Personalized TV Guide

I was watching TV this morning and I went through my 37-channels favorite list and I found nothing interesting to watch. So, I turned to the TV guide. I don’t use the guide that much so here’s my impression. SHOCKED. the TV guide is listing more than 800 channels, how am I supposed to go through these. Of course there’s a categorization for shows by theme, channel, or title.  Maybe other cable boxes even have search. But, that’s not what I want to do, I just want to watch a good show, I don’t know what it is but I want it and I want it now. I got frustrated with the TV guide so I turned off the TV and turned to the computer to check my Gmail, I opened a new e-mail and I found this small ad in the top banner about something related to the e-mail I’m reading right at the same moment. So, I thought what if my TV (or rather cable box) can do that.

Here’s the idea, What if TV channels have enough metadata to suggest shows to the viewer. Metadata can include Show Rating, Theme, Production Year, Cast Names. The viewer selects his/her favorite picks in each of these categories and there’s magic. It’s simple matter of mix and match.

Now, here’s the problem, I don’t know how cable boxes work, I don’t have a cable company to apply something like this. So, I thought I just put this out there for anyone to apply it. But I reserve the right of having one of those cable boxes for free.

By the way, if by any chance, someone already applied this idea, let me know.