Content recommendations based on communal preferences

• US 9,280,543 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• 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: Piepenbrink, David J., Chow, Lee M., Sofos, James T.
• Primary Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US12/559,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066674A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,367 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 709/231, 725/1, 725/9, 725/86
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 content recommendation method, comprising:

retrieving consumption information collected for a plurality of consumers, wherein the consumption information is associated with multimedia content available from a multimedia content distribution network;

obtaining contextual information indicative of a current interaction by a user with the network, wherein the contextual information includes information about at least one of;

current browsing, current viewing, current recording, and current network account activity;

identifying portions of the consumption information based on a current time and day and geographical location of the user;

generating a collection of recommended multimedia content, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset, based on;

the contextual information;

the portions of the consumption information; and

multimedia asset rankings indicative of at least one of;

most purchased multimedia assets; and

most viewed multimedia assets;

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

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the network, and a mobile portal; and

providing the user access to the selected multimedia asset from the unified storefront application, via at least one of;

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

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the collection includes generating multimedia asset rankings based on multimedia content ratings.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the multimedia content ratings include ratings provided by at least some of the plurality of consumers.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein retrieving the consumption information includes retrieving consumption information collected over a predefined time span.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the collection includes customized multimedia content offered exclusively and multimedia content offered non-exclusively wherein the customized multimedia content is selected based on at least one of:

a sponsorship setting of a particular television program, a sponsorship of a particular television channel, and a sponsorship of a television program service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the customized multimedia content is selected based on a length of service of the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the unified storefront application offers the collection, and wherein the unified storefront application makes the collection accessible, the method further comprising:

responsive to receiving user input selecting a multimedia asset for a purchase request from the collection, submitting the purchase request from the storefront application, wherein billing information is received by the storefront application.

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

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

responsive to receiving approval for the purchase request, providing the user access to the selected multimedia asset from the unified storefront application, via at least one of;

a web portal, an Internet-protocol television portal provided by the network, 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:

studio, shooting location, crew members, and award information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

generating the collection comprises generating, based on consumer information provided by the user, 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 collection of multimedia content includes multimedia content with selectable triggers that display as popups selectable to access the electronic storefront.

13. A customer premises equipment device, comprising:

a processor; and

a network interface configured to connect to a multimedia content distribution network;

a computer readable medium including stored, processor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

accessing aggregated consumption information indicative of multimedia content received by a plurality of network clients;

accessing contextual information describing a current network interaction by a user;

identifying portions of the consumption information based on a current time and day and geographical location of the user;

receiving a collection of recommended multimedia content, generated based on;

the portions of consumption information;

the contextual information, including at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

multimedia asset rankings indicative of at least one of;

most purchased multimedia assets; and

most viewed multimedia assets; and

offering the collection of recommended multimedia content to the user.

14. The customer premises equipment device of claim 13, wherein the operations include:

maintaining local consumption information associated with multimedia content received by the customer premises equipment device over the network; and

providing the local consumption information available to a network server.

15. The customer premises equipment device of claim 14, wherein the network server aggregates consumption information for a plurality of customer premises equipment clients.

16. The customer premises equipment device of claim 14, wherein the consumption information includes viewing and browsing information for the plurality of network clients.

17. The customer premises equipment device of claim 14, wherein aggregated consumption information is used to generate the received collection using rankings based on highest rated multimedia content.

18. The customer premises equipment device of claim 13, wherein the operations include:

responding to user input by initiating purchase of a multimedia asset from the collection.

19. The customer premises equipment device of claim 18, wherein the operations include:

submitting a purchase request, including billing information; and

providing the user with access to a selected multimedia asset via a customer premises equipment client in response to receiving approval for the purchase request, 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.

20. The customer premises equipment device of claim 19, wherein the recommended multimedia content includes selectable triggers that display as popups.

21. A computer-readable memory medium including stored, processor executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

accessing aggregated consumption information relating to multimedia available to a plurality of network clients via a multimedia content network;

accessing contextual information describing a current interaction by a user with the multimedia content network;

identifying portions of the aggregated consumption information based on a current time and day and geographical location of the user;

based at least on the aggregated consumption information, the contextual information, and multimedia asset rankings indicative of at least one of;

most purchased multimedia assets and most viewed multimedia assets;

generating a recommended collection of multimedia content including at least one obtainable multimedia asset; and

making the recommended collection accessible to the user via a portal selected from the group of portals including;

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

22. The memory medium of claim 21, wherein the user is registered under a network account.

23. The memory medium of claim 21, wherein the aggregated consumption information includes rankings based on consumer ratings of multimedia content, wherein the rankings are generated using consumption information aggregated over a predefined time span.

24. The memory medium of claim 21, wherein the obtainable multimedia asset includes selectable triggers that display as popups and that, when selected, provide access to an electronic storefront.

25. The memory medium of claim 21, wherein the operations include:

responding to receiving consumer input by selecting a multimedia asset for a purchase transaction;

receiving billing information; and

executing the purchase transaction.

26. The memory medium of claim 25, wherein the billing information specifies a registered network account.

27. The memory medium of claim 25, wherein the operations include:

providing, in response to executing the purchase transaction, the consumer access to the selected multimedia asset via at least two of;

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