AUTOMATIC SUBSCRIPTION TO PAY CONTENT

• US 20090248575A1
• Filed: 12/08/2005
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2004
• 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: Dipl. Ing. Proidl, Adolf J., Gutta, Srinivas
• Application Number:
  US11/721,224
• Publication Number:
  US 20090248575A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system to autonomously authorize billing for a subscription plan for a user using data including available subscription services, a user profile, and a user supplied criteria for subscription service selection such as a spending limit related to the available subscription services. In one embodiment, the present invention may rate the available subscription services in accordance with the user profile and may then select a given number of high rated subscription services for the subscription plan. The user profile may be updated to reflect changes in a user'"'"'s preference. The subscribed content may be provided to the user as a personal television channel.

Claims

1. A method for providing a subscription plan to a user, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving data on available subscription services;

receiving a user profile;

receiving subscription service selection criteria from the user; and

determining a subscription service in accordance with the received data, user profile, and selection criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criteria is a spending limit.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said spending limit is a maximum spending limit for subscription services for a given period of time.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the spending limit is a maximum spending limit for any given subscription service and the act of determining the subscription service comprises the acts of:

rating the available subscription services in accordance with the user profile; and

determining a given number of high rated subscription services.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of determining a subscription service comprises the act of periodically determining the subscription service.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising the act of updating the user profile to reflect changes in a user'"'"'s preference.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising the acts of:

monitoring programs watched by the user;

classifying content of the programs according to a predetermined criteria; and

updating the user profile in accordance with the classified content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving a spending limit is performed interactively in response to user input.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of authorizing a debit transaction to a subscription service provider to provide the determined subscription service to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the act of storing at least a portion of the determined subscription service in a storage medium for subsequent consumption by the user.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising the act of providing the stored portion of the determined subscription service to the user as a personal television channel.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criteria is a to utilize a collaborative mode.

14. A device for providing subscription services to a user, the system comprising:

a storage medium configured to store a user profile;

a processor operationally coupled to the memory and configured to receive data on available subscription services and a subscription service selection criteria from the user, and together with the received data and the user profile, the processor is configured to determine a subscription service for the user.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to determine the subscription service by rating the available subscription services in accordance with the user profile;

and selecting a given number of high rated subscription services.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein processor is configured to periodically determine the subscription service for the user.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to update the user profile to reflect changes in a user'"'"'s preference.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to:

monitor a user'"'"'s content consumption habits;

classify the content according to a predetermined criteria; and

update the user profile in accordance with the classified content and the user'"'"'s content consumption habits.

19. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to authorize a debit transaction to a subscription service provider to enable providing the determined subscription service to the user.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to store at least a portion of the determined subscription service in the storage medium for subsequent consumption by the user.

21. The device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to retrieve a portion of the determined subscription service from the storage medium and provide the retrieved portion to the user as a personal television channel.