Patent ID: 8510776

Claim:
An information providing system, comprising: an information receiving terminal that receives programming and includes: a network interface that connects to a communication network, a designation information transmitting portion to transmit designation information designating a program, and a related information receiving portion to receive related information appropriate for the designated program; and an information providing apparatus that provides the related information associated with the programming and includes: a network interface that connects to the communication network, a related information storage portion to store the related information including a plurality of different pieces of information associated with the designated program, wherein the plurality of different pieces of information include settable provision periods that designate time periods before, during, and after a scheduled time of the designated program, in which respective different pieces of information are associated with the designated program, a designation information receiving portion to receive the designation information from the information receiving terminal, a related information extracting portion to extract the related information appropriate for the designated program from the related information storage portion, and a related information transmitting portion to transmit the extracted related information to the information receiving terminal, wherein at least one of the information receiving terminal and the information providing apparatus includes an information selecting portion to select one of the pieces of information associated with the designated program and included in the related information that has the set provision periods each corresponding to a time point when the selection is made, and the related information extracting portion extracts the selected piece of information as the extracted related information when the information selecting portion is included in the information providing apparatus.