System and Method for Providing Supplementary Interactive Content
First Claim
1. A method of providing television programming content and interactive data services via a plurality of communication devices disposed in a plurality of customer premises and wherein each communication device is configured to cause a display device to display television programming content and interactive content to a viewer, comprising:
- providing interactive content and programming content to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer;
wherein the interactive content includes visual content facilitating a contest and is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content;
wherein participants in the contest are accorded a score in the contest that is dependent, at least in part, on one or more events that occur in the programming content;
(a) receiving selection data that comprises data of one or more selections of contest play from each of a plurality of viewers participating in the contest;
(b) storing selection data of each viewer in memory in association with the viewer;
(c) receiving event data that comprises data of one or more events having occurred in the programming content;
(d) for each viewer, determining a score data based on the selection data of that viewer and the received event data; and
(e) for each viewer, providing that viewer'"'"'s score data to the communication device of that viewer for presentation to the viewer as part of the interactive content.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for providing television programming content and interactive data services is provided. In one embodiment, the interactive content is displayed on the television concurrently with television programming content and facilitates game play between viewers. The game may be scored for each viewer based on selection data from the viewer and event data that is determined by events occurring in the television programming content. In addition, the interactive content may present a message that conveys an incentive to the viewer to take some action such as actuating a button when a particular commercial is presented thereby allowing the service provider and advertisers to determine how many, and which, viewers watched a particular commercial. In addition, the interactive content (including the incentives) can be presented to viewers when the programming content is stored on a digital video recorder and subsequently presented thereby presenting incentives to viewers to watch commercials that were recorded as part of the television programming content.
118 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method of providing television programming content and interactive data services via a plurality of communication devices disposed in a plurality of customer premises and wherein each communication device is configured to cause a display device to display television programming content and interactive content to a viewer, comprising:
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providing interactive content and programming content to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer; wherein the interactive content includes visual content facilitating a contest and is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content; wherein participants in the contest are accorded a score in the contest that is dependent, at least in part, on one or more events that occur in the programming content; (a) receiving selection data that comprises data of one or more selections of contest play from each of a plurality of viewers participating in the contest; (b) storing selection data of each viewer in memory in association with the viewer; (c) receiving event data that comprises data of one or more events having occurred in the programming content; (d) for each viewer, determining a score data based on the selection data of that viewer and the received event data; and (e) for each viewer, providing that viewer'"'"'s score data to the communication device of that viewer for presentation to the viewer as part of the interactive content. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of using a plurality of communication devices, each configured to be connected to a television, comprising:
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providing interactive content and programming content to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer; wherein the interactive content is configured to be displayed, at least in some instances, concurrently with the programming content; wherein the programming content includes a commercial sequenced between segments of non-commercial content; providing a message to each of the plurality of communication devices for presentation to a viewer as part of the interactive content; wherein the message conveys an incentive to the viewer to take a first action during presentation of the commercial; and receiving an indication that one or more viewers performed the first action during presentation of the commercial. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of using a communication device configured to be connected to a television, comprising:
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receiving interactive content and programming content for presentation to a viewer; outputting for concurrent presentation to the viewer the received interactive content and programming content; wherein the programming content includes a commercial sequenced between segments of non-commercial content; wherein the interactive content includes a message for presentation to the viewer; wherein the message conveys an incentive to the viewer to take a first action during presentation of the commercial; receiving an indication that the viewer performed the first action during presentation of the commercial; and transmitting data indicating that the viewer performed the first action. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of providing mobile telephone communications, comprising:
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storing a mobile telephone number in a memory for each of a plurality of users; transmitting a text message that conveys a message to the mobile telephone number of each of the plurality of users; wherein the message conveys a request to reply to the text message during presentation of an identified commercial; receiving a reply to the text message from the mobile telephone of a multitude of the users; determining whether each received reply comprises a conforming reply; wherein a conforming reply comprises a reply that is received during a broadcast of the identified commercial or within a predetermined time period following the broadcast of the identified commercial; and for each user from which a conforming a reply is received, storing data of a conforming reply in memory in association with the mobile telephone number of the mobile telephone from which the reply was transmitted. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of providing a contest based on a baseball game, comprising:
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storing a destination for communicating with each of a plurality of users; receiving selection data from each of the plurality of users; wherein the selection data of each user comprises the user'"'"'s selection of four innings and for each of the four respective innings, a selection of a different one of a single, a double, a triple, and a homerun; storing the received selection data in memory in association with information of the selecting user; receiving event data that includes data of one or more hits that occur in each inning; and scoring the selection data of each user based on the event data and the selection data of each user. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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Specification