affinities data comprises, for each given topic, an affinities strength value assigned to each of the other topics which are different from the given topic, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values that indicate how much a typical user, who likes the given topic, will like the other different topics, and wherein the subset of channels recommended to the user comprises channels having at least one of (i) a different content genre and (ii) a different topic than channels represented in the user behavior data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A user device configured to generate an enhanced electronic program guide (EPG) to broadcast programming, the broadcast programming being transmitted to a plurality of receivers and comprising various programs playing concurrently on a plurality of channels for selection and playback by the receivers, an EPG being available to all of the plurality of receivers and comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming, and affinities data being available to all of the plurality of receivers and comprising at least one of cross-affinities among the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming, and cross-affinities among a group of topics that can be presented by the broadcast programming whereby the programs in the broadcast programming are each assigned at least one topic selected from the group of topics, the user receiver device comprising:
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at least one receiver for receiving the broadcast programming, EPG data comprising a listing of programs transmitted on respective ones of the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming during at least a selected time frame, and the affinities data; a memory device for storing at least the EPG data and the affinities data; and a processing device configured to generate user behavior data comprising a history of the amount of time a user has listened to respective ones of the plurality of channels in the received broadcast programming over a designated period of time, to determine a subset of the plurality of channels in the EPG to recommend to the user based on the user behavior data and the received affinities data, and to generate an enhanced EPG output to the user that indicates the, wherein; when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the plurality of channels in the broadcast programming, each channel comprises a designated content genre and the affinities data comprises, for each given channel, an affinities strength value assigned to at least each of the other channels having a different content genre, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values that indicate how much a typical user, who likes the content genre of a given channel, will like the different content genre of each of the other channels; when the affinities data comprises cross-affinities among the group of topics presented by the broadcast programming, the affinities data comprises, for each given topic, an affinities strength value assigned to each of the other topics which are different from the given topic, the affinities strength value being selected from a range of values that indicate how much a typical user, who likes the given topic, will like the other different topics; and wherein the processing device is configured to determine a subset of channels recommended to the user that comprises channels having at least one of different content genre and different topic from channels represented in the user behavior data. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification