Automated account crediting after interruption or failure of paid content delivery

• US 9,749,668 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Dachiraju, Nageswara Raju, Martinez, Jesus, Guntupalli, Anil K., Ventrapragada, Viswas, Bedse, Pritam, Vengidasamy, Kanagaraj, Raju, Mukunda, Rongali, Bhanu
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saint Cyr, Jean D
• Application Number:
  US14/473,742
• Publication Number:
  US 20160066002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/306 using TV related infrastructures external card used for payment with client device H04N21/4185
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• 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 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards

Abstract

One or more devices may receive activity logs from multiple set-top-boxes (STBs); determine that an outage has occurred based on the activity logs; identify one or more STBs, of the plurality of STBs, that failed to play back paid content during the outage, or where playback of paid content, by the one or more STBs, was interrupted during the outage; and credit corresponding accounts associated with the one or more STBs.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more devices, error notifications from a plurality of set-top-boxes (STBs), wherein each particular STB, of the plurality of STBs, generates a particular error notification when a particular item of content has failed to play at the particular STB for at least a threshold duration of time, wherein the plurality of STBs are located in a particular geographic region, wherein the items of content that have failed to play at the plurality of STBs correspond to a same content title;

determining, by the one or more devices, a first ratio of a first quantity of the STBs, that provided error notifications, to a second quantity of STBs located in the particular geographic region;

determining, by the one or more devices, a second ratio of the first quantity of STBs, that provided error notifications, to a third quantity of STBs to which the content title was provided;

determining, by the one or more devices, that the first ratio exceeds a first threshold ratio;

determining, by the one or more devices, that the second ratio exceeds a second threshold ratio;

determining, based on determining that the first and second ratios respectively exceed the first and second threshold ratios and by the one or more devices, that an outage has occurred in the particular geographic region and with respect to the content title; and

crediting, based on determining that the outage has occurred in the particular geographic region and by the one or more devices, corresponding accounts, associated with each of the plurality of STBs, for an amount associated with the content that has failed to play at each of the plurality of STBs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that an outage has occurred further includes:

determining that the first quantity of STBs exceeds a threshold quantity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content includes:

on-demand content stored by a content storage server, or broadcasted pay-per-view content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein crediting the corresponding accounts includes providing a cash credit or a credit for additional paid content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a credit amount based on crediting policy information identifying a maximum credit benefit,

wherein crediting the corresponding accounts is based on determining the credit amount.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting information regarding the crediting of a particular account to a user device associated with the particular account.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

confirming the error notifications received from the plurality of STBs, wherein confirming the error notification from the particular STB includes;

outputting a confirmation request to the particular STB, and

receiving a response to the confirmation request,

wherein determining that the outage has occurred is further based on the confirmation of the error notifications.

7. A system comprising:

a non-transitory memory device storing a plurality of processor-executable instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions causes the processor to;

receive error notifications from a plurality of set-top-boxes (STBs), wherein each particular STB, of the plurality of STBs, generates a particular error notification when a particular item of content has failed to play at the particular STB for at least a threshold duration of time, wherein the plurality of STBs are located in a particular geographic region, wherein the items of content that have failed to play at the plurality of STBs correspond to a same content title;

determine a first ratio of a first quantity of the STBs, that provided error notifications, to a second quantity of STBs located in the particular geographic region;

determine a second ratio of the first quantity of STBs, that provided error notifications, to a third quantity of STBs to which the content title was provided;

determine that the first ratio exceeds a first threshold ratio;

determine that the second ratio exceeds a second threshold ratio;

determine, based on determining that the first and second ratios respectively exceed the first and second threshold ratios, that an outage has occurred in the particular region and with respect to the content title; and

credit, based on determining that the outage has occurred in the particular geographic region, corresponding accounts, associated with each of the plurality of STBs, for an amount associated with the content that has failed to play at each of the plurality of STBs.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions, to determine that an outage has occurred, causes the processor to:

determine that the first quantity of STBs exceeds a threshold quantity.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the content includes:

on-demand content stored by a content storage server, or broadcasted pay-per-view content.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions, to credit the corresponding accounts, causes the processor to provide a cash credit or a credit for additional paid content.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

determine a credit amount based on crediting policy information identifying a maximum credit benefit,

wherein executing the processor-executable instructions, credit the corresponding accounts, causes the processor to credit the corresponding accounts based on determining the credit amount.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

output information regarding the crediting of a particular account to a user associated with the particular account.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

receive activity logs, from the plurality of STBs, the received activity logs having one or more error codes relating to the interruption or failure of a particular STB, of the plurality of STBs, to receive the particular item of content, the particular activity log being received from the particular STB, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions, to determine that the outage has occurred, causes the processor to determine that the outage has occurred further based on information in the identified particular activity log having the one or more error codes.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing:

a plurality of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors associated with a device, cause the one or more processors to;

receive error notifications from a plurality of set-top-boxes (STBs) that are located in a particular geographic region, wherein each particular STB, of the plurality of STBs, generates a particular error notification when a particular item of content has failed to play at the particular STB for at least a threshold duration of time, wherein the items of content that have failed to play at the plurality of STBs correspond to a same content title;

determine a first ratio of a first quantity of the STBs, that provided error notifications, to a second quantity of STBs located in the particular geographic region;

determine a second ratio of the first quantity of STBs, that provided error notifications, to a third quantity of STBs to which the content title was provided;

determine that the first ratio exceeds a first threshold ratio;

determine that the second ratio exceeds a second threshold ratio;

determine, based on determining that the first and second ratios respectively exceed the first and second threshold ratios, that an outage has occurred in the particular region and with respect to the content title; and

credit, based on determining that the outage has occurred in the particular geographic region, corresponding accounts, associated with each of the plurality of STBs, for an amount associated with the content that has failed to play at each of the plurality of STBs.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine that an outage has occurred, further causes the one or more processors to:

determine that the first quantity of STBs exceeds a threshold quantity.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the content includes:

on-demand content stored by a content storage server, or broadcasted pay-per-view content.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to credit the corresponding accounts, cause the one or more processors to provide a cash credit or a credit for additional paid content.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the plurality of instructions further causes the one or more processors to:

determine a credit amount based on crediting policy information identifying a maximum credit benefit,

one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to credit the corresponding accounts, cause the one or more processors to credit the corresponding accounts based on determining the credit amount.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein one or more instructions of the plurality of instructions, further cause the one or more processors to:

receive activity logs from the plurality of STBs, wherein one or more of the activity logs includes an error code relating to a failure to play content; and

filter the activity logs to identify particular activity logs, of the received activity logs, having error codes relating to the failure of the STBs to play the particular item of content, wherein one or more instructions, of the plurality of instructions, to determine that the outage has occurred, cause the one or more processors to determine that the outage has occurred further based on information in the identified activity logs having the error codes.