METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PURCHASING A SOUNDTRACK WHEN VIEWING A MOVIE OR OTHER PROGRAM DELIVERED BY A CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEM

• US 20100125879A1
• Filed: 11/14/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterka, Petr, Ashley, James P.
• Application Number:
  US12/271,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20100125879A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• 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

A method is provided for offering for purchase supplemental content associated with a multimedia program. The method includes receiving over a content delivery system a multimedia program and supplemental content associated with the program. While the program is being rendered, an option is presented to a user to acquire the supplemental content.

Claims

1. A method of offering for purchase supplemental content associated with a program, comprising:

receiving over a content delivery system a multimedia program and supplemental content associated with the program;

rendering the program; and

presenting to a user an option to acquire the supplemental content while the program is being rendered.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the program and the supplemental content are received in a common transport stream.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the supplemental content is received as an object in accordance with a carousel protocol.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the supplemental content is a soundtrack to the program.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the supplemental content is received in a plurality of different formats.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising receiving a request to acquire the supplemental content in at least one format selected from among the plurality of formats.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the supplemental content is received in at least one format preselected by the user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the option to acquire the supplemental content is presented to the user as an onscreen interactive overlay while the program is being rendered.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting to the user an option to acquire a segment of the supplemental content.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the supplemental content is a soundtrack to the program and the segment is a song and further comprising presenting the option to purchase the song by presenting an onscreen interactive overlay while the song is being rendered during the program.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a request to acquire the supplemental content and presenting a user access to the supplemental content in accordance with a digital rights management scheme.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the supplemental content is received over the content delivery system after the user completes a transaction to acquire the supplemental content.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the program and the supplemental content upon receipt; and

rendering the program after it has been stored.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting metadata in the program indicting an existence of the supplemental content; and

detecting metadata in the program that causes the option to acquire the supplemental content to be presented to the user.

15. At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs a method including:

transmitting over a content delivery system a multimedia program, wherein the program includes (i) metadata associating at least one segment of the program with at least one corresponding segment in a supplemental content file associated with the multimedia program and (iii) at least one interactive icon presenting to a viewer an option to purchase the corresponding segment in the supplemental content file while the program is being rendered;

receiving over the content delivery system a request to purchase at least the corresponding segment; and

transferring selected digital rights to the corresponding segment in accordance with a digital rights management scheme after completion of a purchase transaction.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the multimedia program is transmitted to a DVR system and the multimedia program further includes metadata instructing the DVR system to record the supplemental content file.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising transmitting the supplemental content file over the content delivery system in at least one format preselected by a recipient of the supplemental content file.

18. An apparatus for rendering a program, comprising:

a receiver/tuner for receiving over a content delivery system a multimedia program and supplemental content associated with the program;

a computer-readable storage medium for storing the multimedia program and the supplemental content; and

a processor operatively associated with the receiver/tuner and the storage medium and configured to present to a user an option to acquire the supplemental content while the program is being rendered.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the supplemental content is a soundtrack to the program.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the supplemental content is received in a plurality of different formats.