Importance

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Abstract

An interactive on-screen visual interface guides a user through a menu of individual events available via an information network while allowing continuity of viewing of the current channel. The invention is especially applicable to the provision of an interactive program guide (IPG) for events such as television programs, movies, concerts, sporting events, interactive services, and the like which are available over a digital broadcast satellite (DBS) system or a cable television (CATV) network. A user can easily switch back and forth between a partial screen guide and a full-screen guide by a command entered, for example, on a hand-held remote control. The guide can be switched back to a non-display status. The guide's graphics can also be blended with video being viewed. The primary viewing channel can be resized to allow the user to view all of the primary channel while also accessing the guide. A trickle data stream provides programming information for a current time period, e.g., the next forty-eight hours, and is stored in a local memory for immediate access. A demand data stream provides programming information for a future time period, e.g., one week beyond the current period, and is acquired on a real time basis in response to a subscriber's request for future scheduling information.

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First Claim