Patent ID: 7496945

Claim:
A method for accessing a plurality of bi-directional services that are transmitted over a cable television network, comprising: presenting a program guide to at least one subscriber, the program guide comprising at least one bi-directional service including availability information for each of the at least one bi-directional service, wherein the availability information includes one of available or unavailable; receiving a request for a bi-directional service displayed in the program guide; determining a current bandwidth consumption, availability of the requested bi-directional service, and a schedule including bi-directional service rights for each subscriber; dependent upon the determining step, rendering the bi-directional service, comprising the steps of: maintaining real-time communications between a supplier of the requested bi-directional service and a requesting subscriber; and monitoring the real-time communications by a bi-directional services server; updating a bi-directional services database to reflect that the rendered bi-directional service is one of available or unavailable; and populating and presenting an updated program guide with the at least one bi-directional service and updated availability information, wherein the at least one bi-directional service is maintained in and periodically updated in the program guide by the bi-directional services database.