An information distribution apparatus includes: a user information receiving unit configured to receive user information from user devices that respective users have, the user information including at least one of user-captured images and positional information of the users, and user IDs of the users; a user specifying unit configured to specify at least one user from a plurality of pieces of user information; an other user extraction unit configured to extract at least one other user who is present near the specified user based on at least one of the user-captured images and the positional information of the user; a related user group information generation unit configured to generate related user group information in which at least one of the pieces of user information is associated with at least one of pieces of other user information.

A live media streaming system and method is presented herein. The system and method includes broadcasting a live media stream in at least one of a plurality of themed broadcasting channels, the live media stream being transmitted from a broadcasting device corresponding to a broadcasting user. A jump zone (a physical region or area) is selected or defined based upon predetermined jump zone criteria corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of themed broadcasting channels. Further, a next broadcasting user is selected, wherein the user is located within the physical geographic region of the jump zone. Once the next broadcasting user is selected, a live media stream is broadcasted from the next user's broadcasting device.

Disclosed example apparatus to determine volume of switching (VoS) among television programs examine first viewing data associated with a first time period and second viewing data associated with a second time period to identify a first set of panelists represented in both the first and second viewing data; in response to a size of the first set of panelists satisfying both first and second thresholds, estimate the VoS based on a first subset of the first viewing data and a second subset of the second viewing data associated with the first set of panelists; and in response to the size of the first set of panelists satisfying the first but not the second threshold, estimate the VoS based on the first and second subsets, and a third subset of the first viewing data and a fourth subset of the second viewing data associated with a second set of panelists.

The present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented process for evaluating user activity, user preference, and/or user habit via one or more personal devices and providing precisely timed and situationally targeted content recommendations. It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a technological solution to the long felt need in small scale content recommendation systems caused by the technical problem of generating situationally targeted and user preference targeted content recommendations for users of an interactive electronic system.

Effective advertisements are provided to users of a network. On a terminal of a user B, user names of users whom the user B registered in advance as friends are displayed. On the terminal, information indicating whether respective friend users are online or offline, is also displayed. Icons representing video games, etc., played by the friend users are also displayed on the terminal. When the user B clicks the icon of the Game C associated with the user A, the terminal executes advertisement information display processing. By this processing, an advertisement information screen is displayed on the terminal. On the advertisement information screen, an advertisement relating to the status of the user A registered as the friend is displayed.

A computer-implemented method includes: detecting whether a user is watching media content; after detecting that the user is watching media, presenting on a user device a first affordance providing a first user-selectable election to receive information on entities relevant to the media content; in response to user selection of the election: sampling at the user device program information from the media content including one or more of audio signals and subtitles, and sending the program information to a server, which identifies the media content and generates one or more second user-selectable user elections for the identified media content and sends to the user device one or more second affordances providing the second user-selectable elections; displaying the second affordances on the user device; and in response to user selection of one of the second affordances, displaying on the user device information on a respective entity relevant to the media content.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

A system for automatically selecting television channels based on wager information can include a set-top box, wager databases having user wager information, broadcast databases having broadcast schedule information, and a controller. The wager information can include an event identifier and a corresponding wager amount. The broadcast schedule can include a channel, a start time, and an end time for each event. The controller can include processors and memory devices having instructions that cause the processors to obtain wager information for the user from the wager databases, match each event identifier and corresponding wager amount to the broadcast schedule, determine a set of live events by comparing a current time with the start time and end time for each event, prioritize the live events based on wager amount, and send an instruction to the set-top box to display the channel corresponding to each live event in order of priority.

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for affiliate interrupt detection. An example method disclosed herein includes determining whether a first time period of a first audio signal corresponds to a first affiliate interrupt period based on whether (1) a first type of watermark is detected in the first time period of the first audio signal, and (2) a second type of watermark is detected in the first audio signal outside the first time period but not in the first time period of the first audio signal, and determining whether the first time period of the first audio signal corresponds to the first affiliate interrupt period when watermarks are not detected in the first time period of the first audio signal based on comparison of first signatures with second signatures representing a corresponding first time period of a reference audio signal.

A television message system is provided that allows users at user television devices that are connected to a television distribution facility to transmit messages to each other relating to a television program or other suitable subject. The television message system permits users to participate in evaluations, contests, promotions, and surveys related to a television program while watching that television program. The television message system also permits users to compose and send a message to a television program entity. Users can send massages through the television message system to users at personal computers who are connected to the user's television distribution facility through a communications network. The television message system also allows a user to purchase a gift related to television programming for a recipient. The gift may be an electronic gift certificate for pay-per-view programming. The television message system may be based on an interactive television program guide or a set-top box application implemented on a set-top box.