CONTENT RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON PERSONAL PREFERENCES

• US 20100251280A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chow, Lee M., Piepenbrink, David J., Sofos, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,172,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side

Abstract

A method and system for recommending multimedia content includes collecting consumption information for a plurality of users. The consumption information, along with real-time contextual information, may be used to generate collections of recommended multimedia content, including obtainable multimedia assets. The collections may be offered to a user for purchase. The user may be provided access to the multimedia assets. A unified storefront application, providing access to multimedia content via an Internet-protocol television portal, a web portal, and a mobile portal, may be used to offer and provide access to the multimedia assets.

Claims

1. A method for recommending multimedia content in a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising:

retrieving consumption information describing multimedia content provided by the MCDN that is associated with a user;

obtaining contextual information describing a real-time interaction by the user with the MCDN;

based on the consumption information and the contextual information, generating recommended multimedia content including at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

making the recommended multimedia collection accessible to the user via at least one of;

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the MCDN, and a mobile portal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is associated with a registered account for the MCDN.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumption information includes information about at least one of a browsing history, a viewing history, a recording history, a deletion history, and an MCDN account history.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the contextual information includes information about at least one of:

current browsing, current viewing, current recording, and current MCDN account activity.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the consumption information is collected over a predefined time span.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a unified storefront (USF) application is used to make the recommended multimedia content accessible.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

responsive to receiving user input to the USF application, selecting for a purchase request a multimedia asset from the recommended multimedia content.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

submitting the purchase request, wherein the purchase request includes billing information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the billing information specifies an MCDN account associated with the user.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to receiving approval for the purchase request, providing the user with access to the selected multimedia asset via at least one of;

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the MCDN, and a mobile portal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommended multimedia content includes category information describing video-on-demand programs according to at least one of:

genre, studio, duration, era or release year, sales revenue, language, media-type or format, performer, director, producer, investor, author, shooting location, trade association rating, content warnings, crew members, and award information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating is further based on consumer information provided by the user to generate the collection, and wherein the consumer information includes at least one of:

consumer favorites, birth date or age of the consumer, consumer gender, consumer geographic information, consumer socio-economic information, consumer family information, consumer political information, and consumer ratings for multimedia content.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the consumption information used at least in part to generate the collection depends on at least one of:

a geographical location of the consumer, a time of day, and the consumer information.

14. Customer premises equipment (CPE) for use within a client configuration of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising:

a processor; and

memory media accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions to;

send to an MCDN server contextual information describing a real-time interaction with the CPE by a user of the CPE;

receive recommended multimedia content, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

make the recommended multimedia content accessible to the user,

wherein the recommended multimedia content is also made accessible to the user from at least one of;

an Internet website and a mobile wireless network platform.

15. The CPE of claim 14, wherein the user is associated with a registered account for the MCDN.

16. The CPE of claim 14, further comprising program instructions executable to:

store consumption information associated with multimedia content provided to the CPE over the MCDN; and

make the consumption information available to an MCDN server.

17. The CPE of claim 16, wherein the MCDN server aggregates consumption information and contextual information for a plurality of CPE clients, and wherein the MCDN server maintains a personalized profile for users of the plurality of CPE clients.

18. The CPE of claim 16, wherein the consumption information includes at least one of:

a viewing history, a browsing history, a recording history, and a deletion history.

19. The CPE of claim 16, wherein the contextual information includes information regarding at least one of:

current viewing, current browsing, and current recording.

20. The CPE of claim 14, further comprising instructions executable to:

responsive to user input, initiate purchase of a multimedia asset from the recommended multimedia content.

21. The CPE of claim 20, further comprising instructions executable to:

submit a purchase request, including billing information.

22. The CPE of claim 21, further comprising instructions executable to:

in response to receiving approval for the purchase request, provide the user access to the selected multimedia asset via the CPE, wherein the selected multimedia asset is also made accessible to the user from at least one of;

an Internet website and a mobile wireless network platform.

23. A computer-readable memory media, including instructions for implementing a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), said instructions executable to:

access consumption information relating to multimedia content provided to an MCDN client;

access contextual information relating to real-time user interaction with the MCDN client;

based on the consumption information and the contextual information, generate recommended multimedia content, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

make the recommended multimedia content accessible to a user via at least two of;

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the MCDN, and a wirelessly accessible mobile portal.

24. The memory media of claim 23, wherein the user is associated with an MCDN account.

25. The memory media of claim 23, wherein the consumption information includes information about at least one of:

a browsing history, a viewing history, a recording history, a deletion history, and an MCDN account history.

26. The memory media of claim 25, wherein the contextual information includes information about at least one of:

current browsing, current viewing, current recording, and current MCDN account activity.

27. The memory media of claim 23, further comprising instructions executable to:

responsive to receiving user input, select for a purchase transaction a multimedia asset.

28. The memory media of claim 27, further comprising instructions executable to:

receive billing information specifying an MCDN account; and

responsive to verifying the billing information and receiving purchase approval, provide the user access to the selected multimedia asset via at least two of;

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the MCDN, and a wirelessly accessible mobile portal.