Data management and distribution system and method for an electronic television program guide

A data management and distribution system for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said system comprising:

• automated data collection means for receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources and using said received data to update a database of television program schedule data;
• manual entry and correction means for accessing said database and making changes thereto;
• database validation means for validating a portion of the data in said database;
• edition generating means for extracting a portion of the data in said database in accordance with configuration data for one of said target devices and generating a data set, said data set comprising an edition of said EPG for one or more of said EPG providers;
• configuration maintenance means for maintaining said configuration data in said database;
• and
• status and control means for monitoring and/or controlling the operation of one or more of said automated data collection means, manual entry and correction means, database validation means, edition generating means, and configuration maintenance means.

An automated data collection system for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said system comprising:

• means for receiving television program schedule data from one or more sources on a time-selected basis, said received program schedule data comprising program titles for a plurality of television programs and channel maps for a plurality of EPG providers;
• means for reformatting the received data to a form optimized for determining the differences between said received data and program schedule data received at a time prior to said received data;
• means for determining the differences between said received data and program schedule data received at a time prior to said received data;
• means for updating a database of program schedule information in response to said determination.

A feed generator for an electronic television program schedule guide (EPG) wherein program schedule information is distributed to a plurality of EPG providers for use with a plurality of target devices, said feed generator comprising:

• data extraction means for extracting television program schedule data from a database in accordance with configuration data for one of said target devices;
• extraction scheduler means for controlling the timing of said extraction of data in accordance with schedule information in said database;
• a feed cache for temporarily storing said extracted data;
• feed composition means for composing a digital data stream using the data in said feed cache;
• feed composition scheduler means for controlling the timing of said composition of said digital data stream in accordance with schedule information in said feed cache;
• transport means for transporting said digital data stream to a satellite transmission system for distribution to said EPG providers.