System and method maximizing video license utilization using billboard services

• US 20040193544A1
• Filed: 03/31/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Satyam Computer Services Limited (Tech Mahindra Limited)
• Original Assignee: Satyam Computer Services Limited (Tech Mahindra Limited)
• Inventors: Varadarajan, Sridhar, Rao, Korrapati Kalyana, Kammanahalli, Harish Gurudutt, Gangadharpacci, Sridhar
• Granted Patent: US 7,574,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

Key to overall video license utilization lies in a cooperative sharing of licenses between the different branch operators of the licenses before the expiry of the licenses. A branch operator has a region of operation and stimulating the demand for licenses that are about to expire across multiple regions increases the overall license utilization. Billboard service provides subscribers with information and facility to preview and select movies for viewing online and it provides an opportunity for branch operators and central operator to maximize the utilization of available licenses. Central billboard provides a platform for branch operators to submit and trade their surplus licenses while a local billboard that is part of a branch operator infrastructure helps create demand for such surplus licenses. Central billboard supports both regulated and unregulated pricing and trading thereby enhancing the chances of trading of licenses that are about to expire.

Claims

1. A system for maximizing the utilization of licenses available with multiple branch operators of a video distribution system based on real-time centralized management of available licenses and on demand stimulated through billboard service, said system comprising:

a) a local billboard subsystem for managing the collection and distribution of licenses, said local billboard comprising;

a subscriber management element for managing subscription related activities of a subscriber;

a billboard management element for managing a subscriber'"'"'s interactions with the billboard system;

a login/logout element for managing the activities related to login and logout of a subscriber;

a local license management element for managing the collection and release of licenses; and

b) a license assessment subsystem for assessing the local license inventory status, said license assessment subsystem comprising;

a surplus identification element for identifying the surplus licenses;

a local pricing element for estimating buying and selling prices of licenses;

a negotiation element for conducting the price negotiation of licenses; and

c) a central billboard subsystem for managing the acquisition of licenses available with multiple branch operators, facilitating the trading of acquired licenses, and distributing the licenses to multiple branch operators, said central billboard comprising;

a license pooling element for managing the collection of licenses from different branch operators;

a license distribution element for managing the distribution of licenses to different branch operators;

a global pricing element for determining the market based price for the unpriced licenses;

a trading element for facilitating the trade of licenses between the buying and selling branch operators.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said subscriber management element of said local billboard subsystem comprises means for subscription management activities comprising registration, SLA modification, and withdrawal of subscription.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said billboard management element of said local billboard subsystem comprises means for computing the average number of posters for each logged in subscriber, wherein said computation is based on the number of subscribers currently logged into the billboard service and the available number of licenses along with their multiplicity.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said billboard management element further comprises means for creating customized billboard for a subscriber, wherein said creation is based on the analysis of the recent viewing history of said subscriber to identify the billboard posters.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said login/logout element of said local billboard subsystem comprises means for creating customized billboard view for a logged in subscriber, wherein said creation is based on computed number of posters and recent viewing history of said subscriber.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said login/logout element further comprises means for redistribution of licenses associated with billboard view shown to a logging out subscriber, wherein said redistribution is based on reusing said licenses for creation of new billboard views.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said license management element of said local billboard subsystem comprises means for collecting licenses, wherein said collection consists of collection of licenses from central billboard and collection of licenses recovered from billboards.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said license management element further comprises means for identifying excess licenses to be returned to central billboard, wherein said identification of excess licenses comprises determining number of licenses to be returned based on the licenses available and the number of subscribers currently logged onto the billboard service, and selection of said number of licenses from the list of licenses in the decreasing order of the number of currently logged in subscribers to whom the associated posters have been shown.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said surplus identification element of said license assessment subsystem comprises means for identifying surplus licenses, wherein said identification is based on surplus of licenses due to license allocation plan, licenses that are about to expire, and average license utilization prediction variation.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said local pricing element of said license assessment subsystem comprises means for computing buying and selling prices of a license, wherein said buying price computation is based on plurality of factors consisting of base price of said license, profit factor, and current market price of said license, and said selling price computation is based on plurality of factors consisting of base price of said license, profit factor, risk factor, and current market price of said license.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said negotiation element of said license assessment subsystem comprises means for negotiating buying and selling prices of a license, wherein said negotiation is based on base price of said license, time available for negotiation, and current market price of said license.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said license pooling element of said central billboard subsystem comprises means for pooling licenses, wherein said pooling consists of periodic collection of surplus licenses from multiple branch operators and need-based collection of surplus licenses from multiple branch operators.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said license distribution element of said central billboard subsystem comprises means for distributing available licenses to multiple local billboards, wherein said distribution is based on number of subscribers logged into each of said local billboards and number of licenses per subscriber, wherein said number of licenses per subscriber is computed based on the total number of subscribers logged into billboard system across said multiple local billboards and number of said available licenses.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said global pricing element of said central billboard subsystem comprises means for computing price of a license that is about to expire, wherein said computation is based on base price of said license and number of licenses of the movie associated with said license which are about to expire.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said global pricing element further comprises means for computing current market price of a license, wherein said computation is based on the weighted average of a specified number of past sale prices of said license.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the said trading element of said central billboard subsystem comprises means for trading of licenses between local billboards, wherein said trading comprises the step of:

receiving the buying and selling bids from said local billboards and identifying said bids as one of the plurality of bid types comprising of bid for licenses that are about to expire, blank bid, or priced bid.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said trading element further comprises means for regulated trading to trade a license that is about to expire and a license with blank bid, wherein said trading of license that is about to expire comprises the step of:

assigning said license to a buyer with pre-computed deal price, and said trading of license with blank bid comprises the step of;

assigning said license to a buyer with a deal price, wherein said deal price is set to one of the pluralities of current market price or non blank bid price.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said means further comprises means for unregulated trading to trade a license with priced bid, wherein said trading comprises the steps of:

matching of buyer'"'"'s priced bid with least priced seller'"'"'s bid, wherein said seller'"'"'s bid is lesser than or equal to said buyer'"'"'s bid price and assigning said buyer'"'"'s bid price as deal price, and matching a buyer'"'"'s blank bid with the least priced seller'"'"'s bid and assigning said least bid price as deal price.

19. An apparatus for maximizing the utilization of licenses available with multiple branch operators of a video distribution system based on real-time centralized management of available licenses and on demand stimulated through billboard service, said apparatus comprising:

(a) plurality of local license distributor computer systems for executing procedures related to local billboard and license assessment subsystems;

(b) a global license distributor computer system for executing procedures related to central billboard.

20. An apparatus, for maximizing the utilization of licenses available with multiple branch operators of a video distribution system based on real-time centralized management of available licenses and on demand stimulated through billboard service, coupled to a communication system, said apparatus comprising:

(a) IP network to interconnect plurality of subscriber terminal systems to local license distributor computer system;

(b) IP network to interconnect plurality of local license distributor computer systems to global license distributor computer system;

(c) IP network to interconnect plurality of local license distributor computer systems.