Method and system for fee-based commercial-free television viewing

• US 20030228125A1
• Filed: 03/07/2002
• Published: 12/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Gutta, Srinivas, Trajkovic, Miroslav, Colmenarez, Antonio
• Application Number:
  US10/093,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20030228125A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A fee-based commercial television broadcast system is provided, wherein non-theatrical data is removed from transmission signals containing theatrical data and non-theatrical data. An input video signal is received by a video processing system. The input video signal includes information relating to non-theatrical images'"'"', such as commercials, beginning and end points, as well as the total length of such non-theatrical images in a particular program. A broadcast television service provider offers this information for a fee. This information is then used by the video processing system to enable real-time recording and delayed playback such that a user may view the program in one continuous block without non-theatrical data interruption.

Claims

1. A method of doing business comprising:

transmitting a signal containing theatrical data, non-theatrical data and non-theatrical identification information;

receiving the signal;

modifying said signal by removing the non-theatrical data from the signal;

displaying said modified signal, with a delay, said delay determined from said non-theatrical identification information; and

charging a fee to a user for displaying the modified signal.

2. A method for viewing a transmission signal, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving the transmission signal, wherein said transmission signal contains theatrical data, non-theatrical data and non-theatrical identification information;

removing said non-theatrical data from the transmission signal; and

displaying said transmission signal without said non-theatrical data, using a playback delay, said delay determined from said non-theatrical identification information.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the step of recording said transmission signal.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the step of storing said removed non-theatrical data.

5. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein said non-theatrical data is selected from the group consisting of a commercial, advertising information, news information, weather information, and traffic messages.

6. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein said non-theatrical identification information includes a time period for each non-theatrical data in said transmission signal.

7. An apparatus for viewing a transmission signal, said apparatus comprising:

a processor for (1) receiving the transmission signal, wherein the transmission signal contains theatrical data, non-theatrical data and non-theatrical identification information, (2) processing said transmission signal by removing the non-theatrical data from the transmission signal and incorporating a playback delay, wherein the playback delay is determined using the non-theatrical identification information;

a memory which enables storage of the processed transmission signal; and

a display which enables viewing of the processed transmission signal data.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 7 wherein the non-theatrical data is selected from the group consisting of a commercial, advertising information, news information, weather information, and traffic messages.

9. The apparatus as recited in claim 7, wherein the memory enables storage of the non-theatrical data.

10. The apparatus as recited in claim 7, wherein the processor further includes accounting for the number of processed transmission signals that are processed for a user.