Transmission announcement system and method for announcing upcoming data transmissions over a broadcast network

In a system having a broadcast network over which data transmissions served by a server are broadcast to multiple clients, each client and server having a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable media on the server and at least one client hang computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

• generating announcements, at the server, containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network, the announcements being made available to the clients via means other than other than the broadcast network;
• automatically creating a filter from user behavior patterns;
• filtering, at the client, the announcements received from the server using the filter;
• and
• using the announcements, at the client to prepare the client to receive at least one of the transmissions.

In a system having a broadcast network over which data transmissions served by a server are broadcast to multiple clients, each client and server having a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable media on the server and at least one client having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

• generating announcements, at the server, containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network, the announcements being made available to the clients;
• automatically creating an announcement filter based upon user behavior patterns;
• filtering the announcements using the announcement filter to selectively choose certain ones of the announcements;
• and
• using the announcements to prepare the client to receive the certain ones of is the transmissions.

In a system having a broadcast network over which data transmissions served by a server are broadcast to multiple clients, each client and server having a computer-readable medium, the computer-readable media on the server and at least one client having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

• generating announcements, at the server, containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network, the announcements being made available to the clients;
• filtering the announcements using an announcement filter that is automatically created based upon user behavior patterns:
• using the filtered announcements to prepare the client to receive the certain ones of the transmissions;
• and
• launching a software application at the client to receive said certain ones of the transmissions from the broadcast network.

A method for announcing delivery of upcoming data transmissions over a broadcast network, comprising the following steps:

• multicasting announcements containing information pertaining to the upcoming data transmissions;
• automatically creating an announcement filter based upon user behavior patterns;
• filtering the announcements using the announcement filter:
• parsing each announcement using Regular Expression Parsing;
• and
• preparing to receive at least one of tie upcoming transmissions from the broadcast network based upon the information contained in an announcement tat survives the filtering.

In a system where transmissions are broadcast over a broadcast network and announcements of the transmissions are made available prior to the broadcasts, a method for handling one of the announcements comprising the following steps:

• automatically defining criteria based upon user behavior;
• comparing the announcement with the criteria;
• in an event that the announcement complies with the criteria, searching the announcement for information specifying how to receive the transmission over the broadcast network;
• and
• using the information from the announcement to prepare to receive the transmission over the broadcast network.

A method for announcing delivery of upcoming data transmissions over a broadcast network, comprising the following steps:

• forming, at a server, announcements containing information pertaining to the upcoming data transmissions, the information including a broadcast protocol for broadcasting the transmissions;
• sending the announcements from the server in multicast packets to a predetermined multicast address;
• monitoring the multicast address from a client to receive the multicast packets containing the announcements;
• automatically defining a filter based upon user behavior;
• filtering the anouncements at the client using the filter;
• searching the certain announcements to extract the broadcast protocol;
• and
• using the broadcast protocol to prepare to receive upcoming transmissions associated with the certain announcements from the broadcast network.

A transmission announcement system for announcing upcoming transmissions to be delivered over a broadcast network, comprising:

• a server and a client;
• the server being configured to create announcements containing information pertaining to upcoming transmissions to be delivered over the broadcast network and to make the announcements over one of the broadcast network or a secondary link to the client that is separate from the broadcast network;
• and
• the client being configured to receive and filter the announcements from the broadcast network or the secondary link using filters automatically created at the client from user behavior patterns, the filters parsing the announcements to determine whether the announcements match predefined expressions or satisfy a predefined rule.