Patent ID: 7200611

Claim:
A method implemented, at least in part, by a computing device, the method comprising: maintaining a plurality of show identifiers (IDs) that each represent a television (TV) program that may, at some future time, be scheduled for broadcast; associating a primary request ID with a particular one of the show IDs to indicate a user's interest in the TV program represented by the particular show ID, wherein the TV program represented by the show ID is not currently scheduled for a current or future broadcast; receiving at a later time, programming guide data that identifies TV programs scheduled for broadcast during an upcoming time period, where the TV programs that are scheduled for broadcast comprise a subset of the TV programs represented by the show IDs; identifying the TV program associated with the primary request ID in the programming guide data, wherein the programming guide data indicates that the TV program associated with the primary request ID is scheduled to be broadcast from a broadcast start time through a broadcast end time on a broadcast channel; automatically generating a program event, thereby scheduling the TV program associated with the primary request ID to be recorded according to the programming guide data; automatically recording the TV program associated with the primary request ID at the broadcast start time based on the program event; and, responsive to playback of the TV program, updating a log file, which includes a history of TV programs watched, to indicate that the TV program has been watched.