Systems, methods and apparatus for transmitting weather information in a television distribution network

A method of presenting weather information on a television receiver, the method comprising:

• receiving a transport stream at a television receiver, the transport stream including a first set of packets associated with a first television program and a second set of packets associated with emergency alert information;
• outputting the first television program for presentation by a presentation device;
• processing the second set of packets to determine whether to output the emergency alert information;
• and
• responsive to determining that the emergency alert information is to be outputted, outputting the emergency alert information, in association with the television program, for presentation by the presentation device, wherein:
• the first set of packets associated with the first television program are associated with one or more program identifiers (PIDs) and the second set of packets associated with weather information are associated with a different program identifier (PID) that is different from the one or more program identifiers (PIDs) associated with the first set of packets associated with the first television program;
• the transport stream further includes a third set of packets associated with second television program, wherein the third set of packets associated with the second television program are associated with one or more program identifiers (PIDs) different from the one or more program identifiers (PIDs) associated with the first set of packets associated with the first program;
• and
• the one or more program identifiers (PIDs) associated with the first set of packets include a first program identifier associated with a video component of the first program and a different second program identifier (PID) associated with an audio component of the first program, the one or more program identifiers (PIDs) associated with the third set of packets include a third program identifier associated with a video component of the second program and a different fourth program identifier associated with an audio component of the second program, and the program identifier (PID) associated with the second set of packets associated with weather information is a fifth program identifier (PID) different from the first, second, third and fourth program identifier (PIDs).

A television broadcasting system comprising:

• a first communication interface operable to receive at least one television program from at least one content source;
• a second communication interface operable to receive weather information from a weather service provider;
• control logic operable to multiplex the at least one television program and the weather information into a transport stream;
• and
• a transmitter operable to initiate broadcasting of the transport stream to a plurality of television receivers, wherein the control logic is further operable to translate the weather information received from the weather service provider into a format compatible with the television receivers by being operable to remove header information of the weather information received from the weather service provider and insert different header information compatible with the television receivers.