Skipping to playback positions in media content using seek guides

A system for determining skip positions in media content items, the system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer-readable storage devices storing data instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
• associate one or more seek guides with a media content item, each of the one or more seek guides including a position;
• define two or more regions within the media content item;
• receive a request from a user to skip within the media content item, the request including a direction to skip;
• and
• set a new playback position based on an initial playback position and the two or more regions,
• wherein when the initial playback position is within a first region of the two or more regions, to set a new playback position includes to:
• calculate a probability for at least one of the one or more seek guides using a probabilistic distribution positioned based on a reference position, wherein the reference position is a predetermined time away from the initial playback position in the direction to skip;
• rank the at least one of the one or more seek guides based on the calculated probabilities;
• select a seek guide from the one or more seek guides based on the ranking;
• and
• set the new playback position based on the position of the selected seek guide.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon data instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• associate one or more seek guides with a media content item, each of the one or more seek guides including a position;
• define two or more regions within the media content item;
• receive a request from a user to skip within the media content item, the request including a direction to skip;
• and
• set a new playback position based on an initial playback position and the two or more regions,
• wherein when the initial playback position is within a first region of the two or more regions, to set a new playback position includes to:
• calculate a probability for at least one of the one or more seek guides using a probabilistic distribution positioned based on a reference position, wherein the reference position is a predetermined time away from the initial playback position in the direction to skip;
• rank the at least one of the one or more seek guides based on the calculated probabilities;
• select a seek guide from the one or more seek guides based on the ranking;
• and
• set the new playback position based on the position of the selected seek guide.