E-commerce facilitation for broadcast services

• US 20040055010A1
• Filed: 06/18/2002
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Fries, Robert M., Peechara, Arvind K., Shield, Alan E., Pezzee, Christopher F., Fleming, Michael K.
• Application Number:
  US10/175,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20040055010A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25435 involving characteristics of content or additional data, e.g. video resolution or the amount of advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• 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

Described herein is a technology facilitating electronic commerce. One implementation, described herein, is a standardized purchasing system for purchasing premium services over a broadcast feed from premium service providers. This implementation offers a standardized technique facilitating electronic commerce purchases. It employs a standardized offer-terms format that contains the information for creation of an official offer to a user. With one of the implementations, described here, changing or adding premium service providers does not necessitate any changes to the one or more components of the Integrated Receiver/Decoders (IRD) devices so as to effectuate purchases of premiums services from such premium service providers. That is because purchases are handled in a standardized manner using a standardized offer-terms format. The scope of the invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. In a multimedia presentation system that receives a broadcast feed having multiple multimedia segments with one or more segments being premium broadcast services, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the system, performs a method comprising:

obtaining an offer string from a source that is not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service;

generating an instance of an offer object based upon the obtained offer string;

presenting a user with an offer based upon the instance of an offer object;

executing a purchase of a premium broadcast service from a premium broadcast service provider when a user accepts the offer;

receiving the premium broadcast service from the premium broadcast service provider.

2. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises acquiring the offer string from one or more sources selected from a group consisting of:

in-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the

premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

an electronic program guide;

a web page;

an e-mail message;

an instant message;

an Internet transmission;

a string of plain text;

a smart card;

a storage medium;

a multimedia storage medium; and

a DVD.

3. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the offer string is a data structure comprising multiple offer-term fields selected from a group consisting of:

price;

length;

URL;

title;

description;

explanation; and

legal contractual language.

4. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in XML.

5. A presentation device comprising:

an audio/visual output;

a medium as recited in claim 1.

6. In a multimedia presentation system that receives a broadcast feed having multiple multimedia segments with one or more segments being premium broadcast services, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the system, performs a method comprising:

obtaining an offer string;

generating an instance of an offer object based upon the obtained offer string;

presenting a user with an offer based upon the instance of an offer object;

executing a purchase of a premium broadcast service from a premium broadcast service provider when a user accepts the offer.

7. A medium as recited in claim 6 further comprising receiving the premium broadcast service from the premium broadcast service provider.

8. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the obtaining comprises acquiring the offer string from a multimedia segment that is not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service.

9. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the obtaining comprises acquiring the offer string from a source not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service.

10. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the obtaining comprises acquiring the offer string from one or more sources selected from a group consisting of:

in-band data of a multimedia segment associated with the premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a multimedia segment associated with the premium broadcast service;

in-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a-multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

an electronic program guide;

a web page;

an e-mail message;

an instant message;

an Internet transmission;

a string of plain text;

a smart card;

a storage medium;

a multimedia storage medium; and

a DVD.

11. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the offer string is a data structure comprising multiple offer-term fields selected from a group consisting of:

price;

length;

URL;

title;

description;

explanation; and

legal contractual language.

12. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in a hierarchical mark-up language.

13. A medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in XML.

14. A presentation device comprising:

an audio/visual output;

a medium as recited in claim 6.

15. In a multimedia presentation system that receives a broadcast feed having multiple multimedia segments with one or more segments being premium broadcast services, a method comprising:

obtaining an offer string from a source that is not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service;

generating an instance of an offer object based upon the obtained offer string;

presenting a user with an offer based upon the instance of an offer object;

executing a purchase of a premium broadcast service from a premium broadcast service provider when a user accepts the offer;

receiving the premium broadcast service from the premium broadcast service provider.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the obtaining comprises acquiring the offer string from one or more sources selected from a group consisting of:

in-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

an electronic program guide;

a web page;

an e-mail message;

an instant message;

an Internet transmission;

a string of plain text;

a smart card;

a storage medium;

a multimedia storage medium; and

a DVD.

17. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the offer string is a data structure comprising multiple offer-term fields selected from a group consisting of:

price;

length;

URL;

title;

description;

explanation; and

legal contractual language.

18. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in XML.

19. A presentation device comprising:

one or more application modules configured to obtain an offer string and send it to a conditional access manager;

the conditional access manager configured to determine a purchase provider associated an offer string and send the offer string to that associated purchase provider;

one or more conditional access providers configured to determine conditional access to one or more multimedia segments of a broadcast feed;

wherein one or more of the conditional access providers are purchase providers configured to convert the offer string into an instance of an offer object;

the one or more application modules being further configured to present an offer based upon the instance of the offer object.

20. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application modules obtain the offer string from a multimedia segment that is not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service.

21. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application modules obtain the offer string from a source not directly associated with a multimedia segment of the premium broadcast service.

22. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more application modules obtain the offer string from one or more sources selected from a group consisting of:

in-band data of a multimedia segment associated with the premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a multimedia segment associated with the premium broadcast service;

in-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

out-of-band data of a multimedia segment that is not associated with the premium broadcast service;

an electronic program guide;

a web page;

an e-mail message;

an instant message;

an Internet transmission;

a string of plain text;

a smart card;

a storage medium;

a multimedia storage medium; and

a DVD.

23. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the offer string is a data structure comprising multiple offer-term fields selected from a group consisting of:

price;

length;

URL;

title;

description;

explanation; and

legal contractual language.

24. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in a hierarchical mark-up language.

25. A presentation device as recited in claim 19, wherein the offer string is a standardized data structure in XML.

26. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising an offer string having multiple offer-term fields regarding a premium service being offered, the fields being selected from a group consisting of:

price;

length;

URL;

title;

description;

explanation; and

legal contractual language.