News America Publications, Inc.

Telecommunications of Colorado, Inc.

United Video Properties, Inc.

Dennis Tenney

Michael D Ellis

William L Thomas

Paul Darata

David W Gustafson

Constance J Borges

Rose A Reynolds

Barry L Smith

Michael Dean Ellis

A system and method for localizing an aggregated electronic program guide (EPG) schedule covering a plurality of service environments includes an information filter located at the subscriber's set-top box conditioned to recognize which schedule information is relevant to the viewer's service environment. Only schedule information corresponding to the viewer's own service environment is stored in the EPG's schedule database. The result is an electronic program schedule that is tailored to the viewer's specific service environment without the use of costly equipment on the transmission side of the program schedule feed.

Electronic program guide schedule localization system and method

A data management and distribution system for an electronic program guide ('EPG') for television programs comprising an automated data collection subsystem, a manual entry and correction subsystem, a database validation subsystem, an edition generation subsystem, a configuration subsystem, and a status and control subsystem. The system may further comprise a feed generation subsystem if one or more of the EPG providers supported by the EPG distributor requires a live feed of data. The automated data collection subsystem collects EPG data from multiple sources in various formats, filters the data based on the needs of the EPG providers supported, and places the data in a centralized database in a form suitable to support the different environmental contexts of the EPG providers. The manual entry and correction subsystem permits the EPG distributor to make manual corrections, additions, and deletions to the data stored in the database. The database validation subsystem verifies the data stored in the database in accordance with designated verification options. The edition generation subsystem generates the different editions of the EPG for the different EPG providers supported by the EPG distributor. The configuration subsystem receives information from the various EPG providers and furnishes this information to the other subsystems which utilize the information in performing their respective tasks. The status and control subsystem monitors the operation of the data management and distribution system as a whole. The various feeds and editions are then transmitted to the EPG providers by, e.g., satellite, wire, cable, etc. The EPG providers receive the feeds and editions and use them provide one or both of a dedicated channel EPG and interactive EPG to subscribers.

Data management and distribution system and method for an electronic

Growing community of inventors

Louisville, CO, United States of America

Dennis Tenney