METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MEDIA CONTENT
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority from Waites, "Method and System for Providing Media Content," United States Provisional Application No. SO/249, 925, filed November 17, 2000, herein incorporated by reference.
FT81X) OF THE PSESENT INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and system to acquire media content, comprising, for example, movies, music, and video games, from national distributors, or in some cases, directly from the studios, record companies, and/or manufacturers and to provide this media content through the a network to customers. The acquisition and delivery of this content is described in this document.
SUMMARY OF THE IWEirøXON
Media content will be delivered from distributors/manufacturers to a server/provider on taps, DVD, disc or other medium. In most cases the content will be delivered over he Internet. The se ve will provide the infrastructure to receive this media content.
In addition, broadcast television will be routed through the server/provider for delivery to customers. The transmission from the broadcast television providers to server/provider will, initially, be adapted to the broadcast television providers existing infrastructure. As television broadcast evolves into Digital TV, this segment of the transfer will be modified appropriately by the
server/provider. The transmission of the broadcast television content from the server/provider to customers will occur via infrastructure provided by the server/provider, The madia content described above will be stored on database servers. The content will be copied to the database in digital format. The server/provider will host application and web servers at a secure, high-availability co-hosting location. Customers will access the server/provider web site on these web servers through the Internet. The application servers will manage the selection, rental, sale, and delivery of the movies/music/games. Customers will be able to find and request movies/music/games by Actor, Director, Title, Category, Style, or other suitable criteria from this database. The web customer interface provided by the server/provider will facilitate selection and ordering. Ordering may be for rental or, in certain cases, purchase.
Data transfer to and from server/' rovider will rake place across fiber optic cable. This fiber optic cable network will go all the way into the customer's home, and connect to a set-top box. It is also contemplated that the set top box can provide (replace) the function o£ a video rape recorder. The instant set box will comprise hardware and software capable of recording media content on a drive in the set top box for replay and a future time.
The set-top box will be provided by the server/provider, in collaboration with various hardware, software, and telecommunications experts. The set-top box will remain the property of the server/provider and is
installed, along with the installation of fiber optic cable into the customer's home. There will be an installation fee and a deposit required.
The server/provider set-top box will replace the customer's cable box. It will supply Internet connection, through the server/provider. It will also provide a cable TV connection. As an extra-cost opticn, the set-top box will contain a DVD player/recorder. Movies/inusic/games can be purchased from the server/provider and recorded onto CD's/DVD disk right on the set-top bos.
The server/provider control ox will control the TV and all the devices in the set-top box, thereby replacing multiple remote controls for the customer.
A typical scenario would be as follows: A customer presses a button on the control box that navigates to the server/provider website via the server/provider network. The user sees the server/provider login screen on a TV set. Ml interaction with the server/provider is through the customer's TV, by way of the set-top box, controlled by the controller box. If the customer is new, he is routed to a web page that allows him to become a member. A credit card is registered for that Customer. At this point the customer is allowed to enter a usarname, and the system issues a password for that customer. A registered customer goes to a page that allows him to select movies, music, or video games. If the customer indicates that he wishes to choose a movie, he is then taken to a page that allows him to choose a movie, in choosing a movie, the customer ιε able to search by actor, director, year of release, genre, rating, or one of several other criteria. Once the customer chooses the
movie, it is added to his "basket". Several movies, music selections, and/or video games can be added to the "basket" in similar fashion. The customer can click a button to check out. After a brief confirmation message, the customer can check this item or items out and his credit card, debit card or smart card is charged for the purchase or purchases. At this point the servers retrieve the digital images of the selected media content, i.e., movie ( s ) /music/game (s) and begins transmission. In the case of a movie, as an example, the movie is transmitted across the fiber optic network to the set-top box in the customer's home. The set-top box stores the digital image of the movie to its internal hard disc. At this point the user can play the movie on his TV, to which the set-top box is connected. The playback is controlled by the controller box. The Customer can begin playback at any time. Once playback begins, a timer within the set-top box is started. From this point, in time, the customer has use of this music for a se period of time (say, two weeks) . During that time period, the customer can start, atop, rewind, and replay the movie at will. Once the time period has expired, the movie will be marked for deletion from the set-top hard disc. After this point in time, the next time the customer accesses a server/provider function from the set-top box (for example, to play a movie or a music track) , the system will display a message on the TV screen informing the user that the movie has expired, and asking the customer if he wishes to purchase the ovie. If the customer answers "No," the system deletes the movie from the hard disc. If the customer answers "Yes, " the system displays a screen (a web page at the server/provider) that
allows the customer to purchase the movie.
A similar scenario would exist for music and video games .
The attached figure has been generally described above and is provided to illustrate an embodiment of the present invention. It should be understood that the illustrative embodiment is not limiting and thoβe skilled in the art would ec gnize various equivalent embodiment that could also ba used and which would be in the scope of this invention.