Patent ID: 8220023

Claim:
A method for personalizing an electronic program guide (EPG), the method comprising: establishing a first matrix populated by ratings associated with a first plurality of v viewers in a content distribution system and a second plurality of p products each of which is a content item, the first matrix having dimensions v and p, each entry in the first matrix comprising either an empty entry or a rating indicating viewer interest in a content item; bi-clustering the first matrix, thereby producing a second matrix, the second matrix comprising a matrix of ratings comprising a grouping of the viewers according to similarity of products chosen by the viewers and a grouping of the products according to similarity of viewers who viewed the products; scoring metadata components associated with the products according to the matrix of ratings and producing a resulting score for each metadata component; establishing, based at least in part on the score for each metadata component, a third matrix, the third matrix comprising a matrix of groups of viewers according to metadata scores; establishing an auxiliary matrix of viewers according to viewer profile parameters, each entry in the auxiliary matrix indicating a viewer profile of an associated viewer and comprising a particular viewer profile parameter; grouping together matrix entries of viewers with similar viewer profile parameters in the auxiliary matrix, thereby producing a fourth matrix, the fourth matrix comprising a matrix of groups of viewers according to viewer profile parameters; for each of the products: producing a product grid for each viewer group by sorting program groups for each viewer group, according to entries in the second matrix; and identifying, for each group of viewers, a plurality of metadata parameters most likely to be associated with each viewer among the groups of viewers; affiliating each individual viewer among the plurality of viewers with a viewer group; obtaining a personal EPG view for at least one individual viewer, based, at least in part, on the affiliation of the individual viewer with a viewer group and the metadata parameters of the products; and displaying the personal EPG view for the at least one individual viewer, wherein the metadata parameters of the products comprise the identified most informative metadata parameters for a group of viewers to which the at least one viewer belongs.