KR100233262B1 - Pay TV System Shared Mechanism of Pre-Paid and Usage Record - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a pay broadcasting system and a method thereof.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a paid broadcasting system and a method for sharing a prepaid method and a viewing content recording method in a pay broadcasting service using a smart card.

3. Summary of Solution to Invention

The present invention transmits a credential control message including information that the subscriber management center can determine the subscriber's authentication and two types of services in the card to the subscriber's smart card through the transmitter, and sends the individual credential management message of the subscriber to the card. Type in and additionally support the prepaid method and select the group that supports the viewing recording method to generate their group entitlement management message and then issue a smart card, and the smart card is a legitimate subscriber with two kinds of message decryption. It is configured to supply a paid program by authenticating the license, and determining whether it is a prepaid group or a viewing content recording group.

4. Important uses of the invention

The present invention is used in pay broadcasting system.

Description

Pay TV System Shared Mechanism of Pre-Paid and Usage Record

The present invention relates to a paid broadcasting system and a method for sharing a prepaid method and a viewing content recording method in a pay broadcasting service using a smart card.

Smart cards are developed with built-in processor and memory to make up for the shortcomings of magnetic cards (weak in memory and security), and the range of use has exploded in recent years.

Although many cable TVs provide pay broadcasting services, current cable TV broadcasting systems store individual receiving authority information in a receiver, so that pay-per-view broadcasts can be performed in an illegal manner or broadcast for free through simple operation of the receiver. There is a problem in that a poor subscriber such as watching is almost defenseless. As a way to solve this problem, by using a smart card in the pay broadcasting service, the pay broadcasting program provider can reliably collect the service fee to the subscribers. However, smart cards have conventionally been able to selectively support only one of the prepaid method or the viewing record storage method. Therefore, one of the prepaid support smart card or the smart card that accommodates the viewing time storage method, which is a post payment method, must be selected. In addition, the subscriber must purchase both types of cards to apply for only one of the prepaid / postpaid services or to apply for both services.

Thus, in the related art, when a plurality of pay broadcasting service providers share one channel of a transmitter, there is a difficulty in distributing subscriber's income. In addition, in order to distribute the fair, it is necessary to investigate which programs the subscribers prefer, and by recording and viewing the contents on the smart card, the fairness of the distribution of the viewership can be secured. Because of the memory limitations of the card, a separate method (data transfer using a modem) is necessary to periodically bring the viewing contents of the card to the central billing processor, which also requires a separate processing cost. Simply applying the viewing content recording method also could not avoid the high cost.

In addition, the subscriber must bear the expense of having to purchase two types of cards when the two methods are not solved with one card, and the inconvenience of switching cards alternately in the receiver according to the corresponding program.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention, the subscriber management center transmits the entitlement control message containing the subscriber's authentication and information that can determine the two types of services in the card to the subscriber's smart card through the transmitter, After entering the subscriber's individual credential management message into the card, additionally select the group that supports the prepayment method and the group that supports the viewing recording method to generate their group credential management message, and issue the smart card. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a pay broadcasting system and a method for supplying a pay program by determining whether the subscriber is a legitimate subscriber by deciphering two kinds of messages, and determining whether the payment is a prepaid group or a viewing content recording group.

1 is a block diagram of a pay broadcasting system according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of a subscriber management center and a smart card according to the present invention.

3A and 3B are process flow diagrams for a paid broadcast method for sharing a prepaid method and a viewing content recording method according to the present invention;

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

1: paid broadcasting provider 2: subscriber management center

3: broadcast transmitter 4: broadcast receiver

5: smart card 21: service group management unit

22: subscriber / service group / program information

23: credential management unit 24: smart card issuing unit

25: credential control message processing unit 26: credential management message processing unit

27: prepaid service processing unit 28: city hall recording processing unit

The apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a plurality of program providers for providing a paid broadcast program, a subscriber management center for managing each subscriber, a transmitter for encrypting and transmitting a broadcast program, and the subscriber management center from the subscriber management center. A smart card for storing the given information and processing the subscriber's authentication and fee, a receiving device for receiving the broadcast signal transmitted from the transmitting device and decoding the received broadcast signal by the instruction of the smart card; and In a pay broadcasting system including a display device for displaying a broadcast program decoded by a receiving device, the subscriber management center stores price information of a pay broadcasting program provided by a provider for each program and information indicating a payment method. For each subscriber and associated with the program Providing each subscriber with a database storing information indicating the information and the payment method, and a smart card including information corresponding to each subscriber stored in the database, and transmitting information related to each program stored in the database to the transmitting apparatus. The smart card includes: first memory means for storing a predetermined amount of money, second memory means for storing information related to a watched program, and program related information stored in a database of the subscriber management center. And third memory means for storing information indicating a billing method, the program related information extracted from the information received by the receiving device, and information stored in the third memory means, to collect the fee of the program to be viewed. Means for treating, and the tolling treatment water Receiving a signal from the subscriber, if the authentication of the subscriber is completed, including a means for instructing the decoding of the program to the receiving device, wherein the charge collection processing means information on the amount of money stored in the first memory when the bill payment method is a prepayment method; If the payment method is a post-payment method according to the watched program, information related to the watched program is additionally stored in the second memory means.

In addition, the method according to the present invention is a pay broadcasting service method applied to a pay broadcasting system using a smart card, the price information of the pay broadcasting program provided by the provider for each program and information indicating the payment method in the database to the database; A first step of storing; A second step of storing information related to a program selected by each subscriber and information indicating a payment method for each subscriber in a database, and storing storage information and a predetermined amount corresponding to each subscriber in a smart card; A third step of transmitting the stored program related information together with a broadcast program to a receiver; Extracting program related information from the received information; A fifth step of authenticating a subscriber using the extracted program related information and information stored in the smart card owned by each subscriber, and then confirming a payment method; A sixth step of updating already-stored predetermined amount of money information when the payment method is determined as a prepayment method by a subscriber's selection or by a supplied program; A seventh step of storing the watched program related information in a memory when a billing method is determined by a subscriber's selection or by a supplied program as a post-payment method according to the viewing of the program; And an eighth step of controlling the decoding of the received program to be displayed on the display device when the payment for the fee is completed.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment according to the present invention;

1 is a configuration diagram of a pay broadcasting system according to the present invention, in which "1" is a pay broadcasting provider, "2" is a subscriber management center, "3" is a broadcast transmitter, "4" is a broadcast receiver, and "5". Each represents a smart card.

First, the pay broadcasting provider 1 informs the subscriber management center 2 of the price information of a program, which is information necessary for generating an entitlement control message, and transmits the corresponding program to each subscriber through the broadcast transmitter 3. It transfers to pay broadcasting receiver 4. In this case, the pay broadcasting provider 1 may share a channel of the broadcast transmitter 3 because there are a plurality.

The subscriber management center 2 generates the entitlement control message with the program price information and transmits it to the broadcast receiver 4 through the broadcast transmitter 3. In addition, the subscriber management center 2 generates an entitlement management message for granting viewing authority of each subscriber and issues a smart card 5.

The broadcast receiver 4 transmits the entitlement control message from the received broadcast signal to the smart card 5 to determine whether there is a valid subscriber.

Finally, the smart card 5 confirms that the subscriber is a legitimate subscriber and transmits the viewing authority acquisition signal to the broadcast receiver 4 so that the broadcast receiver 5 can decode the program and watch the normal original broadcast signal on the television. .

2 is a block diagram of a subscriber management center and a smart card according to the present invention, where "21" is a service group manager, "22" is subscriber / service group / program information, "23" is a qualification manager, and "24" Denotes a smart card issuing unit, " 25 " a credential control message processing unit, " 26 " a credential management message processing unit, " 27 "

In order to support the subscriber's desired prepaid service and viewing content recording service with only one smart card, the subscriber's management center on the sending side and the smart card to be purchased by the subscriber perform the following roles.

The subscriber management center 2 manages a service group to generate a corresponding entitlement control message, a service group manager 21 to generate an entitlement management message for each subscriber / group, and a smart card to issue a smart card. An issuer 24 and a database 22 for storing data.

The service group manager 21 collects program information from various broadcast program providers, creates a service group of various types by classifying them by service desired by each program provider (prepayment or watching content recording method), and stores them in a database ( 22) while generating the entitlement control message for each program and transmitting it to the entitlement control message processing unit 25 of the smart card 5 through the broadcast transmitter / receiver 3 and 4, and the viewing authority information for each service group. Is sent to the credential management unit 23 for use in generating a credential management message for each service group. Using this information and subscriber authority information in the database 22, the credential management unit 23 generates individual and service-specific credential management messages, and the credential management message processing unit in the smart card to be purchased by the subscriber through the smart card issuing unit 24. To 26.

The smart card 5 includes a qualification control message processing unit 25, a qualification management message processing unit 26, a viewing record processing unit 28, and a prepaid service processing unit 29 to receive two kinds of services.

The entitlement management message processing unit 26 of the smart card 5 provides the authentication function of the subscriber to the entitlement control message processing unit 25 and determines whether to use the prepaid method or record the viewing content, and thereby the viewing record processing unit 28. Or the prepaid service processing unit 27 requests processing, and in the case of prepaid among them, the amount of money stored in the card is reduced by the corresponding price, and in the case of the viewing content recording, the viewing time is stored in the card.

The qualification control message processing section 25 decodes the qualification control message from the transmitting side after granting authority to the subscriber and grants viewing authority to the broadcast receiver 4.

3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating a paid broadcasting method for sharing a prepaid method and a viewing content recording method according to the present invention, and a service when executing a pay broadcasting service supporting both the prepaid payment and the viewing content recording method with one smart card. This is a flowchart of the grant and service usage side.

First, the flow of the service provision process is as follows.

In order to grant a service, a subscriber first selects a service he / she wants to receive in the subscriber management center 2 and branches according to the type of service selected and whether there is a payment.

If the subscriber selects both the prepaid service and the watch content recording service, and pays for the use of the prepaid service (102), the subscriber management center (2) generates an entitlement management message for each group according to the two services (105). .

If the subscriber has selected and paid for the prepaid service (103), the subscriber management center 2 generates a prepaid service group entitlement management message (106).

If the subscriber has subscribed to the watch content recording service (104), the subscriber management center 2 generates a watch content recording service group qualification management message (107).

Thereafter, an individual subscriber management message is generated (108) and recorded in the smart card together with the service group qualification management message that has already been generated (109). This message is used to authenticate the subscriber's authority inside the smart card.

Next, an entitlement control message is generated based on price information and service group information provided by the pay broadcasting program providers (110), and is transmitted to the smart card (5) at the receiving side through the broadcast transmitter / receiver (3, 4). (111).

Thereafter, the pay broadcast programs are scrambled in a form that only a subscriber with viewing authority can see, and then transmitted (112).

Next, the flow of the service use process is as follows.

When the broadcast receiver 4 of the subscriber using the service receives the broadcast signal from the broadcast transmitter 3 (113), only the entitlement control message among them is classified and sent to the smart card 5 mounted in the receiver (114).

The smart card 5 decrypts this data with the key in the personal credentials management message that has already been input (115) to determine if the subscriber is a valid subscriber (116), and if not a valid subscriber, transitions to the data receiving process (113). If the subscriber is a valid subscriber, the service type selected by the subscriber included in the group-specific entitlement management message is determined (117). As a result of the determination, if the subscriber selects both types of service groups, the subscriber decides how he / she wants to receive the information, and is passed through the receiver as an input of the card (118).

If the smart card 5 has only a group that includes a prepaid service (119), it is checked if there is a prepaid price in the card (121), and if there is no price, it ends, and if the price remains, the price is reduced ( 123). Thereafter, the smart card 5 grants the viewing authority to the broadcast receiver 4 (125), and the broadcast receiver 4 interprets it so that the paid broadcast can be watched through the television (126).

If the smart card 5 has only the viewing record storage service (120), it is determined whether there is an extra storage space in the card (122), if it does not exist, it ends, and if so, the corresponding viewing time is recorded (124). . Thereafter, the smart card 5 grants the viewing authority to the broadcast receiver 4 (125), and the broadcast receiver 4 interprets it so that the paid broadcast can be watched through the television (126).

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, and the above-described embodiments and accompanying It is not limited to the drawing.

The present invention as described above, by sharing the channel between the various service providers, it is possible to save the radio resources required for broadcasting signal transmission, and pay broadcast service providers to ensure a fair distribution of the subscription fee due to the maintenance of the viewing record for each subscriber and prepayment It helps to secure stable operation funds, and by supporting two types of services with only one smart card, it is possible to reduce the purchase cost of smart card for subscribers and improve the convenience of use. .

Claims (2)

A plurality of program providers that provide paid broadcast programs, a subscriber management center that manages each subscriber, a transmitting device that encrypts and transmits a broadcast program, stores information given from the subscriber management center, and provides subscriber authentication and fees. A display for displaying a smart card to be processed, a receiving device that receives the broadcast signal transmitted from the transmitting device, and decodes the received broadcast signal by the instruction of the smart card, and a broadcast program decoded by the receiving device. In a pay broadcasting system comprising a device, The subscriber management center, A database for storing price information and a payment method of a paid broadcasting program provided by a provider for each program, and storing information related to a program selected by each subscriber and information indicating a payment method for each subscriber; Means for providing each subscriber with a smart card containing information corresponding to each subscriber stored in a database, and providing information related to each program stored in the database to the transmitting device, The smart card, A first memory means for storing a predetermined amount of money, a second memory means for storing information related to a watched program, a third memory for storing program related information and information indicating a payment method stored in a database of the subscriber management center; Means for processing toll collection of a program to be viewed using a memory means, the program related information extracted from the information received by the receiving device, and information stored in the third memory means, and a signal from the toll processing means Means for instructing the decoding of the program to the receiving device when the authentication of the subscriber is completed, The fee collection processing means updates the amount information stored in the first memory when the fee payment method is a prepaid method, and when the fee payment method is a postpaid method according to a watched program, the fee information processing information is displayed. Pay-TV system, characterized in that the additional storage in the memory means. In the pay broadcasting service method applied to the pay broadcasting system using a smart card, A first step of storing, in a database, price information and a fee payment method of a paid broadcasting program provided by a provider for each program; A second step of storing information related to a program selected by each subscriber and information indicating a payment method for each subscriber in a database, and storing storage information and a predetermined amount corresponding to each subscriber in a smart card; A third step of transmitting the stored program related information together with a broadcast program to a receiver; Extracting program related information from the received information; A fifth step of authenticating a subscriber using the extracted program related information and information stored in the smart card owned by each subscriber, and then confirming a payment method; A sixth step of updating already-stored predetermined amount of money information when the payment method is determined as a prepayment method by a subscriber's selection or by a supplied program; A seventh step of storing the watched program related information in a memory when a billing method is determined by a subscriber's selection or by a supplied program as a post-payment method according to the viewing of the program; And An eighth step of controlling the decoding of the received program to be displayed on the display device when the payment for the fee is completed; Pay-TV service method comprising a.