A system and method for adapting program guides to meet subscriber
criteria, and for providing program guide information to selected
subscribers based upon subscriber criteria such as the subscriber's
location within a market area is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method
is applied to a system broadcasting a first signal having service
channels, each of which service channels is uniquely described by a
service channel identifier. The application of the method provides second
program guide information describing a second set of programs only to a
subset of the plurality of receiver stations that comply with at least
one service criteria. The method comprises the steps of segmenting the
programs into at least one service group according to the service
criteria, wherein the service group comprises the second set of programs,
assembling the second program guide information, and transmitting a first
signal having first program guide information to the receiver stations on
a first service channel and second program guide information describing
the second set of programs to the receiver stations on a second service
channel offset from the first service channel. Each of the receiver
stations intended to receive the second program guide information stores
information identifying the second service channel carrying the second
program guide information. This information is used by the receiver
station to receive and present the second program guide material to the
subscriber.