US 9,071,874 B2Granted

System and method for recording and time-shifting programming in a television distribution system using policies

AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.

InventorsZesen Chen, Peter Chou, Sean Chen, Brian Gonsalves, Donald M Smith

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Abstract

Various embodiments of the disclosed subject matter provide methods and systems to store a policy specifying rules relating to recording, storage or delivery of broadcast programming to a consumer of such programming, and to record, store or deliver broadcast programming in response to a rule. According to an example embodiment, a method and system provide for a subscriber requesting that a broadcast television program be saved for the subscriber upstream from the subscriber in a television distribution system, and that the program offered to the subscriber for saving is determined based on a policy established for the program. According to another example embodiment a system provides a computing device including a computer program to control the recording or delivery of a broadcast television program in accordance with a policy established to control the recording or delivery of the broadcast television program.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

storing, by a system comprising a processor, a digital rights management policy specifying rules relating to how a particular channel of programming is recorded, how the particular channel of programming is delivered including defining permission on a per channel basis to fast forward the programming, recording for time shifting, storage of programming for a period of time, delivery of broadcast of programming to a consumer of such programming for a predetermined number of times, a subscriber's privilege to save programming, or delivery of rebroadcast of programming to a consumer of such programming for a predetermined number of times;
wherein the digital rights management policy comprises rules relating to determination of a total time period that stored broadcast programming is available to all subscribers for rebroadcast, wherein the total time period comprises an initial minimum time period and a subsequent delay period;
determining, by the system, the delay period in accordance with the rules, based on a number of subscriber requests for the stored broadcast programming received prior to expiration of the initial minimum period, whether the number of subscriber requests exceeds a threshold number, and a logarithmic expression having the number of subscriber requests as a parameter;
storing, by the system, the broadcast programming in accordance with the rules specified by the digital rights management policy;
and
removing, by the system, the stored broadcast programming from storage after expiration of the total time period,
wherein the digital rights management policy specifies a type of subscriber that can save or view the programming via a subscriber device.

4 more elements

A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, a processor performs operations comprising:

controlling a recording or delivery of a broadcast television program in accordance with a digital rights management policy established to control the recording or delivery of the broadcast television program,
wherein the digital rights management policy comprises rules relating to determination of a total time period that stored broadcast programming is accessible to equipment of subscribers of a television distribution system for rebroadcast, wherein the total time period comprises an initial minimum time period and a subsequent delay period;
determining the delay period in accordance with the rules, based on a number of subscriber requests for the stored broadcast programming received prior to expiration of the initial minimum period, whether the number of subscriber requests exceeds a threshold number, and a logarithmic expression comprising a constant multiplied by a logarithm of the number of subscriber requests, wherein the constant is empirically determined based on subscriber feedback and based on storage availability;
storing the broadcast programming in accordance with the rules specified by the digital rights management policy;
and
removing the stored broadcast programming from storage after expiration of the total time period,
wherein the digital rights management policy specifies how a particular type of content may be saved.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/301,433Filed 11 Jun 2014 · continuation
Priority: 21 Dec 2005
Published: US 2014/0298372 A12 Oct 2014
Granted: 30 Jun 2015
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04N 21/4627
Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic programme guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or…:…
H04N 5/76
Details of television systems: television signal recording
H04N 7/165
Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing: centralised control of user terminal ;…
H04N 7/17318
Transmission or handling of upstream communications: direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Family

Application11/316,066Parent of this continuation · filed 21 Dec 2005
US 2014/0298372 A1Pre-grant publication · published 2 Oct 2014
US 8,789,128 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2007/0143813 A1Published application
US 9,071,874 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.