Patent ID: 7890972

Claim:
An apparatus for generating an electronic program guide including: program information concerning a plurality of programs, which program information is arranged on a two-dimensional coordinate system having a coordinate axis corresponding to a first program attribute and a coordinate axis corresponding to a second program attribute, the apparatus comprising: a specifying unit configured to specify a program which meet a predetermined condition from among the plurality of programs; a determination unit configured to determine a priority level for each program specified by the specifying unit on the basis of a predetermined condition; and an extension unit configured to extend a display area of the program specified by the specifying unit as a popup portion in descending order of higher priority levels determined by the determination unit, wherein, when extending the display area of a first specified program as a popup portion, the extension unit is configured to change a configuration of the display area of the first specified program so that the display area of the first specified program does not overlap a display area of a second specified program positioned close to the display area of the first specified program, and wherein, when extending the display area of the first specified program if the display area of the second specified program has not yet been extended, the extension unit restricts an extension of a portion of the display area of the first specified program so as to not overlap the display area of the second specified program before being extended, and if the display area of the second specified program has already been extended, the extension unit restricts an extension of a portion of the display area of the first specified program so as to not overlap the display area of the second specified program after being extended.