Patent ID: 8219052

Claim:
An information providing system, comprising: an in-vehicle apparatus provided in a vehicle, the in-vehicle apparatus that receives a broadcasting; and an information providing apparatus that transmits area information related to a broadcast channel that is receivable in a traveling area of the vehicle to the in-vehicle apparatus, wherein the information providing apparatus includes: a storage unit storing the area information for each traveling area; a receiving unit that receives probe information including a predetermined reference position or a position of the vehicle from the in-vehicle apparatus; a deciding unit that decides a reference area set including a plurality of traveling areas which are within a predetermined distance from the reference position included in the probe information received by the receiving unit for each vehicle; an accumulating unit that accumulates the probe information received by the receiving unit; a determining unit that determines a traveling record of the vehicle in each traveling area on the basis of the probe information accumulated in the accumulating unit; an update unit that updates the reference area set on the basis of the traveling record of the vehicle, determined by the determining unit; and a transmitting unit that transmits the area information corresponding to the reference area set before the update to the in-vehicle apparatus corresponding to the reference area set when the update unit has not yet performed the update, and transmits the area information corresponding to the reference area set after the update to the in-vehicle apparatus corresponding to the reference area set when the update unit has performed the update.