Apparatus and methods for ensuring delivery of geographically relevant content

• US 8,838,149 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2012
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hasek, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Siddiqui, Kashif
• Application Number:
  US13/437,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20130260796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4143, 455/466, 4554561-457, 725 32- 61
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for ensuring delivery of geographically relevant content to IP-enabled user devices associated with a content distribution network. In one embodiment, the network (or designated content source) determines a geographic context or location of the user device, and uses this information to manage the packaging and delivery of content thereto so as to obey blackout restrictions and/or provide content which is relevant to the geographic context/location. In one variant, the user device comprises a mobile device such as a tablet computer or smartphone, and the content is delivered thereto over either a managed or unmanaged network infrastructure.

Claims

1. A method of delivering content that is geographically relevant to an Internet Protocol-enabled client device, the method comprising:

obtaining content which has a geographic relevance associated therewith;

receiving a request for the content from the client device, the client device having a geographic context associated therewith;

generating a playlist for the requested content, the generated playlist having at least one trigger contained therein; and

providing the playlist to the client device, the client device configured to display the requested content via the playlist, and when the trigger is reached obtain a redirection link, alternate content to which the redirection link is associated being related to the geographic context of the client device;

wherein the redirection link is provided to the client device irrespective of an actual geographic location thereof.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the redirection link is configured to cause the client device to access a geographic enforcement entity within a managed network for one or more links to replacement content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one trigger is inserted into the playlist based at least in part on a determination that the geographic relevance of the content is not compatible with the geographic context of the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a mobile device, and the geographic location thereof is configured to vary as a function of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the mobile device periodically updates its geographic context to a network entity.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the network entity comprises an entity within a managed content distribution network, and the playlist is delivered over a second network, the second network comprising a network other than the managed content distribution network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the network comprises a mobile wireless network comprising at least one of:

(i) a third generation (3G) cellular network;

(ii) a fourth generation (4G) cellular network; and

(iii) a wireless local area network (WLAN).

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the network entity comprises an entity within a managed content distribution network, and the playlist is delivered over the managed content distribution network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is associated with a user who is a registered subscriber of a managed content distribution network.

10. A method of delivering content that is geographically relevant to an Internet Protocol-enabled client device, the method comprising:

obtaining content;

packaging a plurality of versions of the content, the plurality of versions of the content each comprising respective triggers having different geographic contexts associated therewith; and

providing individual ones of the plurality of versions to respective ones of IP-enabled client devices, the act of providing being based at least in part on geography-specific identification information associated with the respective ones of the IP-enabled client devices, the geography-specific identification information being established at a time of registration of the respective ones of the IP-enabled client devices and not subject to variance concurrent with a variance of the physical location of the respective ones of the IP-enabled client devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of packaging comprises generating respective playlists for plurality of versions of the content, the generated playlists each having at least one trigger contained therein, the at least one trigger being configured to cause the respective ones of the plurality of client devices to obtain a redirection link.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the respective ones of the plurality of client devices comprise mobile devices, and the respective playlists for the portion of the respective ones of the plurality of client devices are distributed over a mobile wireless IP delivery network.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the redirection link is configured to enable the respective ones of the plurality of client devices to obtain content that is appropriate for their respective geography-specific identification information.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the content comprises adaptive bitrate content, and the content is provided to the respective ones of the plurality of client devices via a multimedia streaming communications protocol comprising at least one of:

(i) Apple®

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS); and

(ii) Microsoft Smooth Streaming.

15. Mobile apparatus configured to receive Internet Protocol media via a media distribution network, the mobile apparatus comprising:

an interface;

a storage device configured to store an identifier of a geographic location of a subscriber account to which the mobile apparatus is registered thereon; and

a processor in data communication with the storage device and configured to execute a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed;

generate a request for user-selected media for transmission to a first entity of the network, the request comprising at least the identifier, the first entity configured to determine the geographic location of the subscriber account to which the mobile apparatus is registered based at least in part on the identifier provided therefrom;

receive from the network a manifest of one or more content elements of the user-selected media, the manifest further comprising one or more markers; and

utilize at least one of the one or more markers to obtain one or more replacement content elements from a second entity.

16. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the media distribution network comprises a managed network.

17. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first entity and the second entity comprise a single entity.

18. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the identifier comprises a device identifier which is correlated to an address of the subscriber account.

19. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the identifier comprises an IP address, a geographic location associated therewith being derived from the IP address.

20. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the user-selected media comprises adaptive bitrate content, and the at least one marker comprises a Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers-35 trigger.

21. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the utilization of at least one of the one or more markers comprises receipt of one or more uniform resource locators associated to the replacement content elements from a network server.

22. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the replacement content elements are selected based at least in part on the geographic location of the subscriber account.

23. The mobile apparatus of claim 15, wherein the media distribution network comprises one of:

(i) a third generation (3G) or fourth generation (4G) cellular network; and

(ii) a Wi-Fi network.