FIELD: television engineering; generating program-describing information. SUBSTANCE: program-describing batched data stream is generated from input batched data stream which is, essentially, set of programs. Program content batches containing desired program chosen from set of programs are identified. Brief program-describing information useful for identifying batches and assembling them is generated. Data stream is generated from this program-describing brief information and from identified batches. Program-describing information batches and also program-content batches are discriminated from batched data stream and saved in memory medium. EFFECT: reduced cost of generating program-describing information. 27 cl, 5 dwg, 1 tbl
