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 network which simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers , as in a cable television system. Customer profiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certain characteristics of the broadcast video program, etc., are to each customer. From these profiles, an "agreement matrix" (908) is calculated by comparing the recipient's profiles to the actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs, etc. "Virtual" channels are generated from the agreement matrix (908) to produce a series of video or data programming whic h will provide the greatest satisfaction to each customer. Feedback paths (1020, 1024) are also provided so that the customer 's profiles and/or the profiles of the video programs, etc., may be modified to reflect actual usage, and to minimize the data downloaded to the customer's set top terminal (620).