Method of and apparatus for controlling transmission of information on programs

• US 6,389,593 B1
• Filed: 12/11/1996
• Issued: 05/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Yasuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sajous, Wesner
• Application Number:
  US08/763,893
• Time in Patent Office: 1,980 Days
• Field of Search: 348/569, 348/570, 348/563, 348/564, 348/906, 348/7, 348/8, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 348/1, 455/2, 455/5.1, 455/2.01, 455/39, 725/9, 725/10, 725/14, 725/15, 725/16, 725/17, 725/116, 725/117, 725/131, 725/134
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• 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 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• 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 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A program-related-information transmission control method adopted on a data distributing side for transmitting program related information for programs to be broadcasted to a data receiving side by way of a data-transmission means, includes the steps of: gathering information on television-watching records obtained in accordance with relevant television-watching operations from said data receiving side; and controlling conditions for transmitting said program related information of said programs on the basis of said information on television-watching records.

Claims

1. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus employed on a data distributing side for transmitting program related information for programs to be broadcasted to a data receiving side by way of a data-transmission means, said apparatus comprising:

a television-watching-record information collecting means for gathering information on television-watching records obtained in accordance with relevant television-watching operations from said data receiving side; and

a transmission-condition controlling means for controlling conditions for transmitting said program related information of programs on the basis of said information on television-watching records made from viewer television-watching statistics so that said program related information most-likely desired is transmitted more frequently than said program related information which is less desired

wherein said transmission-condition controlling means generates information on television-watching statistics for all attributes of each program from television-watching records, and determines transmission conditions for all said attributes of each program on the basis of said information on television-watching statistics and weighted parameters for all said attributes of each program.

2. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said program related information includes either contents of programs, channels or schedules.

3. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said data-transmission means is a transmission system for transmitting information by way of a satellite or a cable television network.

4. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said television-watching-record-information collecting means gathers information on television-watching records obtained in accordance with relevant television-watching operations from said data receiving side by way of a public telephone line.

5. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said television-watching-record-information collecting means gathers records of operations carried out by the television watcher to select channels at said data receiving side as information on television-watching records.

6. A program-related-information transmission control apparatus employed on a data distributing side for transmitting program related information for programs to be broadcasted to a data receiving side by way of a data-transmission means, said apparatus comprising:

a television-watching-record information collecting means for gathering information on television-watching records obtained in accordance with relevant television-watching operations from said data receiving side; and

a transmission-condition controlling means for controlling conditions for transmitting said program related information of programs on the basis of said information on television-watching records made from viewer television-watching statistics so that said program related information most-likely desired is transmitted more frequently than said program related information which is less desired;

wherein said transmission conditions are transmission intervals at which information on television-watching records is transmitted; and

wherein said transmission intervals are each the reciprocal of the number of transmissions of information on television-watching records per unit time.