Method and apparatus for programme generation and classification

A method for generating a programme for presentation at a receiver, comprising

• transmitting a stream of programme element data packets and associated programme generation control data to the receiver;
• storing the programme element data packets and associated programme generation control data at the receiver;
• and
• generating a programme by reading out the programme element data packets including repeating the reading out of at least one programme element as part of the generated programme in a manner dependent upon the programme generation control data, the programme element data packets being read out such that the duration of at least one programme element in the generated programme is less than the time taken to transmit the data packet of that programme element from the transmitter.

A method for generating an assembled programme for presentation to a user, comprising:

• providing a plurality of programme elements taken from at least one distributed programme, each programme element representing an event within the at least one distributed programme,
• classifying each programme element in an associated class, on the basis of the event represented by the programme element;
• associating each programme element with at least one associated programme element classification code, each classification code identifying the class to which the event represented by the associated programme element has been classified;
• selecting at least one programme classification code;
• storing programme elements corresponding to the at least one selected programme classification code;
• deleting at least one stored programme element automatically on the basis of characteristics of the stored classification codes;
• and
• generating a programme for presentation to the user by assembling a sequence of programme elements remaining in storage.

A method for generating an assembled programme for presentation to a user, comprising:

• providing a plurality of programme elements taken from at least one distributed programme, each programme element representing an event within the at least one distributed programme,
• classifying each programme element in an associated class, on the basis of the event represented by the programme element;
• storing each programme element with at least one associated programme element classification code, each classification code identifying the class to which the event represented by the associated programme element has been classified;
• assembling a programme for presentation to the user by selecting at least one programme classification code and generating an assembled programme in the form of a sequence of programme elements associated with the at least one programme classification code,
• storing a message programme element the content of which represents a message related to at least one event;
• determining if a programme element in the assembled programme is related to the at least one event;
• and
• retrieving the message programme element from storage and introducing the retrieved message programme element into an assembled programme if a programme element in the assembled programme is related to the at least one event.

A method for generating an assembled programme for presentation to a user, comprising:

• providing a plurality of programme elements taken from at least one distributed programme, each programme element representing an event within the at least one distributed programme,
• classifying each programme element in an associated class, on the basis of the event represented by the programme element;
• storing each programme element with at least one associated programme element classification code, each classification code identifying the class to which the event represented by the associated programme element has been classified;
• receiving user input for allocating programme element classification codes to stored programme elements,
• assembling a programme for presentation to the user by selecting at least one user allocated programme element classification code and generating an assembled programme in the form of a sequence of programme elements associated with the at least one programme classification code.

A method for generating an assembled programme for presentation to a user, comprising:

• broadcasting a plurality of programme elements to the user, the plurality of programme elements taken from at least one distributed programme, each programme element representing an event within the at least one distributed programme, the programme elements being broadcast at a rate such that the duration of individual programme elements in an assembled programme is less than the time taken to broadcast those programme elements,
• classifying each programme element in an associated class, on the basis of the event represented by the programme element;
• storing each programme element with at least one associated programme element classification code, each classification code identifying the class to which the event represented by the associated programme element has been classified;
• assembling a programme for presentation to the user by selecting at least one programme classification code and generating an assembled programme in the form of a sequence of programme elements associated with the at least one programme classification code, the sequence of programme elements including at least one broadcast programme element repeated at least one time to produce a continuous assembled programme.

A method for generating an assembled programme for presentation to a user, comprising:

• providing a plurality of programme elements taken from at least one distributed programme, each programme element representing an event within the at least one distributed programme,
• classifying programme elements on the basis of the event represented by the programme element using a set of event classes, said event classes including a plurality of subsets of event classes;
• storing each programme element with at least one associated programme element classification code, each classification code identifying a class to which the event represented by the associated programme element has been classified;
• and
• assembling a program for presentation to a user by selecting at least one programme classification code and generating an assembled program in the form of a sequence of programme elements associated with the at least one programme classification code;
• wherein classification of each programme element comprises receiving data corresponding to a selection, by an operator, of at least one of the subsets of event classes and determining, based on said selection, at least one of the subsets of event classes from which future selections can be made.