CONTENT RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON COMMUNAL PREFERENCES

• US 20110066674A1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• 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 9,280,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• 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 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A method and system for recommending multimedia content includes collecting consumption information for a plurality of consumers. The consumption information may be used to generate collections of recommended multimedia content, including obtainable multimedia assets. The collections may be offered to a consumer for purchase. The consumer 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 unified storefront (USF) application of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising:

retrieving consumption information collected for a plurality of consumers, wherein the consumption information is associated with multimedia content provided over the MCDN;

using the consumption information to generate a collection of recommended multimedia content, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset;

offering the collection of recommended multimedia content to a user having a registered account for the MCDN; and

making the offered 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 consumption information includes rankings based on at least one of:

most purchased multimedia assets, most viewed multimedia assets, and rated multimedia assets.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the rated multimedia assets are ranked based on ratings provided by at least some of the plurality of consumers.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the rankings are determined from consumption information collected over a predefined time span.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the USF application is used to offer the collection, and wherein the USF application is used to make the offered collection accessible.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

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

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

submitting the purchase request from the USF application, wherein billing information is received by the USF application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the billing information specifies a registered MCDN account of the user.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

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

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

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the collection of multimedia content includes video-on-demand programs categorized 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.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using consumer information provided by the user to generate the collection,

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.

12. The method of claim 11, 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.

13. A 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 instructions executable by the processor to execute a unified storefront (USF) application, including instructions executable to;

receive a collection of recommended multimedia content, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset;

offer the collection of recommended multimedia content to a user of the CPE having a registered account for the MCDN; and

wherein the offered collection is also made accessible to the user from at least one of;

an Internet website and a mobile wireless network platform.

14. The CPE of claim 13, further comprising program instructions executable to:

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

make the consumption information available to an MCDN server.

15. The CPE of claim 14, wherein the MCDN server aggregates consumption information for a plurality of CPE clients.

16. The CPE of claim 14, wherein the consumption information includes viewing and browsing information for the plurality of CPE clients.

17. The CPE of claim 14, wherein aggregated consumption information is used to generate the received collection using rankings based on at least one of:

most purchased multimedia assets, most viewed multimedia assets, and highest rated multimedia assets.

18. The CPE of claim 13, further comprising program instructions executable to:

responsive to user input, initiate purchase of a multimedia asset from the offered collection.

19. The CPE of claim 18, further comprising program instructions executable to:

submit a purchase request, including billing information.

20. The CPE of claim 19, further comprising program instructions executable to:

in response to receiving approval for the purchase request, provide the user access to the selected multimedia asset via the CPE client, 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.

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

access aggregated consumption information relating to multimedia content provided to a plurality of MCDN clients;

use the aggregated consumption information to generate a recommended collection of multimedia content, wherein the collection of multimedia content includes at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

make the collection accessible to a consumer via at least two of;

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

22. The memory media of claim 21, wherein the consumer is registered under an MCDN account.

23. The memory media of claim 21, wherein the consumption information includes rankings based on at least one of:

most purchased multimedia assets, most viewed multimedia assets, and rated multimedia assets, and wherein the rankings are generated using consumption information aggregated over a predefined time span.

24. The memory media of claim 23, wherein the rated multimedia assets are ranked based on ratings provided by a plurality of consumers.

25. The memory media of claim 21, further comprising instructions executable to:

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

26. The memory media of claim 25, further comprising instructions executable to:

receive billing information; and

responsive to verifying the billing information and receiving purchase approval, execute the purchase transaction.

27. The memory media of claim 26, wherein the billing information specifies a registered MCDN account.

28. The memory media of claim 26, further comprising instructions executable to:

in response to executing the purchase transaction, provide the consumer 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.