GB2194659A - TV pre-payment system - Google Patents

Abstract

A pre-payment system for use with broadcast television based upon the use of channel marking signals, pre-payment with tokens and a modified television receiver. The frequency of the marking signal indicates the value of the transmission and counts down (in the receiver) a value from a token.

Description

SPECIFICATION Electronic pre-payment system for television reception with channel recognition and billing This invention relates to a system whereby television channel reception is identifiable within a receiver and use of the particular channel can be apportioned to a pre-paid credited time or number of television picture frames.

Televisions are much used in domestic applications and any licensing of their use is generally done via a fixed annual license fee.

This is recognised as being unsatisfactory.

Since use of a particular channel within a set of available channels constitutes a value, if such use could be accurately recorded a known charge could be made.

According to the present invention the transmitted television signal contains a signal which can be decoded and used as a unique indicator that the channel is being received.

The reception device decodes the signal and matches this against a range of signal patterns held within the device. The match indicates use of the channel and this matched signal is used to count down usage which had been credited by some token whose monetary value is expressed in an allowed viewing time of a particular channel, or times of a number of channels.

'Time' in this context can be chronoiogical time or a number of television picture frames.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 shows the implementation of a billing siginal generation and detection system in an overall broadcasting and recieving system.

Figure 2 shows the detail of the billing system within the television receiver.

Referring to Fig. 1 the source transmission material for a particular channel is generated by (1) and passes through a billing pattern generator (2) which can place a marker within the transmitted signal with a frequency reflecting the value of the transmission to the sourcing organisation. Similarly a source (3) passes through a billing pattern generator (4) which produces a different marker. The transmitter system (5) then transmits the combined signals through the aerial (6). The receiving aerial (7) passes the incoming signal to a tuner (8) within the television receiver (9) which feeds its output signal to the normal television circuits (10) and also to a billing unit (11) which can selectively disable reception of a particular channel within the tuner (8).

Referring to Fig. 2 which is the detail of the elements within the billing unit (11) the incoming signal is fed to a pattern detection and matching unit (12) whose outputs feed into a counters (13), (14) and (15) of which these may be a number representing one per received channel. Each counter will be counted down at a rate determined by when that channel is being viewed and the number of billing marks in the broadcast transmission.

The counting up or crediting of the counter unit is handled by a token processor (16) which reads in the data stored in a token (17), and counts up the respective channel counters by the values residing in the token, before clearing the token to a zero value.

Since the information for billing is embedded in the channel information, and frequency source containing the channel information will cause billing to occur. Hence in the case of the video recorder if a programme from a particular channel is recorded on the machine and played back subsequently billing will still occur. Hence usage of channel material is monitored and accounted for, to the benefit of the sourcing orgainisation

CLAIMS 1. A billing system for television use based upon a billing marker being inserted into the transmitted information unique to the channel being transmitted.

2. A billing system as in Claim 1 whereby the frequency of the billing marker indicates the value of the transmission.

3. A billing unit fitted within a television receiver to detect a transmitted billing marker and allows use of the receiver with a particular channel which remains in credit.

4. A token reading and channel credit allocation processing unit for crediting a billing unit as in Claim 3.

5. A billing system which recognises the billing marker irrespective of the frequency spectrum of the source channel radio frequency signal.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (5)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. SPECIFICATION Electronic pre-payment system for television reception with channel recognition and billing This invention relates to a system whereby television channel reception is identifiable within a receiver and use of the particular channel can be apportioned to a pre-paid credited time or number of television picture frames. Televisions are much used in domestic applications and any licensing of their use is generally done via a fixed annual license fee. This is recognised as being unsatisfactory. Since use of a particular channel within a set of available channels constitutes a value, if such use could be accurately recorded a known charge could be made. According to the present invention the transmitted television signal contains a signal which can be decoded and used as a unique indicator that the channel is being received. The reception device decodes the signal and matches this against a range of signal patterns held within the device. The match indicates use of the channel and this matched signal is used to count down usage which had been credited by some token whose monetary value is expressed in an allowed viewing time of a particular channel, or times of a number of channels. 'Time' in this context can be chronoiogical time or a number of television picture frames. A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to accompanying drawings. Figure 1 shows the implementation of a billing siginal generation and detection system in an overall broadcasting and recieving system. Figure 2 shows the detail of the billing system within the television receiver. Referring to Fig. 1 the source transmission material for a particular channel is generated by (1) and passes through a billing pattern generator (2) which can place a marker within the transmitted signal with a frequency reflecting the value of the transmission to the sourcing organisation. Similarly a source (3) passes through a billing pattern generator (4) which produces a different marker. The transmitter system (5) then transmits the combined signals through the aerial (6). The receiving aerial (7) passes the incoming signal to a tuner (8) within the television receiver (9) which feeds its output signal to the normal television circuits (10) and also to a billing unit (11) which can selectively disable reception of a particular channel within the tuner (8). Referring to Fig. 2 which is the detail of the elements within the billing unit (11) the incoming signal is fed to a pattern detection and matching unit (12) whose outputs feed into a counters (13), (14) and (15) of which these may be a number representing one per received channel. Each counter will be counted down at a rate determined by when that channel is being viewed and the number of billing marks in the broadcast transmission. The counting up or crediting of the counter unit is handled by a token processor (16) which reads in the data stored in a token (17), and counts up the respective channel counters by the values residing in the token, before clearing the token to a zero value. Since the information for billing is embedded in the channel information, and frequency source containing the channel information will cause billing to occur. Hence in the case of the video recorder if a programme from a particular channel is recorded on the machine and played back subsequently billing will still occur. Hence usage of channel material is monitored and accounted for, to the benefit of the sourcing orgainisation CLAIMS

1. A billing system for television use based upon a billing marker being inserted into the transmitted information unique to the channel being transmitted.

2. A billing system as in Claim 1 whereby the frequency of the billing marker indicates the value of the transmission.

3. A billing unit fitted within a television receiver to detect a transmitted billing marker and allows use of the receiver with a particular channel which remains in credit.

4. A token reading and channel credit allocation processing unit for crediting a billing unit as in Claim 3.

5. A billing system which recognises the billing marker irrespective of the frequency spectrum of the source channel radio frequency signal.