SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SCHEDULING BROADCAST OF AND ACCESS TO VIDEO PROGRAMS AND OTHER DATA USING CUSTOMER PROFILES

摘要

A system and method for scheduling the receipt of desired video programs,movies, or other data from a networkwhich simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers,as in a cable television system. Customerprofiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certaincharacteristics of the broadcast video program, etc.,are to each customer. From these profiles, an "agreement matrix" (908) iscalculated by comparing the recipient's profiles tothe actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs,etc. "Virtual" channels are generated from theagreement matrix (908) to produce a series of video or data programming whichwill provide the greatest satisfaction to eachcustomer. Feedback paths (1020, 1024) are also provided so that the customer'sprofiles and/or the profiles of the videoprograms, etc., may be modified to reflect actual usage, and to minimize thedata downloaded to the customer's set topterminal (620).