System and method for using vehicle radio to control delivery of premium content to a smartphone

A system for controlling access to content available wirelessly from a remote content source and obtained by a personal electronic device (PED) of a user, for subsequent use with a radio system of a vehicle associated with the user, the system comprising:

• an identifier at least one of stored by, or available to, the radio system of the vehicle, and adapted to be communicated to the PED via a first communications link with the PED;
• a remote authorization subsystem including a server, the server including a database containing a plurality of authorization codes associated with a plurality of vehicles;
• a first application stored on the PED adapted to manage submitting the identifier to the remote authorization subsystem and receiving an authorization code back from the remote authorization subsystem when the radio system is authorized to obtain content from the content source;
• a second application stored on the PED configured to:
• communicate with the first application for receiving the authorization code from the first application;
• and
• to use the authorization code when accessing the remote content source to obtain content from the remote content source while the PED is being operated within the vehicle.

A method for controlling access to content available wirelessly from a remote content source, the method comprising:

• providing a vehicle having an electronics subsystem which includes a radio system;
• providing a personal electronic device (PED);
• creating a short range wireless link between the vehicle electronics subsystem and the PED;
• using the vehicle electronics subsystem to provide an identifier to the PED via the short range wireless link that identifies the vehicle as being authorized to use content received from the remote content source,
• using the PED to access a remote authorization subsystem and to present the identifier to obtain an unlock command from the remote authorization subsystem;
• and
• using the PED to present the unlock command to the remote content source when accessing the remote content source, wherein the unlock command enables the PED to receive the content while the PED is being used in the vehicle.