Affiliate bandwidth management
AssigneeStarz Entertainment, LLC
InventorRichard T. Brownrigg, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, systems, and machine readable media are disclosed for managing bandwidth usage of a content provider. According to one embodiment, a system for managing bandwidth usage of a content provider can comprise a content provider system adapted to maintain and provide content and a first affiliate system comprising an affiliate network, an affiliate server communicatively coupled with the affiliate network, and a client. The client can be adapted to selectively request the content from either the content provider system or the affiliate server of the first affiliate system based on bandwidth costs for the content provider system.
Claims24
A system for managing bandwidth usage of a content provider, the system comprising:
- a content provider system adapted to maintain and provide content;
- a first affiliate system comprising an affiliate network and an affiliate server communicatively coupled with the affiliate network;
- and
- a client device maintaining information:
- identifying locations for the content,
- identifying a bandwidth cost charged by the first affiliate system to the content provider associated with the client device obtaining the content from each location, and
- defining an agreement between the content provider and the first affiliate system, and wherein the client device includes a set of instructions which cause the client device to selectively request the content from either the content provider system or the affiliate server of the first affiliate system based on at least:
- the locations for the content,
- the bandwidth cost charged by the first affiliate system to the content provider, and
- the agreement between the content provider and the first affiliate system.
A method of managing bandwidth usage of a content provider, the method comprising:
- maintaining information at a client device, the information:
- identifying locations for content and a bandwidth cost charged by an affiliate to the content provider associated with the client device obtaining the content from each location, and
- defining an agreement between the content provider and the affiliate;
- selecting with the client device a location for retrieving content based on at least:
- the locations for content,
- the bandwidth cost charged by the affiliate to the content provider, and
- the agreement between the content provider and the affiliate;
- and
- retrieving the content with the client device from the selected location.
A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon a series of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to manage bandwidth usage of a content provider by:
- maintaining the information at the client device, the information:
- identifying locations for content and a bandwidth cost charged by an affiliate to the content provider associated with the client device obtaining the content from each location, and
- defining an agreement between the content provider and the affiliate;
- selecting with the client device a location for retrieving content based on at least:
- the locations for content,
- the bandwidth cost charged by the affiliate to the content provider, and
- the agreement between the content provider and the affiliate;
- and
- retrieving the content with the client device from the selected location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.