Interest profiles for audio and/or video streams

1. A method comprising:

determining a user interest profile indicating a portion-varying level of user interest toward a first streaming media item via a processor, the user interest profile based on a plurality of ratings input by a user for a plurality of respective portions of the first streaming media item;

determining a second streaming media item via the processor, wherein the second streaming media item is positively rated by a group of users whose aggregate user interest profile for the first streaming media item is similar to the user interest profile;

determining, via the processor, a portion of the second streaming media item for which the group of users have expressed disagreement in interest by:

determining a difference between two interest profiles for the portion of the second streaming media item; and

determining that the difference is beyond a threshold;

recommending the second streaming media item to the user via the processor; and

indicating the portion to the user via the processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of ratings are input by the user via a user input device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the user activates a positive rating button of the user input device one or more times to express a positive rating for a section of the first streaming media item.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the user activates a negative rating button of the user input device one or more times to express a negative rating for a section of the first streaming media item.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is input by the user during a playing of its respective portion of the first streaming media item to the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is a respective indication selected from the group consisting of one positive indication and one negative indication.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the first streaming media item and the second streaming media item comprises at least one of audio content and video content.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said recommending is by an internet protocol television service provider.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said recommending comprises advertising the second streaming media item to the user.

10. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processor to:

determine a user interest profile indicating a portion-varying level of user interest toward a first streaming media item, the user interest profile based on a plurality of ratings input by a user for a plurality of respective portions of the first streaming media item;

implement a recommender system to recommend a second streaming media item to the user based on a first determination that the second streaming media item is positively rated by a group of users whose aggregate user interest profile for the first streaming media item is similar to the user interest profile; and

determine a portion of the second streaming media item for which the group of users have expressed disagreement in interest based on a second determination of a difference between two interest profiles for the portion of the second streaming media item and a third determination that the difference is beyond a threshold, and to indicate the portion to the user.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein an initial rating of the first streaming media item is a nominal value, and wherein the initial rating of the first streaming media item changes in response to user activation of one of a positive rating button and a negative rating button of a user input device.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein multiple activations of the positive rating button during playback of a section of the first streaming media item indicates a higher rating for the section than does a single activation of the positive rating button during the playback of the section.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein multiple activations of the negative rating button during playback of a section of the first streaming media item indicates a lower rating for the section than does a single activation of the negative rating button during the playback of the section.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is input by the user during a playing of its respective portion of the first streaming media item to the user.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is a respective indication selected from the group consisting of one positive indication and one negative indication.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the first streaming media item and the second streaming media item comprises at least one of audio content and video content.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the recommender system recommends the second streaming media item to the user via an internet protocol television service.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein the recommender system recommends the second streaming media item in an advertisement of the second streaming media item to the user.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium which encodes a computer program, the computer program to cause a computer system to:

determine a user interest profile indicating a portion-varying level of user interest toward a first streaming media item, the user interest profile based on a plurality of ratings input by a user for a plurality of respective portions of the first streaming media item;

determine a second streaming media item, wherein the second streaming media item is positively rated by a group of users whose aggregate user interest profile of the first streaming media item is similar to the user interest profile;

determine a portion of the second streaming media item for which the group of users have expressed disagreement in interest by:

determining a difference between two interest profiles for the portion of the second streaming media item; and

determining that the difference is beyond a threshold;

recommend the second streaming media item to the user; and indicate the portion to the user.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein an initial rating of the first streaming media item is a nominal value, and wherein the initial rating of the first streaming media item changes in response to user activation of one of a positive rating button and a negative rating button of a user input device.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the rating of the first streaming media item changes toward the nominal value after user input during a section of the first streaming media item when no additional user input is received.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein a return toward the nominal value is according to one of linear decay or exponential decay.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is inputted by the user during a playing of its respective portion of the first streaming media item to the user.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein each of the plurality of ratings is a respective indication selected from the group consisting of one positive indication and one negative indication.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein each of the first streaming media item and the second streaming media item comprises at least one of audio content and video content.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein said recommending is by an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service provider.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein said recommending comprises advertising the second streaming media item to the user.