JP2001157191A - Method and device for introducing channel for multi- channel program distribution - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To introduce a non-contracted channel suited to the taste of a party to a contract in multi-channel program distribution. SOLUTION: When introducing the non-contracted channel suited to the taste of the party to the contract this method has a step for calculating program rating data of all parties to a contract to all channels, step for resolving the program rating data of all the parties to the contract to all the channels into plural clusters, step for respectively extracting the standard patterns of the plural clusters, step for performing pattern matching between the party to the contract as the object of introduction among all the said parties to the contract and the respective standard patterns and selecting a certain standard pattern, and step for extracting the non contracted program rating component of the party to the contract as the object of introduction an setting a non contracted channel, with which a maximum value is taken among the components, as an introduction channel for the party to the contract as the object of introduction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pay per view when a pay broadcast is received.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a channel introduction method and a channel introduction device of a multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that meets a subscriber's preference in a multi-channel program distribution to which a method is applied.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the era of satellite broadcasting in recent years, pay-per-view (pa) services for receiving pay-broadcasts such as CS digital broadcasting have been proposed.
(Y per view) system is being put to practical use, and all television broadcasts such as terrestrial digital, satellite broadcast, and CATV will be digitized by 2010.

In this kind of multi-channel program distribution, for example, it is possible to broadcast a program on nearly 100 channels by making full use of digital compression technology such as MPEG2 and high efficiency coding technology. By subscribing a desired channel to a program distribution destination, it is possible to watch a program of the subscribed desired channel.

[0004] On the other hand, in introducing a non-contracted channel to a user in multi-channel program distribution, common sense knowledge such as the frequency of previously received channels is used to obtain, for example, a baseball broadcast channel audience rating. Introducing other sports channels to subscribers who have high ratings.

[0005]

By the way, in the above-described channel introduction in the conventional multi-channel program distribution, a channel having a high reception frequency in the past is utilized by utilizing common knowledge such as the frequency of the channel received in the past by the user. Although it is possible to introduce unsubscribed channels that have a correlation with sports channels, it is difficult to introduce non-subscribed channels such as cooking programs that are not correlated with sports channels to subscribers who have high audience ratings for sports channels. It has become.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a first invention is suitable for a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from multi-channel program distribution. A channel introduction method in a multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel, wherein the uncontracted channel is introduced to the contractor by using a clustering and pattern matching method with respect to a result of extracting a program preference tendency of the entire contractor. This is a method for introducing channels in multi-channel program distribution.

A second invention is a channel introduction method in a multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that matches the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution, Calculating audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers, decomposing audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers into a plurality of clusters, and extracting standard patterns of the plurality of clusters, respectively. ,
A step of performing pattern matching between the referral target subscribers of all the subscribers and the respective standard patterns, and selecting a certain standard pattern; and, of the components of the selected one standard pattern, Extracting an uncontracted audience rating component of the subscriber, and setting an uncontracted channel having the maximum value as the introduction channel for the introduced target subscriber. Is the way.

[0008] Further, a third invention is a channel introduction device for multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that meets the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution, Means for calculating audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers, means for decomposing audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers into a plurality of clusters, and means for extracting standard patterns of the plurality of clusters, respectively. , The referral target contractor among all the contractors and the respective standard patterns,
Means for performing pattern matching and selecting a certain standard pattern; extracting, from among the components of the selected one standard pattern, an uncontracted audience rating component of the introduction target subscriber, and taking the maximum value among them Means for setting an uncontracted channel as an introductory channel for the introduction-target contractor.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a channel introduction method and a channel introduction apparatus for multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining a channel introduction method in multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a channel introduction device in multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention. .

[0011] In the channel introduction method and the channel introduction device in the multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention, when introducing an uncontracted channel that matches the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution, It is characterized by introducing an uncontracted channel to a contractor by using a clustering and pattern matching method with respect to a result of extracting a program preference tendency of the entire contractor.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in step 1, the audience rating data calculating means 1 calculates audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers. In the audience rating data calculating means 1, the distribution channel n is set to CH _n (n
= 0,1,2, ..., n, ..., m: m = total number of channels-
1), and CH _n of a certain contractor A (distribution channel n)
Is _Pn . However, the rating of the uncontracted channel is “0”. At this time, the audience rating data for all channels of a certain contractor A is A = (P ₀ , P ₁ , P ₂ ,.
, P _n ,..., P _m ).

Then, the same method as described above is repeated to calculate audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers who have subscribed to multi-channel program distribution, and arrange them in the m + 1-dimensional space in the same manner as described above for all subscribers. Then, the result is stored in the audience rating data storage means 2. The audience rating data storage means 2 may be provided as needed.

Next, in step 2, the audience rating data for all the channels of all the subscribers stored in the audience rating data storage means 2 is called to the clustering means 3, and these are called up by a certain clustering algorithm into some clusters C _i. (I = 0, 1, 2,..., T: t = the number smaller than the total number of subscribers−1).

Next, in step 3, the standard pattern extracting means 4 determines the standard pattern of each cluster from a plurality of clusters as Ac _i = (P ₀ , P ₁ , P ₂ ,..., P _n ,
.., P _m ). Here, in the symbols of the standard pattern Ac _i described above, c _i indicates a suffix of A, and _i indicates a suffix of c.

Next, in step 4, pattern matching is performed by the pattern matching means 5 using some kind of matching algorithm between the introduced contractor A _u of all the contractors and the standard pattern Ac _i of a plurality of clusters.
Step 5 selects one of the standard patterns Ac _u in the standard pattern selecting means 6. Here, the symbols of the standard patterns Ac _u one described above, c _u represents the suffix A, _u is defined hereinafter as showing suffix c.

Next, at step 6, the introduction channel setting means 7 selects one of the standard patterns A selected above.
Among the components of c _u, the uncontracted audience rating component of the introduction target subscriber A _u is extracted, and the uncontracted channel having the maximum value among the components is set as the introduction channel for the introduction target subscriber A _u . The introduction channel obtained here is transmitted to the introduction target contractor _Au .

<Embodiment> In the channel introduction method for multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention, a channel introduction method (algorithm) using the NN method as a clustering method and the minimum distance between patterns as a pattern matching method will be described.

First, a set of audience rating data patterns of the entire contractor is represented by A _all = {A ₁ , A ₂ ,..., A _s }. Also, the pattern distance between certain two patterns (A _j , A _k ) is d (A _j , A _k ). Further, the distance between a certain pattern A _{j and a} certain cluster C _i is defined as a distance between A _j and a standard pattern of C _i , d (A _j , C _i ) = d (A _j , Ac _i ). I do.

Hereinafter, [Procedure 1] to [Procedure 3] will be described.

[Procedure 1] The number of processed patterns: NP = 1, the number of created clusters: NC = 1, and a cluster C _NC (= C ₁ ) using A _NP (= A ₁ ) as a standard pattern is created. I do.

[Procedure 2] dmin = min ｛d (A_{NP + 1}, C_i)｝: 1 ≦ i ≦ NC where T is a small threshold value and dmin
Depending on the value, if dmin <T, then A_{NP + 1}Dmin
Give C_iBelong to. On the other hand, if dmin ≧ T, A
_{NP + 1}New cluster C with the standard pattern _{NC + 1}To
Create and increase the value of NC by one.

[Procedure 3] If NP ≦ N, return to Procedure 2 and
On the other hand, if NP> N, the process ends. The pattern of the contractor A _{u to be} introduced is changed to the pattern A _u-on of the contract channel component only.
And a pattern A _u-off having only uncontracted channel components.

Generated by the above procedures 1 to 3,
Also all the standard pattern of the cluster, introduce the subject contractor A just and pattern Ac _i-on of the contract channel component of _u, only the pattern A non-contract-channel component of the introduction target contractor A _u
Decompose into ci _-off .

Thereafter, the next distance is obtained.

Dmin '= min ｛d (A _u-on , Ac
_i-on )｝: 1 ≦ i ≦ total number of clusters Among the Ac _i-off components of the cluster C _i that gives dmin ′, an uncontracted channel of the component having the maximum value is set as the introduction channel.

[0027]

According to the channel introduction method and the channel introduction device for multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention described in detail above, channel correlations that cannot be extracted by common-sense knowledge are extracted by clustering, and all are extracted by pattern matching. It becomes possible to find patterns with very similar channel correlations from the subscriber ratings, and by changing the clustering and pattern matching methods, it is possible to extract more accurate correlations and reduce the amount of matching processing. Can introduce a non-contracted channel to the contractor with the specifications according to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining a channel introduction method in multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a channel introduction device in multi-channel program distribution according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... audience data calculation means, 2 ... audience data storage means, 3 ... clustering means, 4 ... standard pattern extraction means, 5 ... pattern matching means, 6 ... standard pattern selection means, 7 ... introduction channel setting means.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A channel introduction method in a multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that matches the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution. A channel introduction method for multi-channel program distribution, wherein an uncontracted channel is introduced to the subscriber by using a clustering and pattern matching method based on a result of extracting a tendency. 2. A channel introduction method in a multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that matches the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution, the method comprising: Calculating audience rating data for all channels, decomposing audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers into a plurality of clusters, extracting standard patterns of the plurality of clusters, respectively, Performing pattern matching between the referral target contractor and each of the standard patterns, and selecting a certain standard pattern; of the components of the selected one standard pattern, the non-contract of the referral target contractor Extract the audience rating component and assign the non-contracted channel that takes the maximum value to the referral target subscriber. Multichannel program distribution definitive channel trailer method characterized by a step of setting as an introducer channel that. 3. A channel introduction device for multi-channel program distribution for introducing an uncontracted channel that matches the preference of a subscriber who has subscribed to a desired channel from the multi-channel program distribution, wherein all channels of all subscribers are provided. Means for calculating audience rating data for all channels, means for decomposing audience rating data for all channels of all subscribers into a plurality of clusters, means for extracting standard patterns of the plurality of clusters, respectively, Means for performing pattern matching between the referral target contractor and each of the standard patterns, and selecting one standard pattern; of the components of the selected one standard pattern, the referral target contractor's non-contract Extract the audience rating component and select the uncontracted channel that takes the maximum value among the referral channels for the referral target subscriber. Multichannel program distribution definitive channel introduction apparatus is characterized in that a means for setting as.