Apparatus and method for transmitting media content

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system including a processor, a plurality of user-generated comments associated with media content, wherein the plurality of user-generated comments are annotated to the media content during presentations of the media content by a group of communication devices;

identifying, by the system from the plurality of user-generated comments, a cluster of comments associated with a segment of the media content based on a frequency of the plurality of user-generated comments;

filtering, by the system, the cluster of comments based on subject matter to generate a filtered cluster of comments;

identifying, by the system, a sample segment according to a range of the segment of the media content that is to be transmitted to a recipient device; and

transmitting, by the system, the filtered cluster of comments and the sample segment to the recipient device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the range of the segment is a portion of the segment starting at a time period before a first comment and after a second comment.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering of the cluster of comments further comprises replacing a portion of the cluster of comments with substitute content.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving user input;

determining the range of the segment based on the user input; and

transmitting a client program to the group of communication devices operating in an interactive television network, wherein the client program presents an overlay that is superimposed onto the media content, wherein annotations are presented along a time line in the overlay, and wherein each of the annotations is representative of a corresponding one of the plurality of user-generated comments.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presentations of the media content is performed at different times for different groups of the communication devices.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media content comprises audio content and video content, and wherein the sample segment is a portion of the segment selected from a time before a first comment and a time after a second comment.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the range of the segment of the media content is set based on user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising transmitting to the recipient device a communication link to the sample segment.

9. A device, comprising:

a memory that stores instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the processor performs operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of user-generated comments associated with media content, wherein the plurality of user-generated comments are temporally associated with a portion of the media content during presentations of the media content by a group of communication devices; and

identifying from the plurality of user-generated comments a cluster of comments associated with a segment of the media content based on a frequency of the user-generated comments.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise setting a range of the segment of the media content that is to be transmitted to a recipient device, wherein the range comprises a portion of the segment measured by a time period before a first comment to a time period after a second comment.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the range of the segment of the media content is set based on user input received from one of the plurality of computing devices.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise enabling access to the segment of the media content via a communication link, wherein the range of the segment is a portion of the segment measured by a time period before a first comment and after a second comment.

13. The device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:

filtering the cluster of comments based on subject matter to generate a filtered cluster of comments; and

enabling access to the filtered cluster of comments for a recipient device.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the filtering of the cluster of comments includes replacing a portion of the cluster of comments with substitute content.

15. The device of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise transmitting a client program to the group of communication devices operating in an interactive television network, wherein the client program presents an overlay with a time line that superimposes onto the media content.

16. The device of claim 9 , wherein the frequency of the user-generated comments comprises a group of user-generated comments having a high incidence of user-generated comments on a histogram of the user-generated comments.

17. The device of claim 9 , wherein the presentation of the media content at the group of communication devices includes a presentation at different times for at least some of the group of communication devices.

18. The device of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of user-generated comments are temporally associated with the portion of the media content based on time stamps.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, a processor performs operations comprising: receiving a plurality of user-generated comments associated with media content, wherein the plurality of user-generated comments are annotated to the media content via a time line presented with the media content, and wherein the media content is presented by a group of communication devices; identifying from the plurality of user-generated comments a cluster of comments associated with a segment of the media content based on a frequency of the user-generated comments; filtering the cluster of comments based on a filtering parameter to generate a filtered cluster of comments; selecting a sample segment according to a range of the segment; and transmitting the filtered cluster of comments and the sample segment to a recipient device.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the range comprises a portion of the segment measured by a time period before a first comment to a time period after a second comment.