Patent ID: 8001578

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a programming schedule, an event registration table, and an interest registration table from a master scheduler on a slave scheduler, the programming schedule including a first record including a first event identifier and a program identifier for a primary event, the primary event being scheduled to occur within a time period, the programming schedule further including a second record including a second event identifier and the program identifier for a supporting event, the second event identifier being different than the first event identifier, the event registration table including the primary event identifier and a possible time change action associated with a schedule time change to the primary event, the interest registration table including the primary event identifier, the possible time action associated with the schedule time change to the primary event, and a table manipulation routine call to effect the schedule time change to the programming schedule for the supporting event; receiving a request to modify the programming schedule by changing the time period of the primary event on the slave scheduler; modifying the time period of the primary event on the programming schedule of the slave scheduler based on the receiving of the request; determining on the slave scheduler whether the event registration table includes the event identifier associated with the primary event and whether the possible time action has occurred based on the modifying of the time period; based on a determination that the event registration includes the event identifier associated with the primary event, identifying on the slave scheduler the table manipulation routine call associated with the event identifier and the possible time action; and performing the table manipulation routine call on the slave scheduler to modify the programming schedule to create a modified programming schedule, the modified programming schedule reflecting that scheduling of the supporting event is altered to reflect the modifying of the time period of the primary event.