Patent ID: 8321891

Claim:
In a subscriber television system with a plurality of channels, a method of assigning a category to, or removing from the category, at least one channel of the plurality of channels, the method comprising: displaying at least a portion of the plurality of channels on a display screen, the displayed portion associated with the category and comprising the at least one channel; receiving a user input corresponding to a selection of the at least one channel from the displayed portion; responsive to the selection, removing the at least one channel from the displayed portion, the removal corresponding to a disassociation of the selected channel from the category and removal from the display screen; assigning the category to a second channel by: receiving a second user input corresponding to entry of the second channel to the displayed portion; changing a value of a bit corresponding to a particular bit location within a binary number, the particular bit location associated with the category and the binary number associated with the second channel; and updating a table associating the binary number to the second channel, the binary number associating the category to the second channel; and assigning an additional category to the second channel by: displaying at least a second portion of the plurality of channels, the displayed second portion associated with the additional category and excluding the second channel; receiving a third user input corresponding to entry of the second channel to the displayed second portion; adding the second channel to the displayed second portion, the adding comprising assigning the additional category to the second channel by changing a value of a bit at a particular bit location associated with the additional category in the binary number associated with the second channel to create a new binary number associated with the second channel; and updating the table with the new binary number associated with the second channel.