JP2002026844A - Message distribution center, advertiser terminal and method for distributing message - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a message distribution system capable of programming suited to a present situation. SOLUTION: A management center 2 registers contents received from a contents holder server 1 to a contents database. Furthermore, the center 2 receives the request of contents from a viewing device 3. Then, request situation information showing a request situation to respective contents is provided to the advertiser terminal 4 of the advertiser and a purchasing application for an advertising frame. The center 2 decides the purchaser of the advertising frame and the price of the advertising frame by auction concerning the respective advertising frame and distributes the contents and advertising data to the device 3 through a sending device 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a distribution center for distributing contents based on a request from a viewer, and more particularly to a distribution center capable of distributing contents and advertisements according to a request situation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the organization of broadcast programs in a system for distributing contents, a management center for managing distribution of contents determines broadcast contents, and the number of viewers and the number of viewers based on the contents of the broadcast contents. They roughly predicted the demographics and determined which ads to serve with the content based on the predictions. In addition, the price of the advertising space collected from the advertiser has also been set in the management center based on the number of viewers and the prediction result of the audience.

[0003]

However, the program contents (contents and advertisements) determined in the above-described system and the price of an advertising space in the program are estimated from data on past viewing of contents. Because
It was not always in line with the current situation.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and has as its object to provide a distribution center or the like that can organize a program according to the current situation. Another object of the present invention is to provide a distribution center or the like capable of effective advertisement distribution. It is another object of the present invention to provide a distribution center or the like that can optimize the price of an advertising space in a program.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a distribution center according to a first aspect of the present invention is a distribution center that distributes contents based on a request from a viewer. Means for receiving a request, means for providing request status information indicating a request status for each content to an advertiser's advertiser terminal, and reception means for receiving from the advertiser terminal a purchase request for an advertisement space of an advertisement distributed with the content. And determining means for determining the purchaser of the advertisement space and the advertisement space price based on the received purchase request.

[0006] According to such a configuration, by providing the advertiser with the request status of each content, the advertiser examines the request status of each content, and then makes a purchase application for the advertising space of each content. Therefore, a program suitable for the current situation can be formed. In addition, effective advertisement distribution can be performed.

The request status information may indicate at least one of the number of content requests and personal information of a sender of the request.

[0008] The determining means may determine the highest purchase price among the purchase prices indicated by the purchase request for the advertisement space from each of the advertiser terminals as the advertisement space price of the advertisement space. As a result, since the price of each advertising space is determined by the auction, the advertiser can take the initiative in setting an appropriate price without the management center for managing distribution unilaterally determining the price.

[0009] When the total advertising space price determined for each advertisement distributed together with one content is equal to or more than a predetermined amount, the content may further include distribution determining means for determining distribution of the content.

[0010] The content delivered to each of the viewing devices may be encrypted, and in response to a content viewing request from the viewing device, a decryption key for decrypting the content is provided to the viewing device. Means for providing, for each content, means for providing viewing information indicating at least one of the number of viewing requests and personal information of the sender of the viewing request to an advertiser of an advertisement distributed together with each of the contents, May be further provided. This allows the advertiser to know the actual viewing situation of the advertisement.

An advertiser terminal according to a second aspect of the present invention is an advertiser terminal for a system for distributing content based on a request from a viewer, and includes a request status indicating a request status for each content. Means for acquiring and displaying information from a predetermined center, and means for transmitting a purchase request for an advertisement space to the center for an advertisement space specified by an advertiser among advertisement spaces corresponding to respective contents. It is characterized by the following.

According to such a configuration, since the advertiser can acquire the request status of each content, the advertiser can examine the request status of each content and then apply for the purchase of the advertising space in each content. As a result, program scheduling suitable for the current situation can be achieved. In addition, effective advertisement distribution can be realized.

[0013] A distribution method according to a third aspect of the present invention is a distribution method for distributing contents based on a request from a viewer. Providing request status information indicating the request status to the advertiser's advertiser terminal, receiving a purchase request for the advertisement space of the advertisement distributed together with the content from the advertiser terminal, and based on the received purchase request, the buyer of the advertisement space And an advertisement space price are determined.

[0014] According to such a configuration, by providing the advertiser with the request status of each content, the advertiser examines the request status of each content and then makes a purchase application for the advertising space of each content. Therefore, a program suitable for the current situation can be formed. In addition, effective advertisement distribution can be performed.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, taking a content distribution system for distributing content in which an advertisement is inserted as an example. As shown in FIG. 1, the content distribution system according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a content holder server 1, a management center 2, a viewing device 3, an advertiser terminal 4, a key management center 5,
And a sending device 6.

The content holder server 1 is a content holder (content holder) from which the content is provided.
Performs registration of the content owned by the content holder to the management center 2 and the like. The content holder server 1 includes a control unit 11 and a storage unit 13.

The control section 11 reads out the contents to be registered and predetermined information relating to the contents from the storage section 13 and transmits them to the management center 2 together with a predetermined registration request.
The storage unit 13 stores content and predetermined information related to the content. The predetermined information related to the content includes, for example, information such as a title, a minimum guarantee amount, an insertion point (insertion point, advertisement time, etc.) in the content, an outline of the content, a request period, a bidding period, and the like. Is input from an input unit (not shown).

[0018] Here, the minimum guarantee amount indicates a price required by the content holder for content distribution. The request period is a period during which a content request (viewing request) is received from each user,
The bidding period indicates a period during which a request to purchase an advertising space is received from each advertiser.

When the content is registered in the management center 2, the content holder pays the management center 2 a registration fee for the content. The means of payment is optional, and may be, for example, transfer of funds between accounts in a financial institution, settlement by electronic money or debit, account transfer using cash, or the like.

The management center 2 manages contents to be distributed, receives a request for the contents, receives a purchase request for an advertisement space of the contents, and the like. The management center 2 includes a registration management unit 20 and a content database 2
1, a related database 22, an advertisement space price database 23, a request management unit 24, a customer database 25, a request database 26, and a bid management unit 2.
7, a distribution determining unit 28, a scheduler 29, and a viewing information acquiring unit 201.

Upon receiving a registration request from the content holder server 1, the registration management unit 20 performs a predetermined check on the content received along with the registration request and on predetermined information relating to the content. ID, and sends the issued content ID to the content holder server 1.
Notifies that the registration request has been accepted normally. If the check result indicates an error, the content holder server 1 is notified of the registration error. Further, the registration management unit 20 assigns the issued content ID to the content and registers the content in the content database 21.

Further, the registration management unit 20 performs, based on predetermined information regarding the content received together with the content from the content holder server 1, content-related information relating to the content and a price (advertisement) of an advertisement space inserted in the content. Inventory price information),
Is generated and stored in the related database 22 and the advertisement space price database 23, respectively.

The contents database 21 stores the registered contents. The related database 22 stores, for each content ID, content related information including information such as a title, an outline, a content holder name, a request deadline date and time, a bid deadline date, a minimum guarantee amount, and a status as shown in FIG. The status in the content-related information indicates the state of the registered content, and includes “under request”, “bid”, “delivery established”, “delivery not established”, and the like.

The "requesting" status is a status assigned to the content immediately after registration in the management center 2 until the request from the user is closed. The “under bidding” status is a status that is given to the content immediately after a request from a user is closed and an auction is started and before a bid is closed. When this status is given, if the buyer of the advertising space competes, the price of the advertising space fluctuates.

[0025] The "delivery completed" status indicates that, after the bidding in the auction is closed, the content whose total advertising space price determined for each advertising space in the content is equal to or more than the minimum guaranteed amount specified by the content holder. This is the status granted. "Unsuccessful delivery" status means that after the bidding in the auction is closed, the total amount of inventory determined for each inventory in the content falls below the minimum guaranteed amount specified by the content holder, and the content is unsuccessful This is the status given to.

The advertisement space price database 23 stores, for each content ID, advertisement space price information including information such as an advertisement space price, an insertion point, and an advertisement time for each advertisement space in the content as shown in FIG. . The advertising space price is updated successively in accordance with the purchase price presented by each advertiser in the auction.

The request management unit 24 responds to a request from the viewing device 3 by, for example, setting the status to “requesting”.
The content related information registered in the related database 22 is supplied to the user for the content, and the user is allowed to select the desired content. Then, request information including the selected content and the terminal ID of the viewing device 3 is received.

When the request management unit 24 receives the request information, the terminal I included in the request information
Using D as a key, the corresponding personal information is read from the customer database 25, and each item of the request status information stored in the request database 26 is updated based on the read personal information. Also, the request management unit 24
Transmits the content ID included in the request information to the terminal I
The information is stored in the customer database 25 in association with D, and information on the content selected by each user is held.

The request management unit 24 checks the request deadline date and time of the content-related information in the relevant database 22 at predetermined time intervals, and sets the status of the content-related information whose deadline date and time has passed to "bidding". change.

The customer database 25 stores personal information (sex, age, annual income, occupation type, hobbies, etc.) of each user in association with the terminal ID of the viewing device 3 held by the user in advance. The method of collecting such information is arbitrary. For example, before each user uses the present system, the management center 2 requests the user to register personal information, and allows the user to input such information. You may make it transmit to the management center 2. Then, customer information may be generated from the input personal information and the terminal ID of the transmission source viewing device 3 and registered in the customer database 25.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the request database 26 indicates, for each content requested by the user, the number of applicants of the content for each item such as gender, age, annual income, occupation type, and hobby. The request status information is stored.

The bid management unit 27 supplies information on the advertising space in each content to the advertiser terminal 4, and accepts an application for the purchase of the advertising space from the advertiser. Upon receiving the purchase application, the bid management unit 27 refers to the advertisement space price information of the corresponding content, compares the advertisement space price of the designated advertisement space with the received purchase price, and determines whether the received purchase price is higher. If it is, update the inventory price. Also,
When the advertising space price is updated, the information (terminal ID, advertiser code, advertiser name, etc.) of the advertiser who has presented the updated advertising space price is also stored in the advertising space price database 23.

Further, in response to a request from the advertiser terminal 4, the bid management unit 27 presents, for example, a list of advertisement spaces in each content, a bid status of advertisement spaces in each content, and a request status in each content. Present information, etc.

The distribution determining unit 28 monitors the content-related information and the advertising space price information, determines whether the content for which the bid deadline has passed satisfies predetermined distribution conditions, and changes the status based on the determination result. I do. Specifically, it is determined whether the total amount of the advertising space finally set for each advertising space in the content is equal to or greater than the minimum guaranteed amount specified by the content holder, and if the total amount is equal to or greater than the minimum guaranteed amount Has a status of "Delivered"
And if the total is less than the minimum guarantee,
The status is changed to "delivery failure".

For example, for a certain content into which the advertising spaces C1 and C2 are inserted, the minimum guaranteed amount is "10000 yen".
And the final advertising space price of the advertising space C1 is “600”
0 yen "and the final advertising space price of the advertising space C2 is" 5500
In the case of "yen", the total amount of the advertising space price is "11500 yen"
, And the status is changed to “delivery completed” because it is equal to or more than the minimum guaranteed amount. Also, for example, the advertisement space C1
Has a final ad space price of "6000 yen" and ad space C2
If the final advertising space price is “3500 yen”, the total amount of the advertising space is “9500 yen”, which is lower than the minimum guaranteed amount, and the status is changed to “delivery failure”.

The distribution determining unit 28 obtains advertising data from the advertiser who has won the advertising space for the content for which the “delivery completed” status is set, and inserts the advertising data into a predetermined portion of the content. Perform knitting processing. Then, the composed content is supplied to the scheduler 29 together with information on the distribution date and time. In addition, the distribution determining unit 2
8 notifies the determination result (whether or not distribution is possible) to, for example, the requesting user, the purchased advertiser, the content holder, and the like.

The scheduler 29 receives the distribution request from the distribution determining unit 28 and supplies the content with the advertisement inserted to the transmitting device 6 together with the distribution request.

The viewing information acquisition unit 201 manages a content decryption key for decrypting the designated content in response to a content viewing request (including a terminal ID and a content ID) from the viewing device 3. The information is acquired from the center 5 and supplied to the viewing device 3 that has issued the request. Then, the personal information corresponding to the terminal ID of the requesting viewing device 3 is read from the customer database 25, and is stored and stored in a predetermined storage unit as viewing information together with the content ID. Further, the viewing information acquisition unit 201 presents viewing information about each content to the advertiser of the advertisement inserted in the content. Specifically, for example, in response to a request for viewing information from the advertiser terminal 4, the server reads out the viewing information of the designated content and supplies it to the advertiser terminal 4.

The management center 2 collects the price corresponding to the advertising space price from each advertiser who has won each advertising space,
The content usage fee is paid to the content holder of the content registration. In addition, a predetermined fee may be collected from the content holder. Means for collecting the price and fee of the advertising space and means for paying the use fee of the content are optional, and for example, transfer of funds between accounts in a financial institution, settlement by electronic money or debit, account transfer using cash, etc. Good.

The viewing device 3 is a device for allowing a user to view the distributed content, and includes a control unit 31, a storage unit 32, a decoding unit 33, an input unit 34, and a display unit 3.
5 is provided.

The control unit 31 acquires and displays content-related information and the like from the management center 2 in response to a predetermined request input from the input unit 34, and selects a content that the user desires to view. Accept. Specifically, the control unit 31 responds to a predetermined selection request input by the user, for example, as shown in FIG. 5A, to select a content that the user wants to view. The screen is displayed on the display unit 35, and the selection of the content is performed by the input
Accept from 4. Then, the request information including the content ID of the selected content and the terminal ID is transmitted to the management center 2. The control unit 31 responds to a predetermined confirmation request input by the user, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (B), the current status of each content is displayed, and a confirmation screen for allowing the user to confirm the current status of the content is displayed on the display unit 35.

The control unit 31 receives the distribution of the encrypted content from the transmission device 6 and
And store it. Further, the control unit 31 includes an input unit 34
When a playback instruction of the content is input from, a viewing request including the content ID and the terminal ID of the specified content is transmitted to the management center 2, and a content decryption key for decrypting the content is acquired. Then, the content decryption key acquired from the management center 2 and the storage storage unit 32
The encrypted content read from the
3 for decoding and reproduction.

The storage unit 32 is composed of a hard disk device or the like, and stores and stores the content distributed from the transmission device 6. The decryption unit 33 decrypts and reproduces the encrypted content using the content decryption key. The input unit 34 receives an input from a user. The display unit 35 displays, for example, each processing screen shown in FIG. 5, reproduced content, and the like.

The advertiser terminal 4 is a terminal for an advertiser to make a purchase application or the like for a desired advertisement space in bidding on an advertisement space of each content. A display unit 43 and a storage unit 44 are provided.

The control unit 41 obtains and displays content-related information, advertising space price information, request status information, and the like from the management center 2 in response to a predetermined request input from the input unit 42. Of the advertisement space, the purchase application or the like is made for the advertisement space desired by the advertiser. Specifically, in response to a predetermined selection request input by the advertiser, the control unit 41 selects an advertisement space for allowing the advertiser to select an advertisement space in the content as shown in, for example, FIG. The screen is displayed on the display unit 43, and the selection of the advertisement space is received from the input unit 42. Then, when an advertisement space is selected from the advertisement space selection screen, the control unit 41 notifies the management center 2 of the selection, and for example, as shown in FIG. A current bid status (current price, remaining time, highest bidder, etc.) is displayed.

Then, for example, when the “bid button” provided on the bid status screen is pressed, for example, FIG.
As shown in (C), a bid screen for bidding on the advertising space selected by the advertiser is displayed to accept input of a purchase price and the like, and advertising space information (content ID and content ID) for specifying the advertising space. The purchase application including the ad frame number, the bid amount input by the advertiser, the terminal ID, the advertiser code, and the like is transmitted to the management center 2. Further, for example, when the “request status button” provided on the bid status screen is pressed, the control unit 41 displays the content including the advertising space selected by the advertiser, for example, as shown in FIG. Display the request status screen showing the request status information.

The input unit 42 receives an input from an advertiser. The display unit 43 displays, for example, each processing screen shown in FIG. The storage unit 44 stores information such as a terminal ID or an advertiser code.

The key management center 5 includes a key information storage unit 51,
A key supply unit 53. The key information storage unit 51 stores a content encryption key for encrypting distributed content, a content decryption key for decrypting encrypted content, and the like. The key supply unit 53 supplies the content encryption key to the transmission device 6. Also, it supplies a content decryption key in response to a request from the management center 2.

The sending device 6 is a device for supplying contents to the viewing device 3 of the user, and includes an encryption unit 61 and a sending unit 63. The encryption unit 61 encrypts the content obtained together with the distribution request from the management center 2 with the content encryption key obtained from the key management center 5, and the transmission unit 63 distributes the content to each viewing device 3.

Next, the system operation of the content distribution system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the case where the content holder registers the content in the management center 2 will be described. For example, the content holder server 1 of a certain content holder registers the content in the management center 2 together with the predetermined registration request and the content and the predetermined information related to the content (title, minimum guarantee amount, advertisement insertion location, outline, request period, (A bid period, etc.) to the management center 2 (S
1).

In response to the registration request from the content holder server 1, the management center 2 performs a predetermined check on the received content and the predetermined information on the content, for example, to see whether data necessary for registration are available, and the like.
If the check result is correct, a content ID is issued for the content, and the content ID is transmitted to the content holder server 1 (S2). If the check result indicates an error, the content holder server 1 is notified of the registration error.

When the content registration request is correctly received, the content holder pays the content registration fee to the management center 2 (S3). In addition,
The content registration fee may be, for example, a minimum guarantee fee for the content, an amount corresponding to the registration period with the management center 2, or the like, or may be a fixed fee.

Next, the management center 2 stores the content in the content database 21. Further, content related information and advertising space price information are generated and stored in the related database 22 and the advertising space price database 23, respectively (S4). Thus, the content from the content holder is registered in the management center 2.

Next, a case where the user transmits a content viewing request (request) to the management center 2 will be described. For example, a certain user operates his / her own viewing apparatus 3 to request content information. In response to the user's request from the viewing device 3, the management center 2 acquires, for example, content related information whose status is “requesting” from the related database 22 and supplies it to the viewing device 3 (S 5).

The user looks at the content-related information displayed on the viewing device 3, selects the content desired to be viewed, and inputs the selected content (S6). For this input, for example, a desired content on the screen may be selected and input using a GUI by operating a mouse, a key, a remote controller, or the like, or a content ID or the like may be input. In response to this, the viewing device 3 sets the content ID of the content selected by the user and the terminal I
The request information including D is generated and transmitted to the management center 2 (S7).

Upon receiving the request information from the viewing device 3, the management center 2 reads the corresponding personal information from the customer database 25 using the terminal ID included in the request information as a key, and stores it in the request database 26 based on the personal information. Each item of the requested status information is updated (S8). The management center 2 stores the content ID included in the request information in the customer database 25 in association with the terminal ID. In this way, content viewing requests (requests) from users
Is received by the management center 2.

Next, a case where a bid is made for an advertisement space will be described. For example, the advertiser operates the advertiser terminal 4 to request information on the advertising space of the content. In response to a request from the advertiser terminal 4, the management center 2 reads, for example, content-related information whose status is “bid”, corresponding advertising space price information, request status information, and the like from each database, and reads the viewing device. 3 (S9).
The advertiser looks at the content-related information, the advertisement space price information, the request status information, and the like displayed on the advertiser terminal 4, selects the advertisement space desired to be purchased, and inputs the purchase price for the advertisement space (S10). ). The advertiser terminal 4 transmits a purchase application including the input advertisement space information, purchase price, terminal ID, and the like to the management center 2 (S11). The management center 2
When a purchase application is received from the advertiser terminal 4, the advertisement space price of the designated advertisement space is compared with the received purchase price, and an update process of the advertisement space price or the like is performed according to the comparison result (S1).
2).

Then, the management center 2 determines whether or not the content for which the bid deadline has passed satisfies a predetermined distribution condition, that is, whether or not the total advertising space price of each advertising space is equal to or more than the minimum guarantee amount. It is determined (S13). Then, a report of whether the distribution has been established or not has been made to the user, the advertiser, the content holder, and the like. In addition, for the content determined to be distributed, program scheduling processing such as insertion of advertisement data into a predetermined location is performed, and the content after scheduling is supplied to the scheduler 29 together with information on a distribution date and a distribution request (S14). The scheduler 29 adjusts the distribution according to the distribution date and time (S15), and supplies the content including the advertisement data to the transmitting device 6 together with the distribution request (S16).

The transmitting device 6 encrypts the content including the advertisement data received from the management center 2 using the content encryption key and transmits the content (S17, S18). Thereby, a bid is made for each advertising space, and the advertisement of the advertiser who has won the advertising space is inserted into the content and distributed.

Further, the management center 2 collects the purchase fee (purchase price) of the advertising space from each advertiser (S19), and, for the content whose distribution has been established, the usage fee of the content to the content holder. Pay (S2
0). In addition, a predetermined fee may be collected from the content holder.

On the other hand, when the user who has received the content distribution inputs a content reproduction request to the viewing device 3, the viewing device 3 responds to the request by viewing the content including the content ID and the terminal ID. It is transmitted to the management center 2 (S21). In response, the management center 2 acquires the content decryption key from the key management center 5 and supplies it to the viewing device 3 (S22). Then, the personal information corresponding to the terminal ID included in the viewing request is acquired from the customer database 25 and stored in a predetermined storage unit as viewing information (S
23). Then, the viewing information in each content is supplied to the advertiser of the advertisement inserted in the content. Thus, each advertiser can know the actual advertisement viewing situation.

As described above, in the system for receiving a content request from a content viewer, by providing information of a viewer who wants to view each content to the advertiser, the advertiser examines the content request status. , You can apply for inventory,
An effective advertisement suitable for the viewer can be provided. In addition, since the price of each advertising space is determined by an auction, appropriate price setting can be performed. Also, by collecting information about viewers who have actually viewed the content and providing the information to the advertiser, the advertiser can know the actual viewing status of the advertisement inserted in the content.

Note that the method of organizing the content and the advertisement data is arbitrary. Even if the content data is divided into a plurality of parts for each advertisement insertion part and the program data is created by combining the parts of each content and the advertisement data. Alternatively, a program progress table including an advertisement insertion point, an advertisement time, and the like may be added to the content and the advertisement data, and each data may be sequentially reproduced based on the program progress table. In addition, the program scheduling process may be performed by a device other than the management center 2. For example, the viewing device 3 may execute
The content and the advertisement data may be sequentially reproduced.

Further, the viewing information for each content, like the request status information, is divided into gender, age, annual income,
The number of content viewers for each item such as occupation type and hobby may be managed and provided to the advertiser.

When the content holder registers the content in the management center 2, the content may be registered via a medium that stores the content and information related to the content.

Means for distributing the content to the purchaser is arbitrary, and may be, for example, a communication line such as a public line or a dedicated line, or may be transmitted using a broadcast wave.

As the content encryption key, a different key may be used for each content, or a key common to a plurality of contents may be used. Alternatively, an encryption key may be distributed to each user (viewer), and the content decryption key may be encrypted with the user's encryption key and supplied to each user. The method of distributing the encryption key to each user is arbitrary, and a medium such as an IC card storing the encryption key may be distributed to each user, or supplied to the viewing device 3 via a communication line. You may make it.

Further, one center or device may have at least two functions of the management center 2, the key management center 5, and the sending device 6.

It should be noted that the system of the present invention can be realized by using an ordinary computer system without using a dedicated system. For example, by installing the program from a medium (floppy (registered trademark) disk, CD-ROM, or the like) storing a program for performing the above-described operation in a computer, the content holder server 1 that executes the above-described processing can be obtained. The management center 2, the viewing device 3, the advertiser terminal 4, the key management center 5, the sending device 6, and the like can be configured. In the case where the above-described functions are realized by the OS sharing or the OS and the application being jointly used, only the part other than the OS may be stored in the medium.

It is also possible to superimpose a program on a carrier wave and distribute it via a communication network. For example, the program may be posted on a bulletin board (BBS) of a communication network and distributed via the network. Then, by starting this program and executing it in the same manner as other application programs under the control of the OS, the above-described processing can be executed.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By providing the advertiser with the request status of each content, the advertiser can review the request status of each content and then apply for the purchase of the advertising space for each content, so that the programming suitable for the current situation is It becomes possible. In addition, effective advertisement distribution can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining content-related information.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining advertisement space price information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining request status information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of the viewing device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen in the advertiser terminal.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a system operation of the content distribution system of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 content holder server 11 control unit 13 storage unit 2 management center 20 registration management unit 21 content database 22 related database 23 advertising space price database 24 request management unit 25 customer database 26 request database 27 bid management unit 28 distribution determination unit 29 scheduler 201 viewing Information acquisition unit 3 Viewing device 31 Control unit 32 Storage unit 33 Decoding unit 34 Input unit 35 Display unit 4 Advertiser terminal 41 Control unit 42 Input unit 43 Display unit 44 Storage unit 5 Key management center 51 Key information storage unit 53 Key supply Unit 6 sending device 61 encryption unit 63 sending unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Abe 3-3-3 Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo Inside NTT Data Corporation (72) Inventor Satoshi Masamoto Toyosu Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo No. 3-3, NTT Data Corporation (72) Inventor Akira Saito 3-3-3, Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo F-term in NTT Data Corporation (Reference) 5B049 AA05 BB11 BB36 BB49 CC05 CC36 DD00 DD05 EE01 FF03 FF04 FF09 GG04 GG07 GG10 5C064 BA07 BB01 BB07 BC01 BC07 BD02 BD03 BD08 BD09 CC06

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A distribution center for distributing content based on a request from a viewer, means for receiving a request for content from a viewing device, and request status information indicating a request status for each content, the advertiser's advertiser Means for providing to the terminal, receiving means for receiving from the advertiser terminal a purchase request for the advertisement space of the advertisement distributed with the content, and determination of determining the buyer of the advertisement space and the price of the advertisement space based on the received purchase request. Means, and a distribution center. 2. The distribution center according to claim 1, wherein the request status information indicates at least one of the number of requests for content and personal information of a sender of the request. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines the highest purchase price among the purchase prices indicated by the purchase request for the advertisement space from each of the advertiser terminals as the advertisement space price of the advertisement space. 3. The distribution center according to claim 1, wherein 4. When the total advertising space price determined for each advertisement distributed together with one content is equal to or more than a predetermined amount, further comprising a distribution determining means for determining distribution of the content. The distribution center according to claim 1, wherein: 5. A content delivered to each of said viewing devices is encrypted, and in response to a content viewing request from said viewing device,
Means for supplying a decryption key for decrypting the content to the viewing device; for each content, viewing information indicating at least one of the number of viewing requests and personal information of a sender of the viewing request,
The distribution center according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: means for providing an advertiser of an advertisement distributed together with each of the contents. 6. An advertiser terminal for a system for distributing content based on a request from a viewer, a means for acquiring and displaying request status information indicating a request status for each content from a predetermined center, Means for transmitting, to the center, a request to purchase an advertising space for an advertising space designated by an advertiser from advertising spaces corresponding to each content, an advertiser terminal comprising: 7. A distribution method for distributing content based on a request from a viewer, comprising: receiving a content request from a viewing device; and transmitting request status information indicating a request status for each content to an advertiser's advertiser. A request for purchase of an advertisement space of an advertisement provided to a terminal and distributed together with content is received from an advertiser terminal, and a buyer and a price of the advertisement space are determined based on the received purchase request. Delivery method.