Methods and systems for creating and managing multi participant sessions

Abstract

A method of creating a multi participant session among a plurality of viewers of media content. The method comprises automatically identifying which media content is currently presented on a plurality of client terminals of a plurality of subscribers, receiving, from a first subscriber, a first selection indicative of a template of a multi participant session object and a second selection indicative of a group from the plurality of subscribers, creating a multi participant session object adapted for simultaneous presentation with the media content according to first and second selections and establishing a multi participant session among at least one member of the group and the first subscriber using the multi participant session object.

1 - 81 . (canceled) 
     
     
         82 . A method for selecting at least one interactive application, comprising:
 identifying a plurality of interactive applications which are available to a client terminal of a user;   automatically identifying one of a plurality of scenes of a media content item being currently presented on said client terminal;   automatically identifying at least one scene characteristic of said identified scene;   automatically selecting a group of said plurality of interactive applications which are determined to be suitable for a scene having said at least one scene characteristic; and   presenting icons corresponding to members of said group on a display of said client terminal concurrently with presenting said identified scene.   
     
     
         83 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said automatically identifying at least one scene characteristic comprises retrieving said at least one scene characteristic from a dataset. 
     
     
         84 . A method for selecting at least one interactive application, comprising repeating the method of  claim 82  for each one of said plurality of scenes. 
     
     
         85 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said media content item is a broadcast. 
     
     
         86 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said media content item is a video on demand (VOD) content selected by a user of said client terminal. 
     
     
         87 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said media content item is locally stored on a memory of said client terminal. 
     
     
         88 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said media content item is locally stored on a memory device connected to said client terminal. 
     
     
         89 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said plurality of interactive applications is stored on said client terminal. 
     
     
         90 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein said plurality of interactive applications is stored on a remote network node. 
     
     
         91 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein at least one of said plurality of interactive applications is a commercial application which contains commercial content. 
     
     
         92 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein at least one of said plurality of interactive applications is associated with a media content item. 
     
     
         93 . A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions adapted to perform the method of  claim 82 . 
     
     
         94 . A system for selecting at least one interactive application, comprising:
 a database storing a plurality of media content records each indicative of at least one scene of a media content item and at least one corresponding scene characteristic;   a central unit that is configured to receive a request with an identifier of a scene of a media content item currently presented by a client terminal and to automatically send a response with said at least one corresponding scene characteristic from said plurality of media content records; and   a client module installed on said client terminal; said client module is configured to receive said response; to automatically select a group of a plurality of interactive applications available to said client terminal which are determined to be suitable for a scene having said at least one scene characteristic; and to present icons corresponding to members of said group on a display of said client terminal concurrently with presenting said scene.   
     
     
         95 . A computer program product for selecting at least one interactive application, said computer program product comprising:
 a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:   first program instructions executable by a processor to cause said processor to store in a database a plurality of media content records each indicative of at least one scene of a media content item and at least one corresponding scene characteristic;   second program instructions executable by a central unit to cause said central unit to receive a request with an identifier of a scene of a media content item currently presented by a client terminal and automatically send a response with said at least one corresponding scene characteristic from said plurality of media content records; and   third program instructions executable by a client module installed on said client terminal to cause said client module to receive said response; automatically select a group of a plurality of interactive applications available to said terminal which are determined to be suitable for a scene having said at least one scene characteristic; and present icons corresponding to members of said group on a display of said client terminal concurrently with presenting said scene.