Patent ID: 9167197
Filing Date: 2015-10-20
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for providing a multi-pane display of programs being viewed by a plurality of social contacts: storing a user identifier for a user; storing an association of the user identifier with user identifiers for each of the plurality of social contacts of the user; receiving, from the plurality of social contacts of the user at a hardware processor, program identifier data representing programs currently being viewed by the social contacts or previously viewed by the social contacts, wherein each of the program identifier data was automatically generated in response to one of the plurality of social contacts viewing one of the programs; providing, by the hardware processor, display data representing a plurality of the automatically generated program identifier data to the user, wherein the display data is configured to align each of the plurality of program identifier data with an identifier of the social contact viewing or who previously viewed the program associated with the program identifier in a multi-pane display; receiving, by the hardware processor, a user request to select a currently viewed program within the multi-pane display; determining whether the user has access to a program source providing the program identified by the program identifier; and enabling sound data for the selected program.