Method and system for displaying advertisements in an electronic program guide
View Patent ↗A system and method for displaying an electronic program schedule guide is provided. The system has areas for displaying program schedule information. In addition, the system also has areas that may be used for advertising programs, products or services. In another embodiment, the system has areas for displaying messages to the user.
1. A method for causing an advertisement to be simultaneously displayed with program information, comprising:
generating for display a plurality of rows in a scrollable program information region for displaying the program information;
selecting the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements using a processor, wherein at least one website is associated with the advertisement, and wherein the at least one website associated with the advertisement is selected independently from the display of the program information;
causing the selected advertisement to be displayed in a non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is displayed simultaneously with the scrollable program information region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is not within the scrollable program information region, and wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region has the same horizontal width as the scrollable program information region;
receiving user input to navigate a cursor from the scrollable program information region to the non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein navigating the cursor to the advertisement region comprises causing the non-scrollable advertisement region to be highlighted;
in response to a user selection of the highlighted non-scrollable advertisement region, generating for display at least one link to the at least one website associated with the advertisement; and
in response to a user selection of the at least one link, accessing the at least one website associated with the advertisement.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed advertisement has the same vertical height as at least one of the plurality of rows.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes one or more of graphics and video.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or network address.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the displayed advertisement has the same horizontal width as at least one of the plurality of rows.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one website comprises at least two websites, the at least two websites associated with the same program.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein accessing the at least one website comprises launching a web browser application and causing the at least one website to be displayed using the web browser application.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is associated with a program and the at least one website is associated with a source from which the program is available.
9. A system for causing an advertisement to be simultaneously displayed with program information, comprising:
memory to store the program information; and
control circuitry configured to:
generate for display a plurality of rows in a scrollable program information region for displaying the program information;
select the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements, wherein at least one website is associated with the advertisement, and wherein the at least one website associated with the advertisement is selected independently from the display of the program information;
cause the selected advertisement to be displayed in a non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is displayed simultaneously with the scrollable program information region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is not within the scrollable program information region, and wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region has the same horizontal width as the scrollable program information region;
receive user input to navigate a cursor from the scrollable program information region to the non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein navigating the cursor to the advertisement region comprises causing the non-scrollable advertisement region to be highlighted;
in response to a user selection of the highlighted non-scrollable advertisement region, generate for display at least one link to the at least one website associated with the advertisement; and
in response to a user selection of the at least one link, access the at least one website associated with the advertisement.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the displayed advertisement has the same vertical height as at least one of the plurality of rows.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes one or more of graphics and video.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or network address.
13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the displayed advertisement has the same horizontal width as at least one of the plurality of rows.
14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one website comprises at least two websites, the at least two websites associated with the same program.
15. The system of claim 9 wherein the control circuitry is configured to launch a web browser application and to cause the at least one website to be accessed by the web browser application.
16. The system of claim 9 wherein the advertisement is associated with a program and the at least one website is associated with a source from which the program is available.
17. A method for causing an advertisement to be simultaneously displayed with program information, comprising:
generating for display a scrollable program information region comprising the program information;
selecting the advertisement and a website associated with the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements using a processor, wherein the website associated with the advertisement is selected without reference to what programs are identified in the program information;
causing the selected advertisement to be displayed in a non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is displayed simultaneously with the scrollable program information region, and wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is not within the scrollable program information region; and
in response to a user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region, accessing a website associated with the advertisement.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein generating for display the scrollable information region comprises generating for display a plurality of rows comprising the program information.
19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising receiving user input to navigate a cursor from the scrollable program information region to the non-scrollable advertisement region.
20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes one or more of graphics and video.
21. The method of claim 17 , wherein accessing the website comprises launching a web browser application and causing the website to be accessed by the web browser application.
22. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
associating the non-scrollable advertisement region with the website, wherein the website is related to the advertisement;
in response to receiving a user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region before a predetermined length of time, accessing the website related to the advertisement;
selecting a second advertisement from the plurality of advertisements, wherein a second website is related to the second advertisement;
after the predetermined length of time, automatically changing the non-scrollable advertisement region from being associated with the website related to the advertisement to being associated with the second website related to the second advertisement irrespective of changes to the displayed program information;
in response to receiving a user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region after the predetermined length of time, accessing the second website related to the second advertisement.
23. A system for causing an advertisement to be simultaneously displayed with program information, the system comprising:
memory configured to store the program information;
input circuitry configured to receive a user selection of a non-scrollable advertisement region;
communications circuitry configured to receive information over a communications link; and
control circuitry configured to:
retrieve the program information from the memory;
generate for display a scrollable program information region comprising the program information;
select the advertisement and a website associated with the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements, wherein the website associated with the advertisement is selected without reference to what programs are identified in the program information;
cause the selected advertisement to be displayed in the non-scrollable advertisement region, wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is displayed simultaneously with the scrollable program information region, and wherein the non-scrollable advertisement region is not within the scrollable program information region; and
in response to the user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region received using the input circuitry, access the website associated with the advertisement over the communications link using the communications circuitry.
24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to generate for display the scrollable information region by being configured to generate for display a plurality of rows comprising the program information.
25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to receive user input to navigate a cursor from the scrollable program information region to the non-scrollable advertisement region.
26. The system of claim 23 , wherein the displayed advertisement includes one or more of graphics and video.
27. The system of claim 23 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to access the website by being configured to:
launch a web browser application;
cause the website to be accessed by the web browser application over the communications link using the communications circuitry.
28. The system of claim 23 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
associate the non-scrollable advertisement region with the website, wherein the website is related to the advertisement;
in response to receiving a user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region before a predetermined length of time using the control circuitry, access the website related to the advertisement over the communications link using the communications circuitry;
select a second advertisement from the plurality of advertisements, wherein a second website is related to the second advertisement;
after the predetermined length of time, automatically change the non-scrollable advertisement region from being associated with the website related to the advertisement to being associated with the second website related to the second advertisement irrespective of changes to the displayed program information;
in response to receiving a user selection of the non-scrollable advertisement region after the predetermined length of time using the input circuitry, access the second website related to the second advertisement over the communications link using the communications circuitry.