Techniques to collect data indicative of viewer habits and preferences relating to television viewing and / or use of a
user interface (e.g., an interactive program guide) provided at the terminal. Various types of information may be collected to identify and track the habits and preferences of the viewers. For example, the viewers' interaction with the terminals, selections made by the viewers, requests for particular
programming, demographic information, and others, may be collected for the viewers. These various types of information (i.e., "trend" data) may be continually collected by an application executing at the terminal, temporarily stored in a storage unit, and thereafter reported (e.g., periodically, or upon request) to a head-end of an information
distribution system. The head-end may analyze the trend data, and may select and provide
programming, advertisements, and other contents targeted to the terminals based on the analyzed data.