To provide a system and method for creating a multimedia summary of a video program, for use in a video display system capable of displaying the video program.

The system includes a multimedia summary generator that is capable of obtaining a transcript of the text of the video program and audio-video segments of the video program. The multimedia summary generator identifies topic cues and subtopic cues in the transcript of the video program. The multimedia summary generator also identifies audio-video segments that are associated with the topic cues and subtopic cues. The multimedia summary generator creates the multimedia summary by assembling the topic cues and the subtopic cues and their associated audio-video segments. Entry points are provided in the multimedia summary for each topic and subtopic so that a viewer of the multimedia summary can directly access each topic and subtopic.