Patent ID: 7430399

Claim:
A broadcast receiver connected to a variable directional antenna qualified as an antenna capable of modifying a reception direction of a broadcast wave, said broadcast receiver comprising: a tuner selecting a frequency of a broadcast wave received by said variable directional antenna, a control unit controlling the frequency to be selected with respect to said tuner, a determination unit determining whether a broadcast wave at the frequency selected by said tuner is valid for reception, and a storage unit storing information related to a timing of channel search utilizing said variable directional antenna, and frequencies of broadcast waves corresponding to a plurality of channels, wherein said control unit causes, when determination is made of arriving at the timing stored in said storage unit, said determination unit to determine whether a broadcast wave is valid for reception for all reception directions by said variable directional antenna with respect to each of all the frequencies stored in said storage unit, on a condition that said tuner is not currently in operation, as the channel search utilizing said variable directional antenna.