Patent ID: 7620964

Claim:
A recommended program search device comprising: a broadcast receiver unit which receives a broadcast wave and converts the broadcast wave to a video signal and an audio signal; an operating block which is operated for channel change by a user; a time information acquiring block which acquires time information upon the channel change; a storage which stores information; a viewing history information acquiring block which acquires a viewing channel and a viewing time by the user for each area corresponding to a time division, the viewing history information acquiring block storing viewing history information including the viewing channel and the viewing time that are associated with each area in the storage; a program information acquiring block which acquires scheduled broadcast program information, including program time information enabling calculation of a program start time and a program broadcast time for a scheduled broadcast program and channel information about the scheduled broadcast program; and a search block which determines a user's favorite program from the scheduled broadcast program on the basis of a result of comparison between the program time information and the channel information included in the scheduled broadcast program information and the viewing channel and the viewing time stored in the storage, wherein the search block determines, as a user's favorite program, one of scheduled broadcast program broadcast on the same channel as the viewing channel included in the viewing history information, which starts broadcasting at the area start time, and the search block determines a program having a longer broadcast time in the area as a user's favorite program, when failing to detect a program which starts broadcasting at the area start time and detecting a program being broadcast an area start time and a program being broadcast at an area end time.