Hybrid electronic programming guide
View Patent ↗A hybrid, expandable electronic programming guide that may allow broadcast programming customers to view both broadcast programming options and over-the-top service options in a single electronic programming guide.
1. A television receiver comprising:
one or more processing devices; and
memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processing devices and having stored therein processor-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
processing channel identifiers and time-based programming information provided to the television receiver by at least one broadcast programming provider;
processing identification information for over-the-top (OTT) content received via a network interface of the television receiver and/or one or more tuners of the television receiver;
generating an interactive electronic programming guide that comprises i) a menu of broadcast programming comprising the received channel identifiers and the received time-based programming information and ii) a user-selectable option with the menu of broadcast programming to expand the interactive electronic programming guide upon user selection of the user-selectable option to update the menu of broadcast programming with a menu of OTT content displayed inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
outputting the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of broadcast programming for presentation by a display device communicatively coupled to the television receiver, where the interactive electronic programming guide presents the menu of broadcast programming with the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
processing a selection of the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming; and
in response to the selection of the user-selectable option, expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming without switching to a different interface or screen, the expanding comprising generating additional content for display in the menu of OTT content, the additional content comprising multiple channel descriptions of additional selectable OTT content.
2. The television receiver of claim 1 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
detecting selection of a second user-selectable option associated with a particular instance of the additional content corresponding to content provided by a particular OTT service provider;
in response to the selection of the second user-selectable option, processing data, provided by the particular OTT service provider to the television receiver over a broadband connection, associated with the particular instance of content; and
outputting for presentation by the display device the data associated with the particular instance of content.
3. The television receiver of claim 2 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
monitoring selection of OTT content within menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, OTT content selection data to a computing system associated with a satellite television service provider over the broadband connection, wherein the OTT content selection data comprises a number of times each particular instance of OTT content has been selected by a user.
4. The television receiver of claim 3 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
monitoring selections of advertising content associated with selected instances of OTT content from the menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, data regarding the monitored selections of advertising content to the computing system associated with the satellite television service provider over the broadband connection.
5. The television receiver of claim 1 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
outputting for display within the interactive electronic programming guide a selectable icon positioned in association with a descriptor that identifies a particular OTT service provider; and
generating, in response to user selection of the selectable icon and for presentation by the display device and within the interactive electronic programming guide, an interactive pane that identifies content provided by the particular OTT service provider grouped according to a particular content type.
6. The television receiver of claim 1 , wherein the expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content comprises producing a drop-down list of sub-channels of an OTT service provider.
7. The television receiver of claim 1 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
outputting for display within the interactive electronic programming guide a selectable icon positioned in association with a descriptor that identifies a particular OTT service provider; and
generating, in response to user selection of the selectable icon and for presentation by the display device and within the interactive electronic programming guide, an interactive pane associated with a content delivery and media technology service that distributes content to devices over a broadband network connection.
8. A method, comprising:
receiving channel identifiers and time-based programming information provided to at least one television receiver by at least one broadcast programming provider;
receiving identification information for over-the-top (OTT) content via a network interface of the at least one television receiver and/or one or more tuners of the at least one television receiver;
generating an interactive electronic programming guide that comprises i) a menu of broadcast programming comprising the received channel identifiers and the received time-based programming information and ii) a user-selectable option with the menu of broadcast programming to expand the interactive electronic programming guide upon user selection of the user-selectable option to update the menu of broadcast programming with a menu of OTT content displayed inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
outputting the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of broadcast programming for presentation by a display device communicatively coupled to the at least one television receiver, where the interactive electronic programming guide presents the menu of broadcast programming with the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
receiving a selection of the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming; and
in response to the selection of the user-selectable option, expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming without switching to a different interface or screen, the expanding comprising generating additional content for display in the menu of OTT content, the additional content comprising multiple channel descriptions of additional selectable OTT content.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
detecting selection of a second user-selectable option associated with a particular instance of the additional content corresponding to content provided by a particular OTT service provider;
in response to the selection of the second user-selectable option, receiving data, provided by the particular OTT service provider to the at least one television receiver over a broadband connection, associated with the particular instance of content; and
outputting for presentation by the display device the data associated with the particular instance of content.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
monitoring selection of OTT content within menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, OTT content selection data to a computing system associated with a satellite television service provider over the broadband connection, wherein the OTT content selection data comprises a number of times each particular instance of OTT content has been selected by a user.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
monitoring selections of advertising content associated with selected instances of OTT content from the menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, data regarding the monitored selections of advertising content to the computing system associated with the satellite television service provider over the broadband connection.
12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
outputting for display within the interactive electronic programming guide a selectable icon positioned in association with a descriptor that identifies a particular OTT service provider; and
generating, in response to user selection of the selectable icon and for presentation by the display device and within the interactive electronic programming guide, an interactive pane that identifies content provided by the particular OTT service provider grouped according to a particular content type.
13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content comprises producing a drop-down list of sub-channels of an OTT service provider.
14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
outputting for display within the interactive electronic programming guide a selectable icon positioned in association with a descriptor that identifies a particular OTT service provider; and
generating, in response to user selection of the selectable icon and for presentation by the display device and within the interactive electronic programming guide, an interactive pane associated with a content delivery and media technology service that distributes content to devices over a broadband network connection.
15. One or more non-transitory, processor-readable media having stored therein processor-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
processing channel identifiers and time-based programming information provided to at least one television receiver by at least one broadcast programming provider;
processing identification information for over-the-top (OTT) content received via a network interface of the at least one television receiver and/or one or more tuners of the at least one television receiver;
generating an interactive electronic programming guide that comprises i) a menu of broadcast programming comprising the received channel identifiers and the received time-based programming information and ii) a user-selectable option with the menu of broadcast programming to expand the interactive electronic programming guide upon user selection of the user-selectable option to update the menu of broadcast programming with a menu of OTT content displayed inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
outputting the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of broadcast programming for presentation by a display device communicatively coupled to the at least one television receiver, where the interactive electronic programming guide presents the menu of broadcast programming with the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming;
processing an indication of a selection of the user-selectable option to expand the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming; and
in response to the selection of the user-selectable option, expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content inserted into the menu of broadcast programming without switching to a different interface or screen, the expanding comprising generating additional content for display in the menu of OTT content, the additional content comprising multiple channel descriptions of additional selectable OTT content.
16. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 15 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
detecting selection of a second user-selectable option associated with a particular instance of the additional content corresponding to content provided by a particular OTT service provider;
in response to the selection of the second user-selectable option, processing data, provided by the particular OTT service provider to the at least one television receiver over a broadband connection, associated with the particular instance of content; and
outputting for presentation by the display device the data associated with the particular instance of content.
17. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
monitoring selection of OTT content within menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, OTT content selection data to a computing system associated with a satellite television service provider over the broadband connection, wherein the OTT content selection data comprises a number of times each particular instance of OTT content has been selected by a user.
18. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 17 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
monitoring selections of advertising content associated with selected instances of OTT content from the menu of OTT content; and
intermittently or periodically reporting, based on the monitoring, data regarding the monitored selections of advertising content to the computing system associated with the satellite television service provider over the broadband connection.
19. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 15 , wherein the processor-readable instructions further cause the one or more processing devices to perform:
outputting for display within the interactive electronic programming guide a selectable icon positioned in association with a descriptor that identifies a particular OTT service provider; and
generating, in response to user selection of the selectable icon and for presentation by the display device and within the interactive electronic programming guide, an interactive pane that identifies content provided by the particular OTT service provider grouped according to a particular content type.
20. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 15 , wherein the expanding the interactive electronic programming guide with the menu of OTT content comprises producing a drop-down list of sub-channels of an OTT service provider.