A method consistent with certain implementations involves receiving a triggered declarative object (TDO) at a digital television receiver device that carries out a programmed routine when user activated; the TDO further including a scripted control object that when activated by the viewer implements a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) function; and executing the TDO to cause the TDO to generate a signal that presents the scripted control object. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Provided is a process of matching media characters, the process including: obtaining a plurality of character records, each character record including a trait vector specifying traits of the respective character; receiving a request from a user device to match characters in the character records, the request identifying at least one reference character record; calculating, with one or more processors, matching scores indicative of similarity between the trait vector of the reference character record and trait vectors of other character records among the plurality of character records; selecting a responsive character record from among the plurality of character records based on the matching scores; and sending instructions to the user device to display information about a character of the responsive character record.

In an approach for providing assistance to a user viewing an online video, the computer receives an online video. The computer determines that an uncommon action occurs with the online video. The computer receives an issue based on the uncommon action. The computer receives one or more responses associated with the received issue. The computer identifies an at least one response from the received one or more responses associated with the received issue. The computer provides the identified at least one response.

Various embodiments of systems, apparatus, and/or methods are described for integrating a broadcast media stream with media streams from one or more amateur sources. In one implementation, a method includes receiving, at a stream integrator, one or more user media streams captured by one or more user capture devices, receiving a broadcast stream from a broadcast provider, selecting at least one of the one or more user media streams based on one or more parameters, and integrating one or more of the selected user media streams into the broadcast stream.

Disclosed herein is a transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, including a script generation section configured to generate a script for obtaining user side answer information representative of an answer of a user of the client to a question regarding liking of the user, a trigger generation section configured to generate trigger information regarding execution of the script by the client, and a transmission section configured to transmit the trigger information and the script to the client in response to distribution of a first content to the client and transmitting, in response to distribution of a second content different from the first content to the client, provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the first or second content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

Systems and methods for providing interactive live broadcast programming. A system includes an ingest server, a show creation server, and a streaming server. The ingest server is configured to receive, from at least one client device, one or more user generated responses to interaction prompts associated with a live broadcast program and process the received one or more responses for content and/or compatibility with the live broadcast program and store the processed response in a database. The show creation server is configured to generate a segment to be added to an interactive live program by generating a playlist. The streaming server is configured to transcode the interactive live program with the segment into at least one format suitable for display on the display associated with the client device, and transmit the transcoded interactive live program to the respective client device for display.

A play control method includes obtaining a playing state of at least one of a plurality of terminals playing a same video; and controlling a playing progress of at least one of the plurality of terminals when the playing state meets a preset condition. Using the disclosed play control method and apparatus for a plurality of terminals playing a same video, playing synchronization of the plurality of terminals can be maintained under a premise of ensuring that the plurality of terminals do not miss each video segment, so that no communication barrier is resulted due to asynchronous video playing during interactions between users who watch the same video, thus being able to improve user experience.

Computer-implemented systems and methods of providing content to a user via communications between a content provider and a user over a plurality of disparate communication channels are provided. Content is provided to a user via a first transmission channel for presentation. Metadata associated with the content identifies a content event trigger at a point in the content. The content is displayed using a first presentation system. When the content event trigger is reached, supplemental content is provided to the user via a second transmission channel. The supplemental content is provided to the user during continued presentation of the content, and the supplemental content is provided to the user using a content providing system that is wholly separate from the first presentation system.

Computer-implemented systems and methods of providing content to a user via communications between a content provider and a user over a plurality of disparate communication channels are provided. Content is provided to a user via a first transmission channel for presentation. Metadata associated with the content identifies a content event trigger at a point in the content. The content is displayed using a first presentation system. When the content event trigger is reached, supplemental content is provided to the user via a second transmission channel. The supplemental content is provided to the user during continued presentation of the content, and the supplemental content is provided to the user using a content providing system that is wholly separate from the first presentation system.

Methods and systems including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving a request for digital content to be provided from a plurality of items of digital content, determining a set of content scores for each item of digital content in the plurality of items of digital content, each content score in the set of content scores being specific to a user of the plurality of users, and a respective item of digital content, calculating a combined score deviation for each item of digital content based on a difference between a minimum content score and a maximum content score of the set of content scores of a respective item of digital content, determining at least one candidate item of digital content, the at least one candidate item of digital content having a lowest combined score deviation among combined score deviations of the plurality of items of digital content, and providing the at least one candidate item of digital content.