JPH0462236B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a pay-charging system in a two-way CATV system.

Conventional structure and its problems When providing a paid channel service, it is important for management to promote viewer usage and increase revenue, and to reduce costs with fewer problems. Become. In addition, there is a remarkable tendency in the service industry such as hotels to dislike troubles with viewers.

What is particularly important is the serviceability at the time when the viewer selects a pay program and charges are made.

Several attempts have been made in the past, but all of them were insufficient from the above point of view and contained some kind of defect.

As one conventional example, when a paid channel is selected, a video indicating that the selected channel is paid is first output (the time during which this video is output is called ticker time), and during that time, the user can watch the video for pay. In a system where charges are made only when an approval procedure (pressing a pay button, etc.) is completed, billing is postponed for a certain period of time (referred to as a cooling-off time) after the procedure is completed, and the user selects another channel during the cooling-off time. There are some devices that have been devised so that charges will not be charged if this is done.

However, although this method is effective to a certain extent in preventing erroneous charges when a user accidentally touches a pay button, it has the following disadvantages.

(1) The content of paid programs cannot be checked until they are charged, making it difficult to encourage viewers to use them.

(2) The cooling-off time is not clearly disclosed to subscribers, and it is not positioned as a time when users can easily watch for free, so it has little effect on promoting viewer usage.

(3) Viewers who are aware of the cooling-off time,
There is a possibility that people may try to watch for free by repeatedly using the cooling-off time.

Another conventional example is that when a paid channel is selected, the selected channel is first allowed to be viewed for free for a certain period of time (referred to as trailer time), and then a video indicating that the selected channel is paid is output. There is a method in which charging is performed only when a procedure for approving paid viewing (pressing a pay button, etc.) is performed during that time. In this case,
Although some of the problems listed above will be resolved,
On the contrary, it has the following disadvantages.

(1) Since viewers can watch the program repeatedly for free, it is easy for viewers to try listening without being charged, and there are cases where they do not end up paying for viewing.

(2) If you accidentally touch the pay button when the selected channel is outputting a video indicating that the channel is chargeable, you will be charged an erroneous charge.

(3) Since there is a possibility of the above-mentioned erroneous charges, avoid trouble with viewers in the event that a viewer who intended to watch the show maliciously claims erroneous charges (this tendency is particularly strong in hotels) For some reason, usage fees may not be collected.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention is a paid program service that solves the problems of the conventional method, promotes the use of paid channels, improves the usage fee collection rate, and prevents troubles with users due to erroneous charges. It provides a method.

Configuration of the Invention The present invention includes a broadcasting center, a terminal device, and a transmission line connecting the broadcasting center and the terminal device.

The broadcasting center consists of a center computer and various audiovisual equipment. The terminal device consists of a terminal control device, a television receiver, and a keypad, and has the following means.

(1) A means to select a paid channel using the keypad and then watch it for free for a certain period of time.

(2) Means for notifying that the selected channel is chargeable for a certain period of time after the certain period of time in (1) has passed.

(3) Means for counting the number of times that the free viewing operation described in (1) has been started, and when a predetermined number of times is reached, notifying that free viewing is not performed and that a fee is charged.

(4) A means to perform the fee confirmation procedure during a certain period of time when the selected channel in (3) is notified that the fee is charged.

(5) After completing the paid confirmation procedure in (4), a method of viewing for free for a certain period of time.

(6) Means for counting the number of times the free viewing operation described in (5) has been started, and when reaching a predetermined number of times, notifying the center computer via the transmission line that the charging state has been entered without performing free viewing. .

(7) Means for notifying the center computer from the terminal control device that the selected channel has entered the billing state via the transmission path.

(8) A means of charging at the center computer.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS As an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the present invention is applied to a hotel will be described below. Figure 1 shows the system configuration. Broadcasting center 100 and terminal devices 3 in each guest room
00 are connected via a transmission line 200. The broadcasting center 100 includes the center CPU 110, a source group 120 for video and audio information, and a video and audio switching device 13.
0, a head end 140, and a modem 150. In addition, the signal from the antenna 160 that receives commercial television broadcasts installed outside the hotel is
It is input to head end 140 via cable 16.

Additionally, the signal from the external information source 170 is
It is input to the head end 140 via cable 17. The center CPU 110 is a computer,
It consists of a display device, magnetic disk device, floppy disk device, magnetic tape device, line printer device, card reader device, etc. The source group 120 is the independent broadcasting studio device 12
1. Consists of a video tape recorder 122, a video disc player 123, a character/graphics generator 124, etc. The source group 120 and the video/audio switching device 130 are controlled by the center CPU 110 via the cables 11 and 12. Various video and audio signals from the source group 120 are input to the video and audio switching device 130 via the cable 13, and video and audio signals selected by the video and audio switching device 130 in accordance with control signals from the center CPU 110 are input to the video and audio switching device 130 via the cable 14. , head end 1
40. Further, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 300, the center CPU 110 and the head end 14
0 is connected via modem 150 and cable 15. The head end 140 has the function of modulating various input video and audio signals, the function of mixing this modulated video and audio signal with the modulated data signal from the center CPU 110, and the function of sending this mixed video and audio data signal to the transmission path 200. It has a function of outputting a modulated data signal sent from the terminal device 300 via the transmission line 200 to the center CPU 110 via the cable 15 and the modem 150.

The transmission line 200 is composed of a bidirectional trunk amplifier 210, a bidirectional branch amplifier 220, a bidirectional duplexer 230, a series unit 240, and a cable 21.

The terminal device 300 includes a terminal control device 310, a keypad 320 for selecting channels, and a television receiver 330. The terminal control device 310 has the function of transmitting and receiving data with the center CPU 110, and converts the frequency of the video and audio signals sent via the transmission line 200 according to the channel selection signal from the keypad 320, and outputs the converted signals to the television receiver 330. Has a function. The terminal control device 310 and the keypad 320 are connected by a cable 31. Further, the terminal control device 310 and the television receiver 330 are connected by a cable 32.

Furthermore, the block diagram of the terminal control device 310 is shown in a second diagram.
As shown in the figure. The terminal control device 310 is a distributor 31
1, an electronic tuner 312, a modem 313, a terminal control unit 314, an address setting switch 315, a power relay 316, and a power sensor 317.
10, channel switching of the television receiver 330 by controlling the electronic tuner 312, power on/off management of the television receiver by controlling the power relay 316, detection of key input from the keypad 320, LED display section 321 of the keypad 320
Display output to.

Further, a plan view of the keypad 320 of the terminal device is as shown in FIG. 3, and 321 is an LED for displaying channel information corresponding to the pressed key;
322 is the request key for paid channels, 3
23 is the request key for the hotel channel group, 3
24 is a request key for the TV retransmission channel group, 325 is a response key for confirmation of viewing when requesting a paid channel (the above-mentioned paid confirmation key) 32
6 is a channel request key for explaining the operation of the system, and 327 is a power switch.

Note that the receiver, keypad, and terminal control device may be integrated or separate.

The operation will be explained below.

First, in order to perform bidirectional data transmission between the center CPU 110 and the terminal device 300, one data channel is provided in addition to the video channel, and the downlink data signal from the center CPU 110 is modulated by the modem 150. After that, it is mixed with other video channel signals as the data channel signal at the head end 140,
The signal is transmitted to the terminal device 300 via the transmission path 200, and the terminal control device 310 demodulates the signal of the data channel and processes it as downlink data from the center CPU 110.

Next, the uplink data signal from the terminal device 300 is modulated by the terminal control device 310, put on the data channel, and transmitted to the head end 140 via the transmission path 200, where the other channel signal is transmitted. The separated data channel signal is transmitted to the modem 150, demodulated by the modem, and then sent to the center CPU 110.

Note that by using different carrier frequencies for uplink data and downlink data, bidirectional data transmission is possible with one transmission channel.

Next, as a transmission method, in order to enable data transmission with multiple terminals, a multi-drop boring method is used, a unique number (address) is assigned to each terminal device, and command data with the address added is sent from the center CPU 110. In the format shown in FIG.
The bit serial downstream data from 110 is received, all data is reassembled into the format shown in FIG. 4, and temporarily held in memory.

Next, the terminal control unit 314 compares the address part of the held data with its own address read from the address setting switch 315, and only if they match, determines that the data from the center is valid and uses the current command. In addition to carrying out corresponding terminal processing, the uplink data from the terminal device 300 is sent to the center CPU 110 in a bit serial format in the format shown in FIG. 4 within a specified time.

An example of commands from the center is shown in FIG.

The operation of the present invention will be explained below.

First, prior to the start of broadcasting on a pay channel, the center CPU 110 notifies the terminal device 300 of each of the lengths of the trailer time, telop time, and cooling off time, as well as the number of times of trailering and cooling. At this time, if some or all of the three time lengths and the two number of times are stored in the terminal device 300 in advance in hard logic or ROM, the remaining time lengths and the number of times are notified.

The operation of the system after the viewer selects a paid channel is listed below in bullet points. Those in which the subject is omitted indicate operations of the terminal control unit 314.

(1) When the viewer operates the keypad 320 and selects an arbitrary paid channel A, the terminal control unit 314 first checks whether the free viewing for the number of trailers has been completed. this is,
This determination is made by comparing the number of trailers with a counter that is incremented by one each time this free viewing is performed.

(2) If the free viewing for the number of times of the trailer has not been completed, the electronic tuner 312 is controlled to output the selected channel to the television receiver 330. At the same time, a timer monitoring logic for monitoring the passage of a certain period of time (trailer time) is activated within the terminal control unit 314. If another channel is selected before the trailer time elapses,
Start receiving operation for that channel. When the paid confirmation key 325 is pressed during trailer time, there are two ways to enable or disable it. Only if it is enabled, proceed to operation (4). If there is no keypad input until the trailer time has elapsed, the operation moves to step (3) after the trailer time has elapsed.

If the free viewing for the number of times of the trailer has been completed, the free viewing is omitted and the process moves to operation (3).

(3) The electronic tuner 312 is controlled to automatically switch to a channel that is always broadcasting a notification message indicating that the channel is a paid channel. At the same time, within the terminal control unit 314, a timer monitoring logic for monitoring the passage of a certain period of time (telop time) is activated. If another channel is selected before the telop time elapses, reception operation for that channel will begin. If there is no keypad input until the trailer time has elapsed, the channel will automatically switch to a specific channel. If the paid confirmation key 325 on the keypad is pressed before the ticker time elapses, the process moves to step (4).

(4) Control the electronic tuner 312 to output the selected channel to the television receiver 330.

If the free viewing for the number of cooling-off times has not been completed, at the same time, a timer monitoring logic for monitoring the elapse of a certain period of time (cooling-off time) is activated within the terminal control unit 314. If another channel is selected before the cooling off time elapses, reception operation for that channel will begin (billing processing will not be performed). If there is no keypad input until the cooling off time has elapsed, the process moves to (5) billing processing.

If the free viewing for the number of cooling-off times has been completed, the free viewing is omitted and the process moves to billing processing in (5).

(5) The terminal control unit 314 stores that the corresponding paid channel has entered the charging state. Then, in response to regular inquiries (borrowing) from the center computer 100, it is notified that the corresponding pay channel has entered the billing state. This is the command 2 in Figure 4, and the status is 1.
This is achieved by allocating bits to "billing notifications" and setting the corresponding paid channel number in the viewing channel data. The center computer performs predetermined billing processing based on this notification.

Note that the cooling-off time can be operated either explicitly to the viewer or not, so in some cases it may be effective to select an operation that does not impose usage restrictions based on the number of cooling-off times.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention can solve the disadvantages of the conventional example and exhibit the following effects.

(1) Viewers can be encouraged to use the program because they can easily check the program content for free before being charged.

(2) There is a limit to the number of free viewings due to trailer time and cooling-off time, so a program will not continue to be viewed for free forever. Additionally, the center can notify you of the free time and upper limit, so you can easily adjust it for optimal operation.

(3) Even if you accidentally touch the paid button when a video indicating that the selected channel is paid, you can cancel it by pressing any other key within the cooling off time.

(4) In response to complaints about erroneous billing, double free time and flexible use of cooling-off time (adjustment of time and disclosure/non-clarification of cooling-off time operation) will ensure that viewers' feelings are not hurt. It is possible to significantly improve the recovery rate without having to do so.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the main parts of a two-way CATV system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the terminal control device in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a keypad diagram of the terminal device in FIG. 1. plan view of
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a communication data format between the center CPU and the terminal control device, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of commands from the center CPU. 100...broadcast center, 110...center
CPU, 200...transmission line, 300...terminal device,
310... terminal control device, 320... keypad, 330... television receiver.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A broadcasting center composed of a center computer and various audiovisual equipment, a terminal device having a terminal control device, a television receiver, and a keypad, and a transmission line connecting the broadcasting center and the terminal device. As a component, the terminal device includes means for, when performing a pay broadcasting service, selecting a pay channel using the keypad and then previewing it for free for a certain period of time (hereinafter the free viewing time is referred to as trailer time); and the trailer time. After the elapse of time, means for notifying that the selected channel is chargeable for a certain period of time (hereinafter, this time of notifying that the charge is charged is referred to as ticker time), and counting the number of times the free viewing operation is entered;
A means of notifying the user that when a predetermined number of times has been reached, the free viewing will not be performed and a fee will be charged; a means of carrying out a paid confirmation procedure; and a means of performing free trial listening for a certain period of time after the said paid confirmation procedure ( (Hereinafter, this free viewing time will be referred to as a cooling-off time); and means for notifying the center computer via the transmission path that the selected channel has entered a charging state, and the center computer is configured to perform charging. 1. A two-way CATV system, comprising: means for performing the following: If no other channel is selected during the cooling off time, charging is made for the selected channel. 2 The number of free viewings after the paid confirmation procedure (hereinafter referred to as the cooling-off number) is counted, and when a predetermined number of times is reached, the number of free viewings is counted, and when the number of free viewings reaches a predetermined number, a notification is sent via the transmission path to indicate that the charging state has been entered without performing free viewing. The two-way CATV system according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying a center computer.