Patent ID: 9674476
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: H04N

Claim:
1. A method for providing personalized multimedia content to a user by a television receiver, the television receiver comprising a processor that monitors the access of a plurality of channels by a user of the television system, the method comprising: maintaining a database in a computer-readable storage medium accessible to the television receiver, the database maintaining an entry for each of the plurality of accessed channels, wherein a first portion of the plurality of accessed channels are those that the user has selected to watch live and a second portion of the plurality of accessed channels are those for which the user has recorded to a digital video recorder (DVR) associated with the television receiver, the entry containing at least one parameter of each of the plurality of accessed channels, wherein the at least one parameter is a subject matter of a multimedia program that aired on such accessed channel during the user's access of such accessed channel or that was recorded to the DVR; analyzing the database to determine a first user preference and a second user preference, wherein each of the first and second user preferences specifies each of a time of day, a day of the week, and a preferred subject matter, wherein the analyzing is based at least in part on the maintained entries for each of the plurality of accessed channels, and wherein analyzing further comprises retrieving, from the database, each maintained entry that exceeds a pre-determined threshold value, wherein the threshold value is based on a number of times that a channel was accessed and on a cumulative duration of time that the channel was viewed, and analyzing the retrieved entries to determine the first and second user preferences, wherein the first and second user preferences differ from one another on the basis of each of the time of day, the day of the week, and the preferred subject matter; and at a first time of day and a first day of the week, providing a first option to the user to access a first further multimedia program, and additionally, at a second time of day and a second day of the week that is different from the first time and day of the week, providing a second option to the user, different from the first option, to access a second further multimedia program, wherein the steps of providing the first and second options are based, at least in part, on a correlation between the preferred subject matter of the determined first and second user preferences and the subject matter of the first and second further multimedia programs, respectively, and also on a correlation of an air date and time of the first and second further multimedia programs with the date and time of day of the determined first and second user preferences, respectively, and wherein the steps of providing the first and second options each further comprise: scanning a listing of at least one available further multimedia program, comparing the at least one available further multimedia program with the determined user preference, and inserting the at least one available further multimedia program into an on-screen guide of an interface of the television system, wherein the on-screen guide is characterized as an electronic programming guide comprising a channel column with channels listed in sequential numerical order beginning with a currently-viewed channel, wherein the step of inserting the at least one available further multimedia program comprises inserting a guide listing for the channel on which the at least one available further multimedia program is presented at a column position of the on-screen guide that is out-of-sequence with the sequential numerical order, and wherein the step or inserting the at least one available further multimedia program comprises inserting the guide listing at a time prior to the air time of the further multimedia program, such that the correlation of air date and time and the insertion of the guide listing time are asynchronous, the listing time occurring before the correlation time.