Patent ID: 8055660
Filing Date: 2011-11-08
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of grouping program meta-data which relates to all programs offered for viewing in an electronic program guide, the method comprising: scanning the program meta-data to determine program instances which share at least one item of editorial meta-data in the program meta-data; grouping the program meta-data into groups so that each group refers to a set of program instances that share at least one item of editorial meta-data; assigning each group of grouped program meta-data a unique program identifier, thereby producing a set of program identifiers; grouping sets of program instances by time windows to produce a set of time window identifiers in which each time window identifier is associated with at least one of the time windows; placing the program meta-data in virtual containers; and associating each virtual container with at least one program identifier from the set of program identifiers and at least one time window identifier from the set of time window identifiers.