System and method for provisioning audiovisual works

An apparatus for provisioning audiovisual works to a client, comprising:

• a memory operable to:
• maintain categorization information specifying, for each of a plurality of audiovisual works, one or more of a plurality of categories;
• and
• maintain a plurality of delivery slots for a client account, each of the plurality of delivery slots identifying a particular one or more of the plurality of categories;
• and
• a controller operable to associate one or more of the categories with each of the plurality of delivery slots in response to input from one or more users associated with the client account, and, for each of the delivery slots, provision an audiovisual work from one of the categories associated with the respective delivery slot for delivery to a location associated with the client account, thereby ensuring that the client account has an inventory comprising provisioned audiovisual works for each of the delivery slots, receive information related to return of an audiovisual work, identify at least one characteristic of the returned audiovisual work, identify one of the delivery slots based on the identified characteristic, provision a second audiovisual work from one of the categories associated with the identified delivery slot for delivery to the location, and determine inventory history for the client account, wherein provisioning the second audiovisual work comprises identifying an audiovisual work in one of the categories associated with the identified delivery slot that is absent from the inventory history for delivery to the location.

A computer readable medium encoded with logic for provisioning audiovisual works to a client, the logic operable, when executed on a processor, to:

• maintain categorization information specifying, for each of a plurality of audiovisual works, one or more of a plurality of categories;
• maintain a plurality of delivery slots for a client account, each of the plurality of delivery slots identifying a particular one or more of the plurality of categories;
• associate one or more of the categories with each of the plurality of delivery slots in response to input from one or more users associated with the client account;
• and
• for each of the delivery slots, provision an audiovisual work from one of the categories associated with the respective delivery slot for delivery to a location associated with the client account, thereby ensuring that the client account has an inventory comprising provisioned audiovisual works for each of the delivery slots;
• receive information related to return of an audiovisual work;
• identify at least one characteristic of the returned audiovisual work;
• identify one of the delivery slots based on the identified characteristic;
• provision a second audiovisual work from one of the categories associated with the identified delivery slot for delivery to the location;
• and
• determine inventory history for the client account, wherein provisioning the second audiovisual work comprises identifying an audiovisual work in one of the categories associated with the identified delivery slot that is absent from the inventory history for delivery to the location.