SUGGESTING A TIME FOR LIVE COMMUNICATIONS BASED ON PREVIOUS CONTENT-CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR

Disclosed is a method for making media consumption more social by suggesting a time when users in a group may engage in live communications while consuming media. First, media-consumption activities of the users in the group are monitored. (For example, the set-top boxes of a cable television system monitor when and what each user watches.) Then, from this and possibly from other information, times when each user will be available for live communications are predicted. Finally, the individual predictions are correlated and, if possible, a future time is suggested when at least some of the users in the group will be available for live communications. Some embodiments use other information, such as electronic calendars, to predict when users may be available. The suggested time may be shown on an electronic program guide for a user watching television and may be added to each user's electronic calendar.