Patent ID: 8499316

Claim:
A method, performed by one or more devices, for identifying a particular program currently being broadcast on a particular media channel and viewed by a user of a portable communication device, the method comprising: receiving, by the one or more devices, a query over a wireless wide area network, from the user of the portable communication device viewing the particular program currently being broadcast on the particular media channel, where the query includes media data, recorded by the portable communication device, comprising a portion of the particular program; comparing, by the one or more devices, the media data of the query with data of a number of sets of reference media data related to at least one reception environment, where each set corresponds to a broadcast media channel; identifying, by the one or more devices, the particular media channel based on the comparison of the media data of the query and data of one of the sets of reference media data; in response to the query, identifying, by the one or more devices, the particular program based on a comparison between time data of the media data of the query used in the identification of the particular media channel and time data in an electronic program guide for the particular media channel; and sending, by the one or more devices, data identifying the particular media channel and the identified program to the portable communication device over the wireless wide area network.