US 5,223,924 · Granted 1993-06-29

The 1993 Patent That Invented Your Personalized TV Guide

Imagine a TV guide that learns what you like to watch and automatically highlights only the shows you'd care about — no scrolling through boring listings. This patent from 1993 describes the system that makes that work: gathering TV schedule info and using your preferences to filter it down into a custom guide just for you.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system that downloads TV program information (delivered over broadcast, cable, satellite, or other data channels) and automatically matches it against a user's stored preferences to create and display a filtered program database. What's protected here is the specific method of correlating external TV schedule data with individual user preference profiles to generate personalized program listings in real time.

Why it matters

This patent captures the core idea behind electronic program guides (EPGs) and recommendation systems — technology that became standard in cable boxes, DVRs, and streaming services. By 1993, the cable and satellite TV industries were exploding, but viewers still faced information overload. This patent protected a foundational approach to solving that problem: letting machines automatically learn what you like and surface only relevant shows. That concept has since evolved into modern recommendation engines.

Real-world use

When you open your cable box menu or streaming app and see a personalized row of 'Recommended for You' shows, you're encountering the descendant of the system this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

A user interface which can access downloaded TV program information, which can be continually updated and provided either "over the air", over cable or satellite transmission paths or other "fast data" paths, and automatically correlate this information with the preferences of the user, to create and display at least one program information database based upon the results of the correlation.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,223,924
Filing date: 1992-05-27
Grant date: 1993-06-29
Assignee: North American Philips Corporation
Inventor(s): STRUBBE; HUGO J.
CPC class: H04N21/4756

View original record on Google Patents →

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