The invention is intended to facilitate the recording presetting of programs from a remote site. A program information providing apparatus having a storage section for storing program information, which is attribute information about a program, and a program chart, the program information and the program chart being sent via a network in response to a request from a portable terminal apparatus, the program information providing apparatus comprising: a search section for searching the storage section for the program information in response to a program recording preset request from the portable terminal apparatus to which the program table has been sent; a program recording preset script generating section for generating a program recording preset script, which is a control command for causing a recording apparatus to record a user-specified program listed in the program chart to a recording medium, and a sending section for sending the generated script.