Patent ID: 7665117

Claim:
A method comprising: assigning on a master scheduler a first event identifier and a program identifier to a primary event, the primary event being scheduled to occur within a time period, the primary event including multimedia data; assigning on the master scheduler a second event identifier and the program identifier to a supporting event, the second event identifier being different than the first event identifier, the supporting event being scheduled to occur during at least a portion of the time period; creating on the master scheduler a programming schedule, the programming schedule including a first record including the first event identifier and the program identifier for the primary event and a second record including the second event identifier and the program identifier for the supporting event; storing the primary event identifier and a possible time change action associated with a schedule time change to the primary event in an event registration table on the master scheduler; storing the primary event identifier in an interest registration table on the master scheduler, the possible time action associated with the schedule time change to the primary event, and a table manipulation routine call to effect the schedule time change to the programming schedule for the supporting event; transmitting the programming schedule, the event registration table, and the interest registration table to a slave scheduler; receiving a request to modify the program schedule by changing the time period of the primary event on the slave scheduler; modifying the time period of the primary event on the program schedule of the slave scheduler; determining on the slave scheduler whether the event registration table includes the event identifier associated with the primary event and whether the possible time action has occurred based on the modifying of the time period; based on a determination that the event registration includes the event identifier associated with the primary event, identifying on the slave scheduler the table manipulation routine call associated with the event identifier and the possible time action; and performing the table manipulation routine call on the slave scheduler to modify the programming schedule to create a modified programming schedule, the modified programming schedule reflecting that scheduling of the supporting event is altered to reflect the modifying of the time period of the primary event.