IP Library › Granted Patent US 12666103

Granted Patent B2

US 12666103 · App. 18/394,583 · Granted Jun 23, 2026

Systems and methods for creating a virtual channel for binge watching

Inventors: William L. Thomas (Evergreen, CO); Margret B. Schmidt (Redwood City, CA); Alexander W. Liston (Menlo Park, CA); Jonathan A. Logan (Mountain View, CA); Gabriel C. Dalbec (Morgan Hill, CA); Mathew C. Burns (Dublin, CA); Ajay Kumar Gupta (Andover, MA)

Assignee: Adeia Guides Inc.

H04N21/2668 H04N21/44222 H04N21/44226 H04N21/458 H04N21/4667 H04N21/4668 H04N21/4622 H04N21/4821

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12666103
App. No.: 18/394,583
Granted: Jun 23, 2026
Kind: B2

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Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein such that, a media guidance application presents, in an interactive program guide, a virtual content source for binge watching a program series. The media guidance application may determine a program series a user is currently watching. The media guidance application may receive a user selection of a media asset. The media guidance application may determine a length of time between a current time and a start time of the media asset. The media guidance application may determine the next episodes of the program series the user can watch before the start time of the media asset and present them using a virtual content source.

Claims (53)

1 . A method comprising:

retrieving a viewing history associated with a user profile;

identifying, based on the viewing history, a certain type of live event that has been made available by a live content source a plurality of times over a time period and that has been consumed at a threshold frequency over the time period by a user of the user profile;

based at least in part on the identifying, determining, that a future instance of the certain type of live event is likely to be consumed at a future time;

determining a predicted number of episodes of a program series from a streaming content source likely to be consumed during a current binge-watching session associated with the user profile, wherein the future instance of the certain type of the live event is scheduled to start at the future time and is not an episode of the program series;

determining that the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session corresponds to an amount of time that exceeds a period of time between a current time and the future time that the future instance of the certain type of the live event is likely to be consumed;

selecting, based on the period of time between the current time and the future time, a subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time; and

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session associated with the user profile is based on a previous binge-watching session associated with the user profile.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the predicted number of episodes of the program series further comprises:

receiving a request to access an episode of the program series;

retrieving, from a database, a data structure, wherein the data structure comprises a first indicator corresponding to the program series indicating a number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session; and

determining that the number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session is more than one.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session is more than one, retrieving, from the data structure, a second indicator corresponding to the program series, wherein the second indicator indicates a first number of binge-watching sessions during which at least one episode of the program series has been consumed.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session associated with the user profile is further based on at least one of a time of day or a day of the week associated with the previous binge-watching session associated with the user profile.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time further comprises retrieving the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series from a plurality of content sources.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time further comprises:

determining one or more episodes of the program series have not been consumed in association with the user profile; and

selecting, as the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time, the one or more episodes that have not been consumed.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the further instance of the certain type of live event is a live news program.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying is performed prior to a start of the current binge-watching session.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time is further based at least in part on a genre associated with the program series, wherein the genre is determined based at least in part on the viewing history indicating a pattern of the genre typically consumed before the future time.

11 . A system comprising:

computer memory;

control circuitry configured to:

retrieve, from the computer memory, a viewing history associated with a user profile;

identify, based on the viewing history, a certain type of live event that has been made available by a live content source a plurality of times over a time period and that has been consumed at a threshold frequency over the time period a user of the user profile;

based at least in part on the identifying, determine, that a future instance of the certain type of live event is likely to be consumed at a future time;

determine a predicted number of episodes of a program series from a streaming content source likely to be consumed during a current binge-watching session associated with the user profile, wherein the future instance of the certain type of the live event is scheduled to start at the future time and is not an episode of the program series;

determine that the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session corresponds to an amount of time that exceeds a period of time between a current time and the future time that the future instance of the certain type of the live event is likely to be consumed;

select, based on the period of time between the current time and the future time, a subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time; and

generate for display an indication that a virtual content source comprises identifiers for the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time and an identifier for the future instance of the certain type of the live event.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session associated with the user profile is based on a previous binge-watching session.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine the predicted number of episodes program series is further configured to:

receive, a request to access an episode of the program series;

retrieve, from a database, a data structure, wherein the data structure comprises a first indicator corresponding to the program series indicating a number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session; and

determine, that the number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session is more than one.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

in response to determining that the number of episodes of the program series that has been consumed during the previous binge-watching session is more than one, retrieve, from the data structure, a second indicator corresponding to the program series, wherein the second indicator indicates a first number of binge-watching sessions during which at least one episode of the program series has been consumed.

15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine the predicted number of episodes of the program series likely to be consumed during the current binge-watching session associated with the user profile is further based on at least one of a time of day or a day of the week associated with the previous binge-watching session associated with the user profile.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to select the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time is further configured to retrieve the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series from a plurality of content sources.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to select the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time is further configured to:

determine one or more episodes of the program series that have not been consumed in association with the user profile; and

select, as the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time, the one or more episodes that have not been consumed.

18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to generate for display the indication that the virtual content source comprises the identifiers for the subset of the predicted number of episodes and the identifier for the future instance of the certain type of the live event is further configured to generate for display the identifiers for the subset of the predicted number of episodes and the identifier for the media asset in a chronological order indicating that the subset of the predicted number of episodes are played prior to the identifier for the media asset.

19 . A method comprising:

retrieving a viewing history associated with a user profile;

determining, based on the viewing history, a media asset from a live content source that is likely to be consumed at a future time;

determining a predicted number of episodes of a program series from a streaming content source likely to be consumed during a current binge-watching session associated with the user profile, wherein the media asset is a live event scheduled to start at the future time and is not an episode of the program series;

generating for display an indication that a virtual content source comprises identifiers for the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time and an identifier for the media asset, wherein a user interface at which the virtual content source is presented includes an identifier of the virtual content source, the identifier of the virtual content source corresponding to a title of the program series, despite the virtual content source comprising both the identifier for the live content in addition to the identifiers for the subset of the predicted number of episodes of the program series that can be consumed before the future time.