VIDEO-ON-DEMAND CONTENT DELIVERY METHOD FOR PROVIDING VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICES TO TV SERVICE SUBSCRIBERS

• US 20170332145A1
• Filed: 07/31/2017
• Published: 11/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Broadband iTV, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Broadband iTV, Inc.
• Inventors: Perez, Milton Diaz
• Granted Patent: US 10,129,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25858 involving client software characteristics, e.g. OS identifier
• 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 : for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 : End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 : using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 : involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• 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 21/858 : Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/99 : dummy group

Abstract

A video-on-demand (VOD) content delivery system has a VOD Application Server which manages a database of templates for presentation of video content elements of different selected types categorized in hierarchical order. A web-based Content Management System receives content uploaded online in file formats with metadata for title and topical area, and automatically converts it into video data format compatible with the VOD content delivery system indexed by title and topical area. A User Interface for the system delivers listings data to the viewer'"'"'s TV indexed by title and topical area specified by the uploaded metadata.

Claims

1. A video-on-demand application for providing video-on-demand services, stored on non-volatile computer readable memory and programmed to perform at least the following steps:

(a) receiving, at a set top box operatively connectable to TV equipment of a television service subscriber via a closed system, first metadata, associated with a first video content and usable in a video-on-demand content menu, the first metadata comprising;

(1) first title information comprising a first title, and

(2) first content provider designated hierarchically arranged category information and subcategory information to specify a location of the first title information for the video content in the video-on-demand application, the first content provider designated category information and subcategory information associated with the first title information of the first video content using a same hierarchical structure of categories and subcategories as is to be used for placement of the first title information in the video-on-demand application;

wherein the first video content was uploaded to a Web-based content management system by a content provider device associated with a first video content provider via the Internet in a digital video format, along with the associated first metadata including first title information, and first content provider designated hierarchically arranged category information and subcategory information designated by the first video content provider, to specify a hierarchical location of the first title of the first video content within a video-on-demand content menu using the first category information and first subcategory information associated with the first title information;

(b) generating, at the set top box, the video-on-demand content menu for navigating through titles, including the first title of the first video content, by hierarchically-arranged category information and subcategory information including at least the first category information and the first subcategory information in order to locate a respective one of the titles whose associated video content is desired for viewing on the TV equipment, wherein the video-on-demand content menu is generated based at least on the first metadata;

wherein the video-on-demand content menu lists the titles using the same hierarchical structure of category information and subcategory information as was designated by one or more video content providers, including the first video content provider, in the uploaded metadata for the respective video content, wherein a plurality of different display templates, including a first video display template, are accessible to the set top box, and wherein the video-on-demand application accesses the first video display template for generating and displaying the video-on-demand content menu at the TV equipment of the television service subscriber; and

(c) in response to (i) the television service subscriber selecting, via a control unit in communication with the set top box, the first title associated with the first video content from the hierarchically-arranged category information and subcategory information of the video-on-demand content menu, and (ii) the set top box transmitting an electronic request for the first video content associated with the selected first title, receiving, at the set top box via the closed system, the first video content associated with the selected first title for display of the first video content on the TV equipment of the television service subscriber.

2. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the control unit is a remote control unit.

3. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to track and collect data indicative of selections for viewing of video-on-demand video content by the television service subscriber on the television service provider system.

4. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to track and collect data indicative of drill down navigation paths used by the television service subscriber to select respective video content.

5. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of different display templates correspond to different levels of the hierarchical structure of the respective category information and subcategory information.

6. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of different display templates is configured to display a logo frame.

7. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of different display templates is configured to provide navigation buttons.

8. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of different display templates is configured to provide viewer selection options.

9. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the first metadata further includes descriptive data about the video content.

10. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the first metadata further includes at least one display image associated with the video content.

11. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the respective category information and subcategory information associated with the first video content correspond to one or more topics that pertain to video content from more than one content provider.

12. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of different display templates is used to generate a templatized video-on-demand display that comprises a background and a template layer having one or more areas for display of metadata provided by the video content provider.

13. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to track viewer navigation paths corresponding to the navigation through titles by category and subcategory.

14. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to generate the video-on-demand content menu dynamically by retrieving menu content from a database operatively connected to a video-on-demand content delivery system and using the retrieved menu content with the at least one of the plurality of different display templates.

15. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to generate the hierarchical structure of category information and subcategory information in the video-on-demand content menu by real-time database queries of the respective category information and subcategory information uploaded by each respective video content provider.

16. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand content menu comprises a search interface that allows the television service subscriber to search a video content database based on specified characteristics.

17. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand content menu is an interactive user interface.

18. The video-on-demand application of claim 1, wherein the video-on-demand application is further programmed to use at least one of the plurality of different display templates to generate a templatized video-on-demand display that comprises a background screen.