Interactive television program guide system with pay program package promotion

• US 9,503,787 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2016
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Knudson, Edward B., Ellis, Michael D., Thomas, William L., Davis, Bruce L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry, Hunter B
• Application Number:
  US15/166,034
• Publication Number:
  US 20160277799A1
• Time in Patent Office: 180 Days
• Field of Search: 725/39, 725/61, 725/93, 725/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• 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 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• 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 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system is provided that allows a user to select a pay program for purchase from a program guide. The program guide determines whether the selected program is part of a package of pay programs. If the selected program is part of a package, information regarding the package is provided to the user so that the user may decide whether to purchase the package. If the selected program is part of several packages, information for all packages is provided. The system automatically sets reminders for packages containing repetitive programming. The system monitors whether the user has watched any of the programs in such packages. When the user watches a program from the package, the remaining reminders are cancelled. If a user does not watch any programs in a package of any type, purchase of the package is cancelled and the user is provided with the opportunity to reschedule.

Claims

1. A system for recommending packages of videos based on a user selection of a video, the system comprising control circuitry configured to:

receive a selection of a video identifier from a user;

based on receiving the selection, retrieve metadata corresponding to the video identifier;

determine whether the metadata comprises a first package identifier for a first package and a second package identifier for a second package, wherein both the first package and the second package contain a video corresponding to the video identifier; and

based on determining that the metadata comprises both the first and the second package identifiers;

extract a first package record for the first package and a second package record for the second package, wherein the first package record comprises a first component list for the first package and the second package record comprises a second component list for the second package; and

generate for display a first selectable option for accessing the first package, a second selectable option for accessing the second package, and a third selectable option for accessing a component of the first component list.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, based on determining that the metadata does not comprise both the first and the second package identifiers, and instead comprises a single package identifier corresponding to a single package, generate for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the single package.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the component of the first component list is a video different from the video corresponding to the video identifier.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the video identifier uniquely identifies the video corresponding to the video identifier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine whether components of the first component list are individually accessible; and

based on determining that the components are individually accessible, generate for display a plurality of selectable options corresponding to the components of the first component list.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine whether the metadata comprises a third package identifier for a third package similar to the first package; and

based on determining that the metadata comprises the third package identifier, generate for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the third package.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

based on receiving a selection of the first selectable option from the user to access the first package, generate for display a confirmation page corresponding to the first package.

8. A method for recommending packages of videos based on a user selection of a video, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of a video identifier from a user;

based on receiving the selection, retrieving metadata corresponding to the video identifier;

determining whether the metadata comprises a first package identifier for a first package and a second package identifier for a second package, wherein both the first package and the second package contain a video corresponding to the video identifier; and

based on determining that the metadata comprises both the first and the second package identifiers;

extracting a first package record for the first package and a second package record for the second package, wherein the first package record comprises a first component list for the first package and the second package record comprises a second component list for the second package; and

generating for display a first selectable option for accessing the first package, a second selectable option for accessing the second package, and a third selectable option for accessing a component of the first component list.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

based on determining that the metadata does not comprise both the first and the second package identifiers, and instead comprises a single package identifier corresponding to a single package, generating for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the single package.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the component of the first component list is a video different from the video corresponding to the video identifier.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the video identifier uniquely identifies the video corresponding to the video identifier.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether components of the first component list are individually accessible; and

based on determining that the components are individually accessible, generating for display a plurality of selectable options corresponding to the components of the first component list.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether the metadata comprises a third package identifier for a third package similar to the first package; and

based on determining that the metadata comprises the third package identifier, generating for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the third package.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

based on receiving a selection of the first selectable option from the user to access the first package, generating for display a confirmation page corresponding to the first package.

15. A system for recommending packages of videos based on a user selection of a video, the system comprising:

means for receiving a selection of a video identifier from a user;

means for retrieving metadata corresponding to the video identifier based on receiving the selection;

means for determining whether the metadata comprises a first package identifier for a first package and a second package identifier for a second package, wherein both the first package and the second package contain a video corresponding to the video identifier; and

based on determining that the metadata comprises both the first and the second package identifiers;

means for extracting a first package record for the first package and a second package record for the second package, wherein the first package record comprises a first component list for the first package and the second package record comprises a second component list for the second package; and

means for generating for display a first selectable option for accessing the first package, a second selectable option for accessing the second package, and a third selectable option for accessing a component of the first component list.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

based on determining that the metadata does not comprise both the first and the second package identifiers, and instead comprises a single package identifier corresponding to a single package, means for generating for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the single package.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the component of the first component list is a video different from the video corresponding to the video identifier.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the video identifier uniquely identifies the video corresponding to the video identifier.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for determining whether components of the first component list are individually accessible; and

means for generating for display a plurality of selectable options corresponding to the components of the first component list based on determining that the components are individually accessible.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for determining whether the metadata comprises a third package identifier for a third package similar to the first package; and

means for generating for display a fourth selectable option for accessing the third package based on determining that the metadata comprises the third package identifier.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

means for generating for display a confirmation page corresponding to the first package based on receiving a selection of the first selectable option from the user to access the first package.