Identification of services that carry the same or equivalent content. A reception apparatus includes circuitry configured receive first service information for a first service included in a first broadcast stream, and receive second service information for a second service included in a second broadcast stream. The first service is associated with a first virtual channel number and the second service is associated with a second virtual channel number. The circuitry is configured to determine whether the first service included in the first broadcast stream contains the same programming content as a service included in another broadcast stream based on the first service information. The first service information includes an identifier included in the second service information when the first service included in the first broadcast stream contains the same programming content as the second service included in the second broadcast stream.