FI124534B - Provision of a media service - Google Patents

Description

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PROVISION OF MEDIA SERVICES

The present invention relates generally to the provision of a media service such as a television broadcast or video service.

IPTV is an Internet protocol based technology for the distribution of television and video broadcasts. For example, in various IPTV services, the customer can watch TV shows, record the desired TV shows on a network storage and watch them at any time, and rent and watch movies provided by video rental companies 10.

FI / EP 1119972 discloses a method for controlling the selection of a video on demand service. When offering products, we take into account the customer's own interests, the customer's previous orders, and the customer's 15 previous searches.

US 2010/0125544 also discloses a software recommendation solution based on a user's own usage history.

20 A new solution for providing a media service such as IPTV is now being offered.

The first aspect of the invention provides a computer implemented method for providing a media service. The method 25 collects usage information about actual usage of said media service, combining said usage usage information and artificially generated usage information to form aggregated usage information, and using said combined usage information to form client-specific recommendations i in said media service,

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x 30 said usage information is associated with a particular user profile or one or more

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the user profile and said User profile or features are taken into account in generating said customer-specific recommendations, and said artificial usage information comprises automatically generated random usage information.

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Another aspect of the invention provides apparatus for providing a media service. The apparatus comprises at least one processor and at least one computer program stored in memory configured with said at least one processor to direct said hardware 5 to use actual usage information of said media service, to combine said actual usage usage information and artificially generated usage information to form consolidated usage information. composite usage information for generating customer-specific recommendations 10 in said media service, said usage information associated with a particular user profile or one or more user characteristics, and wherein said at least one computer program is further configured with said at least one processor to control said hardware to account for said user profile or features. form small and said artificial usage data includes automatically generated random usage information.

The apparatus of the second aspect of the invention may be adapted to perform the method of any embodiment associated with the first aspect.

A third aspect of the invention provides a computer program comprising computer executable program code which, when executed, directs the device to execute a method according to the first aspect or one of its related embodiments.

The computer program according to the third aspect may comprise program code which may be executed, for example, in any of the following: general-purpose processor, microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit and digital o x 30 signal processor. The computer program according to the third aspect may be

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stored on computer readable media. Such media can be eg diskette, CDROM, DVD, BD (Bluray Disc), flash drive or other magnetic or optical media, δ

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The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 3

Figure 1 shows a system according to an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 shows a device according to another embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 4 shows a message diagram according to an embodiment of the invention; and Figure 5 shows a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a system according to an embodiment of the invention. It should be noted that the pattern comprises both separate physical devices and various logical components, the operation of which may be performed in one or more physical devices.

The system comprises a portal 101 providing an IPTV service or the like. In practice, the portal 101 is, for example, a web page hosted on a server. Portal 101 comprises various components such as Widgets 102, Ads 15 103, (User) Recordings 104, Electronic Program Guide (EPG) 105, Announcements 106, and Video On Demand (VOD) 107. It should be noted that this is just one example of the IPTV Portal and that not all of the components shown here may be needed and that Portal 101 may include other components. In addition to the IPTV service, the portal may also be another 20 media portal providing media content.

Portal 101 communicates with communication network 108 and thereby to client devices 109-112. The client device examples provided herein are computer (PC) 109, set-top-box (STB) 110, tablet PC 111, and mobile or other mobile device 112. Client devices 109-112 may be fixed data communication devices or wireless terminals o ™. In addition to the examples shown, client devices 109-112 can be? Other devices for viewing motion picture / video. The 108 ° communication network may consist of several different networks, such as the Internet and the like

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£ broadband networks such as ADSL, VDSL and Ethernet networks, and S 30 wireless networks such as WLAN, GSM, UMTS and LTE networks.

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o Portal 101 is connected to a user database 113 (user DB), which is used to identify users of portal 101 and to authenticate users.

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The portal is also linked to video on demand service 114 and content services 115. The VOD service 114 and content 115 may be provided by third-party services, or part of them can be a portal provider 101 self-managed content.

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Portal 101 is adapted to distribute media broadcast, such as TV or video broadcast, to client devices 109-112 over communication network 108 based, for example, on IPTV technology. The distribution can be performed using, for example, Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTTS), Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Distribution may be effected via Portal 101, or Portal 101 may direct distribution directly from video-on-demand service 114 and from content services 115 to communication network 108.

The system further comprises a statistical data collection component (stat) 116, a statistical database (stat DB) 117, a random data component 118, a logic engine component 119, and a m remote database (metadata DB) 120.

The statistical data collection component 116 collects usage information about actual usage of portal 101 from client devices 109-112. The statistical data collection component 20 116 may request usage information from client devices 109-112, or client devices 109-112 may be configured to automatically provide usage information without request.

The collected usage data is stored in the statistical database 117. The usage data can be stored in a specific user profile and / or in a specific user profile.

The x random data component 118 comprises random, artificially generated user data. The random data component 118 can be used to associate usage information with the usage information of the statistical database. The random data component 118 may be a database containing random data, or it may be a random generator that is

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configured to produce random data. Such a random generator may, for example, derive its threshold from statistical and / or metadata databases 117, 120, 5, or it may be a pure random generator that generates random weighting factors for the logic engine 119.

The logic engine component 119 communicates with the statistical database 117 and the metadata 120 of the 5. The metadata 120 may be, for example, a program guide database or a movie guide database or other auxiliary information database related to the content of the IPTV service. In addition, there may be multiple metadata databases. The logic engine component 119 is configured to analyze usage information and content information (e.g., program information or other information available from metadata databases) and form user or user group specific recommendations based thereon.

In one embodiment, the functionality of the Portal 101, User Database 113, Statistical Data Collection Component 116, Statistical Database 117, 15 Random Data Component 118 and Logic Engine Component 119 of Figure 1 may be combined into a single logical entity provided by one physical device (or multiple parallel devices). In other words, all service intelligence is located on a single device and the service utilizes content and program information available from external sources (contents 115, video on demand 114 and metadata such as program information 120). Alternatively, it is also possible that the video-on-demand component 114, the content component 115, and the metadata 120 also reside on the same physical device or at least under the control of the provider providing the IPTV service of portal 101. In this case, the content of the video service component 114, o 25 and the remote database 120 of the video service component 114, o 25 may be retrieved, downloaded or stored from an i-L external source, cp Γ-- 0 1

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on one or more devices. If necessary, ¥ 30 devices with an identical function can be provided in parallel, for example for load balancing.

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In one embodiment, the media service is implemented as a centralized cloud service, where the service intelligence is implemented on a server (s) managed by the media service provider. Figure 1 is a dashed line 121 illustrating the components that, in one embodiment, provide the functionality of such a cloud service. However, it should be noted that in some embodiments, all of the functionality shown is not part of the cloud service, but that the cloud service, for example, may utilize external content sources.

In addition to the components shown in Figure 1, the media service as a whole may also work with an external media broadcasting entity. For example, various broadcast service providers such as DVB (digital video 10 broadcasting) service providers may broadcast media to client devices 109-112. Information relating to the use of this media broadcast may also be utilized in various embodiments of the invention.

Figure 2 shows an example of a device 20 suitable for implementing some embodiments 15 of the invention. The device may be, for example, a general purpose computer or server and may be adapted to provide, for example, the functionality of one or more components 101, 113-120 of Figure 1.

The device 20 comprises a processor 21 for controlling the operation of the device and a memory 22 comprising a computer program / software 23. The computer software 23 may comprise instructions for the processor to control the device 20, such as an operating system and various applications. Further, the computer software 23 may comprise an application comprising instructions for controlling the device 20 so as to provide functionality according to an embodiment of the invention.

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The i-L Processor 21 may be, for example, a central processing unit,

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i · '- CPU), microprocessor, digital signal processor (o x DSP), graphics processor, or the like. The figure shows one processor, but the device may have multiple processors.

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^ The memory may be, for example, read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM (Electronically erasable 7 programmable read- only memory), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, optical or magnetic memory, or the like. Your device may have multiple memories. The memory may be part of the device 20 or it may be a separate module which can be connected to the device 20. The memory can only be used to store data 5 or it can also be used for data processing.

The device 20 further comprises a communication unit 25. The communication unit provides an interface for communicating with other devices. The interface can be, for example, a wired connection such as an Ethernet connection or an ADSL / VDSL-10 connection or a wireless connection such as WLAN, Bluetooth, GSM / GPRS, CDMA, WCDMA or LTE. The communication interface module may be integrated into the device 20 or may be part of an adapter, card or the like which may be connected to the device 20. The communication unit may support one or more communication technologies or the device may have multiple communication units.

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To receive input from the user and output to the user, the device 20 may also comprise a user interface unit (not shown), which may comprise, for example, a display and a keyboard (not shown) which may be an integrated part of the device 20 or independent parts connectable to the device 20. However, the user interface may not be needed or the user interface may be implemented remotely through the communication unit 25.

The device 20 may also comprise one or more databases 24 (shown by a dashed line). The databases may comprise, for example, some or all of the databases 113, 117, 118, 120 of Figure 1 δ 25 or parts thereof.

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In addition to the elements shown in Figure 2, the device 20 may comprise other x elements.

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Figure 3 illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the invention which

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° can be applied, for example, to the system of Figure 1 and the device 20 of Figure 2.

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In step 31, usage information about actual usage of the IPTV service is collected. This can be accomplished, for example, by requesting usage information from the terminals connected to the service, or the terminals may be configured to automatically supply usage information without any request. Usage data can be collected 5 in real time. For example, the terminal may send usage information whenever a predetermined event occurs, such as starting a watch, changing an active television program, changing a channel, shutting down the device, and decreasing / improving the connection quality. You can also send usage information at certain intervals.

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The collected usage information may include, for example, one or more of the following: active television channel, active television program, unique identifier for the service, client device activity or load meter, quality of data connection (e.g. IP), one or more of the device shutdown, application launch / shutdown, handover), timestamp, client device / client ID.

The usage information collected in step 32 is combined with the artificially generated usage information 20. The artificial usage data can be, for example, completely random data or random weighting factors for the collected usage data. The purpose of artificial usage data is to make use data more versatile and to provide surprising alternatives. In this way, it may be possible to form a better user profile of the target customers faster than before. Artificial o 25 usage data may also be artificial ι-t obtained from a third party. Usage information that may relate, for example, to certain content or services that i want to improve awareness of. Such use of the information on the specific content x can also be commissioned by a third-party media service or IPTV service

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seemingly random usage information generated by the provider. 30 ^ of the third party does not need to provide artificial information in ready to use form ° o

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Based on the combination of usage data collected in step 33 and artificial usage data, customer-specific recommendations are formed. Recommendations may include, for example, TV shows, movie rentals, commercials, new features, and / or other services available through the IPTV service. Recommendations 5 may take into account collected usage data for the customer's own use or other users belonging to a particular profile or group of customers. The artificial usage data may be the same regardless of the target customer or target customer profile, or it may be customer-specific or profile-specific.

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Customer-specific recommendations can be displayed, for example, in Section 103 of Portal 101 of Figure 1.

The following is an example of the operation of an embodiment 15 of the invention: 1) The statistics database gathers genres of TV programs watched from the user's client device.

2) The system makes recommendations to the user based on the usage data collected from the user 20.

Recommendation 1: - Actual usage data collected from the user indicates 80% action, 10% comedy, and 10% other genres.

- Based on the actual usage data of the user, system o 25 recommends the user six action films in the VOD store, ι-t. because the user mainly watches action movies or the like.

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Recommendation 2: x - Combines with the user's own actual usage information

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as the artificial usage data of the most popular 50 ^ 30 TV shows of all users.

? - The combined usage data thus obtained contains only 60% activity, 5%

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comedy and 5% others but 30% fantasy.

10 - Based on the combined usage data, the system recommends the user four action movies and two fantasy movies in the VOD store.

3) The system displays one or more recommendations to the user.

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As mentioned above, it is possible that the system generates and presents to the user both of the above recommendations or just one of them.

Figure 4 shows a message diagram according to an embodiment of the invention.

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First, the client device will contact 41 portals. The portal sends a request through the statistical database for 42 program recommendations to the client in question. The statistics database retrieves the usage history data associated with that customer or that customer's user profile and combines it with artificial usage data to form a combined usage data. Such aggregated usage data can be generated each time a flight is made, or it can be pre-generated and stored in a statistical database. The statistics database sends the composite usage data to the logic engine 43, which analyzes it in step 44. The logic engine then sends the software or content recommendations generated from the analysis to the 45 portals. The portal displays the program or content recommendations received as an advertisement to 46 customers.

It should be noted here that Figure 4 shows only one example of possible implementation. Alternatively, the portal could, for example, request ι. program recommendations directly from the logic engine, whereupon the logic engine would retrieve the necessary usage data from a statistical database or other source. In addition, the x logic engine can generate recommendations either on-demand and / or

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at predetermined batch times, such as once a day or every other ^ 30 days or more or less, o δ

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Figure 5 shows a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

11 The system comprises a media service 521. The media service may be, for example, an IPTV service. In one example, the interactive service 521 comprises the functionality of the assembly 121 of Figure 1.

Media service 521 communicates with communication network 108 and thereby to client devices 109-112. The client device examples provided herein are computer (PC) 109, set-top-box (STB) 110, tablet PC 111, and mobile or other mobile device 112. Client devices 109-112 may be fixed data communication devices or wireless terminals. In addition to the examples shown, client devices 109-112 10 may be other devices suitable for viewing a moving image / video. The communication network 108 may consist of a number of different networks, such as the Internet and various broadband networks, such as ADSL, VDSL, and Ethernet networks, and wireless networks, such as WLAN, GSM, UMTS, and LTE networks.

The system further comprises a DVB (digital video broadcasting) / broadcast service 522. The broadcast service 522 provides media transmission to one or more client devices 109-112. The figure shows an example in which broadcast service 522 provides media transmission to set-top-box client 110. In addition, broadcast service 522 can also broadcast media to PC 109 or tablet PC 20 111 (e.g. using DVB-T technology) or mobile station 112 ( such as DVB-H).

In addition, broadcast service 522 may communicate with media service 521, but this is not necessary.

't δ 25 c \ j ι-t. In one example, the user of set-top box 110 receives media broadcast 51 i from broadcast service 522. Information about broadcast media being transmitted or transmitted x can also be delivered from broadcast service 522 to media service 521. Set-top

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from box 110, information 53 is transmitted from viewing media broadcast 51 over communication network 108 ^ 30 to media service 521. Media service 521 then provides set-top box 110? (or the user's other device).

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With various embodiments of the invention, it may be possible to improve the user experience. While recommendations for a specific user may not be based solely on the user's own use of that user or group of users in the past, the system offers a wider variety of options to users. This allows the user to 5 find interesting content that differs from their previous preferences. In addition, it may be possible to improve system learning. Choosing or not choosing the options offered can guide the system to better learn to match the preferences of the user in question.

10 Artificial usage data can also be used to shape the user's behavior in the desired direction. By adding artificial usage information about a particular program or service, that program or service can be highlighted in the system recommendations, making the program or service easily accessible to users and accessible to them. This may be desirable, for example, in the marketing of service packages offered by a service provider and / or third parties, particularly for example when launching a new service package.

Various embodiments of the invention also make it possible to bring new content 20 to the attention of users when using such artificial content information about the new content.

The foregoing description provides non-limiting examples of some embodiments of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details set forth, but that the invention may be practiced by other means.

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^ in equivalent ways. For example, it will be appreciated that in the disclosed methods o ^, the order of the individual process steps may be reversed and that some steps o x may be repeated several times or omitted entirely. Is also

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"It is understood that the terms used herein include and include open S 30 expressions and are not intended to be limiting.

Further, some features of the disclosed embodiments of the invention may be utilized without the use of other features. As such, the foregoing description 13 is to be construed as merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and not limiting thereof. The scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims.

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Claims (7)

A computer-implemented method for providing a media service (101), wherein the method 5 collects (31) usage information about actual usage of said media service (101), characterized by combining (32) said actual usage usage information (116) and artificially generated usage information (118). ) using said combined usage information to generate customer-specific recommendations (33) in said media service, and that said usage information is associated with a particular user profile or one or more user characteristics, and that said User Profile (s) said artificial usage data comprising automatically generated random usage data. The method of claim 1, characterized in that said artificial operating data 20 comprises artificial operating data obtained from a third party. Method according to any one of claims 1-2, characterized in that the usage information concerning said actual usage is collected from client devices using said media service. δ 25 c \ j i-t. An apparatus (101, 116-119, 20) for providing a media service, the apparatus i comprising at least one processor and at least one computer program stored in memory x configured together with said at least one CL processor to direct said hardware ^ 30 to collect said media service (101). Actual usage information, characterized in that the computer program is configured to control the C \ J hardware to combine said actual usage usage information (116) and artificially generated usage information (118) to form a composite usage information, and use said combined usage information to generate customized recommendations 5 in said media service (101), and that said usage information is associated with a particular user profile or one or more user characteristics, and that said at least one computer program is further configured together with said at least one processor for controlling said hardware to take into account said User Profile or said characteristics in forming said customer-specific recommendations, and that said artificial usage data comprises automatically generated random usage information. The apparatus of claim 4, characterized in that said artificial operating data comprises artificial operating data obtained from a third party. The hardware of any one of claims 4 to 5, characterized in that said computer program is configured together with said processor to direct said hardware to collect usage information of said actual usage from client devices using said media service. A computer program comprising a computer executable program code, characterized in that, when executed, the program code directs the computer δ 25 to perform any method according to any one of claims 1 to 3. C \ J i o o X cc CL δ δ o δ C \ l