PERSONAL TELEVISION CHANNEL

A "personal television channel" is created for a user by a television head-end server. The personal channel has its own playlist that can include, in addition to service offerings from a television-delivery service, content stored locally by the user, media sent to the user from third parties (e.g., an electronic magazine publisher), and messages from other users. The user selects the personal channel just as he would select any other television channel. He then sees a playlist for the personal channel (which may be integrated into a general electronic program guide ("EPG") supplied by the television provider). The user selects and plays content from the playlist just as he would interact with a traditional EPG. The user can specify local content to be included in his personal channel. He can also send content to another user to be included in the playlist of the recipient's personal channel.