Patent ID: 8365221

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a plurality of program records based on an associated plurality of channels in a subscriber television system, the plurality of program records associated with programming for each of the plurality of channels, the plurality of program records organized by channel; receiving user input that prompts a display of a content category associated with a portion of the programming, the content category comprising one of a plurality of available content categories; responsive to the user input, searching by a processor a table that associates each of the plurality of channels with at least one channel category, the plurality of channels comprising a first channel associated with a plurality of channel categories, the plurality of channel categories corresponding to the content categories, wherein the table comprises a listing of the plurality of channels and a respective fixed size field for each of the plurality of channels, and wherein each location in the fixed size field representing a distinctive category; selecting a first subset of the plurality of channels responsive to the search, the first subset associated with the content category, wherein the plurality of channels comprises a second subset that is not associated with the content category; searching based on channel the plurality of program records corresponding to the first subset, each of the searched program records comprising program information that includes the content category, the searching exclusive to the first subset; and retrieving the program information responsive to the searching based on channel.