System and Method for Providing Supplementary Interactive Content

• US 20080229352A1
• Filed: 05/27/2008
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Your Choice Interactive, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Your Choice Interactive, Inc.
• Inventors: Sattar, Mohammed, Redling, Peter M., Pino, Angelo J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,167,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• 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 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and system for providing television programming content and interactive data services is provided. In one embodiment, the interactive content is displayed on the television concurrently with television programming content and facilitates game play between viewers. The game may be scored for each viewer based on selection data from the viewer and event data that is determined by events occurring in the television programming content. In addition, the interactive content may present a message that conveys an incentive to the viewer to take some action such as actuating a button when a particular commercial is presented thereby allowing the service provider and advertisers to determine how many, and which, viewers watched a particular commercial. In addition, the interactive content (including the incentives) can be presented to viewers when the programming content is stored on a digital video recorder and subsequently presented thereby presenting incentives to viewers to watch commercials that were recorded as part of the television programming content.

Claims

1. A method of providing television programming content and interactive data services via a plurality of communication devices disposed in a plurality of customer premises and wherein each communication device is configured to cause a display device to display television programming content and interactive content to a viewer, comprising:

providing interactive content and programming content to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer;

wherein the interactive content includes visual content facilitating a contest and is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content;

wherein participants in the contest are accorded a score in the contest that is dependent, at least in part, on one or more events that occur in the programming content;

(a) receiving selection data that comprises data of one or more selections of contest play from each of a plurality of viewers participating in the contest;

(b) storing selection data of each viewer in memory in association with the viewer;

(c) receiving event data that comprises data of one or more events having occurred in the programming content;

(d) for each viewer, determining a score data based on the selection data of that viewer and the received event data; and

(e) for each viewer, providing that viewer'"'"'s score data to the communication device of that viewer for presentation to the viewer as part of the interactive content.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing steps a-e a plurality of times during the presentation of the programming content.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the contest comprises a fantasy sports game.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein television programming content comprises a sporting event.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a message to the plurality of communication devices for presentation as part of the interactive content to the viewers; and

wherein the message conveys an incentive to take a first action during a commercial presented as part of the programming content.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

receiving incentive data from a group of the plurality of communication devices; and

wherein the incentive data provides an indication that a viewer associated with a communication device performed the first action.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

transmitting a notification to each communication device of the group of communication devices; and

wherein the notification comprises information for display to a viewer that the incentive is awarded.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a message to the plurality of communication devices for presentation as part of the interactive content to the viewers; and

wherein the message conveys an incentive to answer a question related to a commercial forming part of the programming content that was previously presented.

9. A method of using a plurality of communication devices, each configured to be connected to a television, comprising:

providing interactive content and programming content to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer;

wherein the interactive content is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content;

wherein the programming content includes a commercial sequenced between segments of non-commercial content;

providing a message to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer as part of the interactive content;

wherein the message conveys an incentive to the viewer to take a first action during presentation of the commercial; and

receiving an indication that one or more viewers performed the first action during presentation of the commercial.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the message identifies the commercial by identifying a product advertised by the commercial.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein an advertising fee is based, at least in part, on the number of viewers performing the first action during presentation of the commercial.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

storing in memory the interactive content and programming content on one or more of the communication devices;

at the one more communication devices, retrieving from memory the stored interactive content and programming content in response to a user input indicating a request to present the programming content; and

at the one more communication devices, presenting the retrieved interactive content and programming content.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said retrieving the stored interactive content and programming content is performed after the entire programming content has been received by the one or more communication devices.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the interactive content comprises visual content facilitating a game and viewers are accorded a score in the game that is dependent, at least in part, on one or more events that occur in the programming content.

15. A method of using a communication device configured to be connected to a television, comprising:

receiving interactive content and programming content for presentation to a viewer;

outputting for concurrent presentation to the viewer the received interactive content and programming content;

wherein the programming content includes a commercial sequenced between segments of non-commercial content;

wherein the interactive content includes a message for presentation to the viewer;

wherein the message conveys an incentive to the viewer to take a first action during presentation of the commercial;

receiving an indication that the viewer performed the first action during presentation of the commercial; and

transmitting data indicating that the viewer performed the first action.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the message identifies the commercial by identifying a product advertised by the commercial.

17. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

storing the interactive content and programming content in memory;

retrieving the stored interactive content and programming content in response to a user input indicating a request to present the programming content; and

outputting for presentation to the viewer the retrieved interactive content and programming content.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein said storing is performed in response to the viewer inputting a request to pause the programming content.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein said storing is performed in response to the viewer inputting a request to record a television program.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the interactive content comprises visual content facilitating a game and viewers are accorded a score in the game that is dependent, at least in part, on one or more events that occur in the programming content.

21. A method of providing mobile telephone communications, comprising:

storing a mobile telephone number in a memory for each of a plurality of users;

transmitting a text message that conveys a message to the mobile telephone number of each of the plurality of users;

wherein the message conveys a request to reply to the text message during presentation of an identified commercial;

receiving a reply to the text message from the mobile telephone of a multitude of the users;

determining whether each received reply comprises a conforming reply;

wherein a conforming reply comprises a reply that is received during a broadcast of the identified commercial or within a predetermined time period following the broadcast of the identified commercial; and

for each user from which a conforming a reply is received, storing data of a conforming reply in memory in association with the mobile telephone number of the mobile telephone from which the reply was transmitted.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the identified commercial comprises a commercial of a particular advertiser.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein the identified commercial comprises any commercial advertising a particular product.

24. The method according to claim 21, wherein the message conveys an incentive for replying to the text message during presentation of the identified commercial.

25. A method of providing a contest based on a baseball game, comprising:

storing a destination for communicating with each of a plurality of users;

receiving selection data from each of the plurality of users;

wherein the selection data of each user comprises the user'"'"'s selection of four innings and for each of the four respective innings, a selection of a different one of a single, a double, a triple, and a homerun;

storing the received selection data in memory in association with information of the selecting user;

receiving event data that includes data of one or more hits that occur in each inning; and

scoring the selection data of each user based on the event data and the selection data of each user.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the destination of a first group of users comprises a mobile telephone number the destination of a second group of users comprises a set top box.