System and method for billing for interactive television

• US 20020144258A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kitsukawa, Tadamasa
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/21 Billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for billing for interactive television (ITV) includes recording the content accessed by a consumer and the time of access to render an access record. The access record for each interaction with the ITV is stored in a consumer database. When it is time to bill the consumer for a period of usage of the ITV system, the access record for each interaction with the ITV system is retrieved from the consumer database. Access records which do not contain billable content are discarded and a billing list of access records that contain billable content is constructed. Accordingly, each consumer is billed based on his or her respective billing list.

Claims

1. A method for billing for interactive television, comprising the acts of:

establishing an access restriction table for at least one consumer, the access restriction table listing plural virtual channels and an access flag for each channel;

enabling the consumer to use a television to access content associated with a virtual channel;

selectively restricting access to content using the access flags;

recording at least one access record based on consumer access activity related to the content; and

billing an entity at least partially based on the access record.

2. A method for billing for interactive television, comprising the acts of:

enabling a consumer to use a television to access content provided by at least one of a Web server and a television signal source;

recording at least one access record based on consumer access of the content; and

billing an entity at least partially based on the access record.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the entity is the consumer.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the entity is an owner or publisher of accessed content.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the act of:

restricting access to content using an access flag in an access restriction table.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the access restriction table correlates interactive television channel numbers to Web site addresses.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising the act of:

storing the access record in a database at the television.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the acts of:

retrieving the access record from the database; and

determining whether the access record contains billable content.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the acts of:

constructing a billing list of access records containing billable content; and

billing the entity at least partially based on the billing list.

10. An interactive television system, comprising:

at least one Web server;

at least one interactive television system server;

at least one television signal source; and

at least one interactive television, the interactive television receiving information from the Web server, the interactive television system server, and the television signal source, the interactive television system server including a program for billing entities.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the program includes:

logic means for enabling a consumer to use a television to access content provided by at least one Web server and at least one television signal source;

logic means for recording at least one access record based on consumer access of the content; and

logic means for billing an entity at least partially based on the access record.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the entity is the consumer.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the entity is an owner or publisher of accessed content.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the program further includes:

logic means for restricting access to content using an access flag in an access restriction table.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the access restriction table correlates interactive television channel numbers to Web site addresses.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the program further includes:

logic means for storing the access record in a database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the program further includes:

logic means for retrieving the access record from the database; and

logic means for determining whether the access record contains billable content.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the program further includes:

logic means for constructing a billing list of access records containing billable content; and

logic means for billing the entity at least partially based on the billing list.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the entity is the consumer.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the entity is an owner or publisher of accessed content.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the act of:

restricting access to content using an access flag in an access restriction table.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the access restriction table correlates interactive television channel numbers to Web site addresses.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising the act of:

storing the access record in a database.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the acts of:

retrieving the access record from the database; and

determining whether the access record contains billable content.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising the acts of:

constructing a billing list of access records containing billable content; and

billing the entity at least partially based on the billing list.

19. A method for billing for interactive television, comprising the acts of:

enabling a consumer to access content using an interactive television system;

recording at least one access record based on consumer access of content; and

billing an entity at least partially based on the access record.