Method and apparatus for notifying a user of presence information

A method and apparatus for displaying presence information for buddies who are at a particular televised event is provided herein. During operation location information for a remote device is received by a presence server. A database is then accessed to determine if the location maps to a TV venue such as a sports stadium. If a match is found between the location of the remote device and its database of venues then currently-available multimedia content is analyzed to determine if an event is being broadcast at that venue at the current time. If it is determined that an event is being broadcast at the venue, then presence data is transmitted to the users having the user of the remote device as part of their buddy list. This causes the users to display the presence information on an ambient display, a display device, an electronic program guide, a banner, or in a list.