Electronic television program guide schedule system and method with remote product ordering

Abstract

An electronic program schedule system with product ordering capability which includes a data processor for receiving program schedule information for a plurality of programs, and a user control apparatus, such as a remote controller, for generating user control commands and transmitting signals to the data processor in response thereto. The television program schedule information is displayed on a display apparatus such as a television receiver. A video display generator receives video control commands from the data processor and program schedule information and displays a portion of the program schedule information on the receiver. The program schedule information indicates the availability of a product or service for certain of the programs included in the program information, wherein the product or service is associated with the program, such as a program transcript or videocassette. The viewer utilizes the remote control apparatus to generate a first command for displaying information on the receiver describing the product or service, and a second command for placing an order for the product or service. The data processor receives the user control commands and in response to the first command causes the video display generator to display information describing the product or service and in response to the second command generates an order for the product or service.

Description

[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 390,510, filed Mar. 14, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 428,588, filed Oct. 27, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,317, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 368,198, filed Aug. 4, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,268, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 428,809, filed Apr. 24, 1995, now abandoned, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to an electronic program schedule system, which provides a user with schedule information for broadcast or cablecast programs viewed by the user on a television receiver. More particularly, it relates to an electronic program guide that provides the user with the capability to order products and services remotely at the user location simply by depressing a button on a remote control device or other u...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035]It is a further object of the invention to provide an electronic television program guide with an interactive home shopping service for ordering products and services associated with the EPG or a particular program simply by depressing a button on a remote control device or other user-controlled selection means.

[0036]These and other objects of the invention are achieved by an electronic program schedule system which includes a receiver for receiving broadcast, satellite or cablecast television programs for a plurality of television channels and a tuner for tuning a television receiver to a selected one of the plurality of channels. A data processor receives and stores in a memory television program schedule information for a plurality of television programs to appear on the plurality of television channels. A user control apparatus, such as a remote controller, is utilized by a viewer to choose user control commands and transmit signals in response to the data processor which receives the signals in response to user control commands. A television receiver is used to display the television programs and television program schedule and other information. A video display generator receives video control

Problems solved by technology

Collectively, the prior electronic program systems may be difficult to implement and cumbersome to use.

They also fail to provide viewing capabilities that address in a more realistic manner the viewing habits of the users of these electronic program systems.

Moreover, many of these systems are complex in their design and are expensive to implement.

And, as the number of television channels available to a user increases dramatically with the advent of new satellite and cable-based technologies, the utility of these prior systems substantially diminishes.

These prior-art systems also fail to provide the user with sufficient information, for example pricing and the like, about pay-per-view events, premium services or other packaged programming to which the user does not subscribe, nor do they provide the user with the capability to automatically purchase such programming on demand or impulse.

Moreover, these prior-art systems are deficient in that they fail to provide an efficient and automatic method of updating or replacing the application software programs that implement the electronic guide at the user sites, relying instead on manual or other cumbersome forms of revision or replacement or hardware-based systems that can not be updated without physical replacement of integrated circuits and / or other parts.

Nor do these prior electronic guide systems have the capability of linking the user to other applications or information systems which are not part of the electronic program guide application or data.

Nor do these prior electronic guide systems provide video promotion of television programs and services that are functionally linked and visually displayed in an integrated fashion.

The prior electronic program guides also fail to provide the user with a simple and efficient method of controlling access to individual channels and individual programs.

Despite this availability, the feature is seldom used by parents.

The main impediments to its effective use are the cumbersome ways in which it is generally implemented, as well as the requirement that entire channels be blocked in order to block access to any objectionable programming.

A channel-oriented parental lock is unfair to other programmers on the blocked channel—who, for example, offer adult-oriented programming in the evening and youth-oriented programming the following morning—and inconvenient for viewers who want access to such programs.

The prior electronic program guides are also deficient in that they do not provide the user with the ability to view on demand current billing status and, thus, a need exists for a system which can provide the user with current billing information on the user's demand.

An additional problem with prior program guides is that when displaying schedule information in grid format, i.e., columns representing time slots and rows representing channels, program titles generally are width-wise truncated to fit into the cells of the grid.

Some systems simply cut off the description of a program without abbreviating it in any way, such that the user is unable to determine the subject matter of the program.

For example, a recent television program display included the following text in a grid cell: “Baseball: Yankees v.” Although some systems partially alleviate this problem by providing two lines of text in each grid cell, this solution is not ideal because program descriptions may still be truncated.

A similar problem arises as the time slots change, either automatically or in response to a user control command.

In the case where a 30 minute shift causes a 30 minute size grid cell to display, e.g., a two-hour movie, it is likely that the full title of the movie will not fit into the cell.

The prior electronic program guides also lack a method for creating a viewing itinerary electronically while still viewing a program currently appearing on the television receiver.

Moreover, these prior program guides leave much guess work for the user as he navigates through a sequence of channels.

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