Systems and methods for delaying the start time of an event based on event attendee arrival times

A system for altering a start time of playing of a media asset, the system comprising:

• a communication port for communications with a communications network;
• a memory storing computer-implemented instructions;
• and
• control circuitry communicably coupled to the memory and the communication port and configured to execute the computer-implemented instructions to:
• retrieve, by the control circuitry and via the communications network, from an information database associated with the playing of the media asset, a data structure containing the start time of the playing of the media asset, and a plurality of participant identifiers corresponding to a plurality of participants of the playing of the media asset;
• transmit, via the communications network, a poll to a plurality of mobile phones associated with the plurality of participant identifiers, wherein the poll comprises a query on whether or not to delay the start time of playing of the media asset;
• receive, via the communications network, a plurality of poll replies from the plurality of mobile phones comprising negative replies and positive replies;
• compare, by the control circuitry, a number of the negative replies and a number of the positive replies by:
• calculating differences between arrival times of participants and the start time of the playing of the media asset;
• averaging the differences;
• determining whether the start time should be delayed based at least in part on the averaged differences;
• determining the delayed start time by adjusting the start time of the playing of the media asset based at least in part on the determining whether the start time should be delayed based at least in part on the averaged differences;
• assigning to the poll replies an importance weight to each mobile phone of each participant;
• multiplying each difference by a corresponding weight;
• calculating a weighted difference based at least in part on the difference multiplied by the corresponding weight;
• averaging the weighted differences;
• and
• further determining the delayed start time by adjusting the start time of the playing of the media asset based at least in part on the averaged weighted differences;
• determine, by the control circuitry, an estimated arrival time of each of the participants with a location application on each mobile phone of each participant to determine a travel route between a current location of each mobile phone of each participant and a location of the playing of the media asset, wherein:
• the location application is a global positioning system (GPS),
• the GPS determines the current location of each mobile phone of each participant,
• the GPS determines the travel route between the current location and the location of the playing of the media asset, and
• each of the estimated arrival time of each of the participants is based at least in part on the GPS determination;
• alter the delayed start time based at least in part on the estimated arrival time of each of the participants based at least in part on the GPS determination;
• alter, by the control circuitry in the information database, the start time of the playing of the media asset to the altered delayed start time;
• and
• play, by the control circuitry, the media asset, wherein the playing begins at the altered delayed start time.