Patent ID: 7380258

Claim:
A system for controlling and managing presentation to viewers of programming content, the system comprising: a processor communicating with memory and with a user interface, the processor adapted to receive the programming content comprising a program and program control data, the program control data having a data format in which a default setting is subsequently followed by a series of data records, with one or more of the data records associated with a particular portion of the program, the one or more of the data records having a linear representation comprising an offset time stamp, a rating value, a content attribute value, a component value, and an action; the user interface adapted to receive information related to program presentation preferences of a viewer, the program presentation preferences including options to block or modify content, the options comprising: if the default setting equals or exceeds the program presentation preferences, then the rating value and the content attribute value have no effect and the program is blocked from presentation; if the rating value and the content attribute value exceed the program presentation preferences, then the default setting is not used and the program is blocked from presentation; and if the rating value and the content attribute value are missing, then if the default setting equals or exceeds the program presentation preferences, then modification of the program is not allowed and any instructions to modify the program are interpreted as an instruction to block the program from presentation.