A system for providing program information has a user terminal, a recording medium capable of reading information therefrom and writing information thereto through a command issued by the user terminal, and a server connected to the user terminal via a network, and provides program information from the server to the recording medium. The recording medium has a first control unit that performs a first mutual authentication operation with a first storage unit capable of writing program information thereto and the user terminal, and that executes a command to write program information to the first storage unit only if the first mutual authentication operation is successful. The user terminal performs a second mutual authentication operation with the server, obtains program information transmitted from the server if the second mutual authentication operation is successful, and issues a command to write the program information to the first storage unit of the recording medium.