Multiple media vendor support

• US 20030196204A1
• Filed: 04/15/2002
• Published: 10/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Thiagarajan, Balaji, Peechara, Arvind Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,343 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A content distribution system receives data describing media content available from one or more vendors. The content distribution system generates data that describes an offer and associates the media content data with the offer. The content distribution system provides data describing an offer to a client device. The client device receives a request for a media content offer. The media content offer may include one or more instances of media content. Each instance of media content is available from a media vendor. For each media content instance associated with the offer, the client determines a vendor able to provide the media content, and submits a request for the media content to the vendor.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a client to purchase media content;

determining a vendor, from among a plurality of possible vendors, that is able to provide the media content requested by the client;

sending a request to purchase the media content to the vendor;

receiving the media content from the vendor; and

providing the media content to the client.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the media content comprises a movie.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining a vendor comprises using a data structure to identify a vendor associated with the media content.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one XML file.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the data structure is implemented as a relational database.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending a request comprises:

generating a request to purchase the media content, the format of the request being based on a request format specification associated with the vendor; and

sending the request to the vendor.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a client to purchase a media package, the media package comprising a plurality of media content;

determining first and second media content associated with the media package;

determining a first vendor able to provide the first media content and a second vendor able to provide the second media content;

sending a first request for the first media content to the first vendor and a is second request for the second media content to the second vendor;

receiving the first media content from the first vendor and the second media content from the second vendor; and

providing the media package to the client.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the determining a first and second media content comprises using a data structure to identify media content that is associated with the media package from a plurality of media content.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one XML file.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the data structure is implemented as a relational database.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the determining a first vendor and a second vendor comprises using a data structure to identify a vendor associated with the first media content and a vendor associated with the second media content from among a plurality of vendors.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one XML file.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the data structure is implemented as a relational database.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating a request for the first media content according to a first request format associated with the first vendor; and

generating a request for the second media content according to a second request format associated with the second vendor.

15. A method comprising:

receiving a request for media content;

determining a vendor, from among a plurality of possible vendors, that is associated with the media content;

sending a request for the media content to the vendor; and

receiving the media content.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the media content comprises a movie.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the determining the vendor comprises using a data structure to identify a vendor associated with the media content.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one XML file.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the data structure is implemented as a relational database.

20. A method comprising:

receiving a request for an offer, the offer comprising a first object and a second object;

determining a first vendor associated with the first object and a second vendor associated with the second object;

sending a request for the first object to the first vendor and a request for the second object to the second vendor; and

receiving the first object and the second object.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the first object comprises media content.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the first object comprises a movie.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the determining a first vendor and second vendor comprises using a data structure to identify a first vendor, from among a plurality of possible vendors, associated with the first object, and a second vendor, from among the plurality of possible vendors, associated with the second object.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

generating a request for the first object according to a first request format associated with the first vendor; and

generating a request for the second object according to a second request format associated with the second vendor.

25. A method comprising:

receiving data related to media content;

generating data describing an offer; and

associating the data related to the media content with the data describing the offer, such that the offer comprises an offer to provide the media content.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the associating comprises populating a data structure that relates media content data with offer data.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one XML file.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the data structure is implemented as a relational database.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein the data associated with the media content comprises at least one of a content identifier, a content title, a content description, a content duration, a release year, a content categorization, a content rating, a content language, a content type, and an associated content identifier.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the data associated with the media content further comprises at least one of a vendor identifier, a vendor name, a vendor-specific request format, a bitrate, a filesize, a format, and a format conversion type.

31. The method of claim 25 wherein the data describing the offer comprises at least one of an offer identifier, an offer type, an offer state, an offer title, an offer description, a cost, a currency, a start time, an end time, a viewing duration, a rental duration, a blocked hours indicator, and an operations allowed indicator.

32. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

receiving data related to a second media content; and

associating the data related to the second media content with the data describing the offer, such that the offer comprises an offer to provide the media content and the second media content.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the associating comprises populating a data structure that relates media content data with offer data.

34. A method of data management comprising:

modeling media content offers with a database schema;

representing media content by a content class in the database schema;

representing terms of media content availability by an offer class in the database schema;

representing vendor-specific content distribution data by a content instance class in the database schema; and

creating an association between the content class, the content instance class, and the offer class, the association representing offers of media content available from one or more media content vendors.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the content class represents at least one of a content identifier, a content title, a content description, a content duration, release year, a content categorization, a content rating, a content language, a content type, and an associated content identifier, associated with the media content.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein the terms of media content availability comprise at least one of an offer identifier, an offer type, an offer state, an offer title, an offer description, a cost, a currency, a start time, an end time, a viewing duration, a rental duration, a blocked hours indicator, an operations allowed indicator, a purchase time, a viewing duration elapsed, and a receipt identifier.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein the vendor-specific content distribution data comprises at least one of a content identifier, an offer identifier, a vendor identifier, a vendor name, a vendor-specific request format, a bitrate, a filesize, a format, a format conversion type, and a channel number.

38. A method comprising:

maintaining a library of multiple vendor components that can be distributed and installed at a client device to facilitate generation of vendor-specific media requests, the library including vendor components associated with different vendors;

receiving a vendor component that is not currently in the library; and

adding the vendor component to the library for subsequent distribution to a client device.

39. The method as recited in claim 38, further comprising selectively serving a vendor component to a client device.

40. The method as recited in claim 38, further comprising selectively removing a vendor component from the library.

41. A method at a client device comprising:

receiving multiple media-related software components, the media related software components being configured to enable the client device to generate vendor-specific media requests;

installing the software components; and

using the software components to generate requests to download media content from a plurality of media vendors.

42. A method comprising:

determining whether a client device is authorized to receive media content from a particular vendor from among a group vendors from which the client device is authorized to receive media content; and

in an event that the client device is not authorized to receive media content from the particular vendor, instructing the client device to deactivate a component associated with the particular vendor, while maintaining an active component associated with another vendor.

43. A system comprising:

a data structure configured to associate offers with media content and to associate media content with multiple vendors; and

an offer request module configured to;

receive a request for an offer;

determine a media content associated with the offer;

determine a vendor, from among the multiple vendors, associated with the media content; and

submit a request for the media content to the vendor.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein the offer request module is further configured to generate a request for the media content according to a request format associated with the vendor.

45. The system of claim 43 wherein the offer request module is further Configured to receive the media content associated with the offer from the vendor.

46. The system of claim 43 wherein the offer request module is further configured to:

determine a second media content associated with the offer;

determine a second vendor associated with the second media content; and

submit a request for the second media content to the second vendor.

47. A system comprising:

a data structure configured to associate objects with vendors and to associate objects with offers; and

an offer request module configured to;

receive a request for an offer;

determine one or more objects associated with the offer; and

for each object associated with the offer;

determine a vendor associated with the object; and

submit a request for the object to the vendor.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein the offer comprises a media package and each object comprises media content.

49. The system of claim 47 wherein the offer request module is further configured to:

for each object associated with the offer, receive the object from the vendor.

50. A computer system programmed to implement a schema, the schema comprising:

at least one offer class that represents terms of media content availability;

at least one content class that represents media content; and

at least one content instance class that represents offers of media content available from one or more vendors, the content instance class being modeled as an association between the content class and the offer class.

51. A computer system comprising:

a vendor interface configured to receive data related to a media content from a vendor;

a data processor configured to;

generate data representing terms of an offer; and

associate the data related to the media content with the data representing terms of an offer, such that the offer represents an offer to provide the media content.

52. The system of claim 51 wherein the data processor is configured to associate the data related to the media content with the data representing terms of an offer by populating a data structure that relates media content data with offer data.

53. The system of claim 51 wherein the vendor interface is further configured to receive data related to a second media content;

and the data processor is further configured to associate the data related to the second media content with the data representing terms of the offer, such that the offer represents an offer to provide the media content and the second media content.

54. A computer system comprising:

a vendor component library for receiving and maintaining multiple media-related software components being configured to enable a client device to generate vendor-specific media requests; and

a broadcast transmitter to provide the software components to the client device.

55. A computer system comprising:

a plurality of media-related vendor software components to transmit requests for media content to media vendors;

a multi-vendor component manager to receive a request for media content, determine a vendor associated with the request, and forward the request to one of the plurality of media-related vendor software components that is associated with the vendor.

56. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive a request for media content;

determine a vendor, from among a plurality of vendors, that is associated with the media content;

submit a request for the media content to the vendor; and

receive the media content.

57. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive a request for an offer, the offer comprising first and second media content;

determine a first vendor, from among a plurality of vendors, that is able to provide the first media content and a second vendor, from among the plurality of vendors, that is able to provide the second media content; and

submit a request for the first media content to the first vendor and a request for the second media content to the second vendor.

58. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 57 further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer system to receive the first media content from the first vendor and the second media content from the second vendor.

59. One or more computer-readable media comprising a schema, the schema comprising:

at least one offer class that represents terms of media content availability;

at least one content class that represents media content; and

at least one content instance class that represents offers of media content available from vendors, the content instance class being modeled as an association between the content class and the offer class.

60. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 59 wherein the terms of media content availability comprise at least one of cost, viewing duration, rental duration, blocked time, and allowed operations.

61. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to:

receive data related to media content;

generate data describing an offer; and

populate a data structure that associates the data related to the media content with the data describing the offer, such that the offer is represented as an offer to provide the media content.

62. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 61 wherein the data structure is implemented as one or more XML files.

63. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 61 wherein the data related to the media content comprises at least one of a content identifier, a content title, a content description, a content duration, a release year, a content categorization, a content rating, a content language, a content type, and an associated content identifier.

64. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 63 wherein the data related to the media content further comprises at least one of a vendor identifier, a vendor name, a vendor-specific request format, a bitrate, a filesize, a format, and a format conversion type.

65. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 61 wherein the data describing the offer comprises at least one of an offer identifier, an offer type, an offer state, an offer title, an offer description, a cost, a currency, a start time, an end time, a viewing duration, a rental duration, a blocked hours indicator, and an operations allowed indicator.