Television commerce payments

A system for enabling television (“TV”) commerce to generate revenue streams for TV originators in an interactive television environment, said environment having a connection to a computer network and said system comprising:

• means for initiating a TV commerce transaction by a consumer using a device in said interactive television environment, wherein:
• said transaction pertains to an offering of a merchant;
• said device is communicably coupled to a computer of said merchant and to an issuer of a payment account of said consumer;
• and said computer of said merchant is further communicably coupled to an acquirer that is distinct from, and that processes payments for, said merchant;
• means for gathering, at said device, TV context information related to a TV context in which said offering is presented to said consumer, wherein said TV context information enables identifying one or more TV originators, each of which is distinct from said merchant;
• means for digitally signing said gathered TV context information, at said device;
• means for transmitting said digitally-signed TV context information with a payment authorization request sent from said device to said issuer of said payment account, wherein said payment authorization request requests authorization of payment, using said payment account, for said transaction;
• means for determining, by said issuer, whether said issuer authorizes said payment using said payment account, and if so, means for:
• including said digitally-signed transmitted TV context information in an authorization token created by said issuer;
• digitally signing, by said issuer, said authorization token;
• and
• sending, from said issuer to said device, a payment authorization, wherein said payment authorization comprises said authorization token, with said TV context information included therein;
• means for forwarding said payment authorization from said device to said computer of said merchant;
• means for transmitting said digitally-signed authorization token with a payment capture request sent from said computer of said merchant to said acquirer, wherein said payment capture request requests said acquirer to collect, from said issuer, said payment for said transaction;
• means for verifying, by said acquirer, that said issuer authorized said payment and that said TV context information has not been altered by verifying said issuer's digital signature on said authorization token and said digital signature on said TV context information, respectively;
• and
• means for collecting, by said acquirer upon a successful outcome of said means for verifying, said payment for said transaction from said issuer, and for automatically allocating a portion of said collected payment to one or more of said TV originators, according to said TV context information received in said digitally-signed authorization token from said issuer and reducing an amount of said payment to be paid to said merchant by said automatically allocated portion.

A computer program product for enabling television (“TV”) commerce to generate revenue streams for TV originators, said program product embodied on computer readable media readable by one or more computing systems in an interactive television environment having a connection to a computer network and comprising:

• computer-readable program code means for initiating a TV commerce transaction by a consumer using a device in said interactive television environment, wherein:
• said transaction pertains to an offering of a merchant;
• said device is communicably coupled to a computer of said merchant and to an issuer of a payment account of said consumer;
• and said computer of said merchant is further communicably coupled to an acquirer that is distinct from, and that processes payments for, said merchant;
• computer-readable program code means for gathering, at said device, TV context information related to a TV context in which said offering is presented to said consumer, wherein said TV context information enables identifying one or more TV originators, each of which is distinct from said merchant;
• computer-readable program code means for digitally signing said gathered TV context information, at said device;
• computer-readable program code means for transmitting said digitally-signed TV context information with a payment authorization request sent from said device to said issuer of said payment account, wherein said payment authorization request requests authorization of payment, using said payment account, for said transaction;
• computer-readable program code means for determining, by said issuer, whether said issuer authorizes said payment using said payment account, and if so, computer-readable program code means for:
• including said digitally-signed transmitted TV context information in an authorization token created by said issuer;
• digitally signing, by said issuer, said authorization token;
• and
• sending, from said issuer to said device, a payment authorization, wherein said payment authorization comprises said authorization token, with said TV context information included therein;
• computer-readable program code means for forwarding said payment authorization from said device to said computer of said merchant;
• computer-readable program code means for transmitting said digitally-signed authorization token with a payment capture request sent from said computer of said merchant to said acquirer, wherein said payment capture request requests said acquirer to collect, from said issuer, said payment for said transaction;
• computer-readable program code means for verifying, by said acquirer, that said issuer authorized said payment and that said TV context information has not been altered by verifying said issuer's digital signature on said authorization token and said digital signature on said TV context information, respectively;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for collecting, by said acquirer upon a successful outcome of said computer-readable program code means for verifying, said payment for said transaction from said issuer, and for automatically allocating a portion of said collected payment to one or more of said TV originators, according to said TV context information received in said digitally-signed authorization token from said issuer and reducing an amount of said collected payment to be paid to said merchant by said automatically allocated portion.

A method of allocating revenue for television (“TV”) commerce, comprising steps of:

• gathering contextual information related to a TV context in which a transaction between a consumer and a merchant is initiated, wherein the transaction is initiated in an interactive TV environment and wherein the contextual information enables identifying one or more TV originators, each of which is distinct from the merchant;
• including a digitally-signed version of the contextual information, digitally signed at a device of the consumer, when requesting authorization of payment for the transaction;
• including the digitally-signed version with a digitally-signed authorization token that is created and digitally signed, by an issuer of an account of the consumer, and sent to an acquirer that processes payments for the merchant and that is distinct from the merchant to signify that the issuer authorizes the payment from the account;
• and
• upon determining, by the acquirer, that it has received authenticated digitally-signed authorization token pertaining to the transaction and an authenticated digitally-signed version of the contextual information, programmatically allocating a portion of the payment authorized by the authenticated digitally-signed authorization token to one or more of the TV originators identified by the authenticated digitally-signed version of the contextual information.