Patent ID: 8291459

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a video program computing device, a phone call or text message containing a video programming command; determining whether the command originates from a valid account holder associated with the video program computing device; if it is determined that the command originated from a valid account holder, performing a video programming operation associated with the account in response to the phone call or text message, comprising; determining whether the command is an alert request; in response to determining that the command is an alert request, executing the alert request, wherein executing the alert request further includes: determining one or more recipients for the alert request, and scheduling delivery of the alert to each of said one or more recipients; sending a message indicating whether the execution of the alert request was successful; and sending different alerts to different recipients based on whether the recipients have a valid account associated with the video program computing device, wherein: recipients having a valid account are sent an alert that includes an identification of a scheduled video program and an interactive response option to automatically add the scheduled program to a recording schedule of the respective recipient; and recipients not having a valid account are sent an alert that includes an identification of the scheduled video program, but does not include the interactive response option to automatically add the scheduled program to a recording schedule of the respective recipient.