Patent ID: 8745664

Claim:
A method for displaying an electronic program guide, comprising the steps of: (a) displaying available television channels in a first window of the electronic program guide; (b) displaying television series that air on the available television channels in a second window of the electronic program guide, displaying the television series in the second window of the electronic program guide including the steps of: (i) for each episode identified in a program guide database, determining if the episode is associated with a periodically returning television series, the periodically returning television series including a plurality of different episodes with each episode corresponding to a different program content; (ii) in response to determining that the episode is associated with the periodically retuning television series, displaying only the television series name of the periodically retuning television series in the second window of the electronic program guide; (iii) in response to determining that the episode is not associated with the periodically returning television series, displaying the episode name of the episode that is not associated with the periodically returning television series in the second window of the electronic program guide; (c) displaying episodes that air on the available television channels in a third window of the electronic program guide, displaying the episodes in the third window of the electronic program guide including the steps of: (i) in response to a selection of one of the television series displayed in the second window of the electronic program guide, displaying all episodes of the selected television series in the third window of the guide; and (d) displaying episode information in a fourth window of the guide, the episode information displayed in the fourth window of the guide is in response to a selection of one of the episodes displayed in the third window of the guide; said first window, said second window, said third window, and said fourth window of said electronic program guide are displayed simultaneously.