JP2002312276A - Content delivery system and content delivery method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To receive deliveries of content in a desirable order at any time convenient for a user of a terminal. SOLUTION: This content delivery system has the terminal 12 and a server device 14 connected to the terminal 12 through a network 11 to deliver the content in response to a delivery request from the terminal 12. The terminal 12 designates several contents for delivery from a content menu given from the server device 14, and designates a delivery order, and previously registers them in the server device 14. The server device 14 delivers the previously registered several content to the terminal 12 in the designated order in response to the delivery request from the terminal 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a content distribution system and a content distribution method suitable for, for example, an interactive digital television broadcasting system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Television broadcasting and the like are widely used as push-type content distribution methods.
In this distribution method, a program table is created as a content distribution program by a broadcaster, and contents are distributed based on the program table.

[0003]

In such a push-type content distribution method, the content is distributed based on a predetermined distribution program. In addition, a video tape recorder as a recording device which is in front of a television receiver as a content receiving terminal or performs recording at that time must be separately prepared.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to enable distribution of contents in free time and in order according to the convenience of the user of a terminal. A content distribution system and a content distribution method.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A content distribution system having a terminal and a server connected to the terminal via a network and distributing content in response to a distribution request from the terminal, wherein the terminal is By a given content menu, a plurality of contents to be distributed and their distribution order are designated and registered in advance in the server device,
The server device distributes a plurality of pre-registered contents to the terminal in response to a distribution request from the terminal in an order specified at the time of registration.

With such a system configuration, the terminal selects a plurality of contents to be distributed,
By registering in advance along with the distribution order, the content can be distributed in the order specified immediately according to the distribution request, so that the content distribution can be freely enjoyed according to the convenience and intention of the user. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the terminal also designates a distribution time when registering content to be distributed, and the server device transmits the content from the terminal. The content is delivered to the terminal only when the request matches the delivery time registered in advance.

With such a system configuration, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, the time for distributing the content can be specified. , The delivery can be received after the time is strictly set.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content distribution method executed by a server connected to a terminal via a network and distributing content in response to a distribution request from the terminal. A registration step in which a content menu is given to the device and a plurality of contents to be distributed and a designation of the distribution order are received and registered in advance, and the content is registered in advance in response to a distribution request from the terminal A distribution step of distributing a plurality of contents to the terminal according to the order specified in the registration step.

According to such a method, if a plurality of contents to be distributed are selected on the terminal side and registered in advance in accordance with the distribution order, the contents are immediately specified according to the distribution request. Since the contents can be received in the order, the contents can be freely distributed according to the convenience and intention of the user.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an interactive digital television broadcasting system will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the entire system. Reference numeral 11 denotes a wide area network including a public switched telephone network (PSTN, ISDN, various wireless communication networks, etc.) and the Internet.

It is assumed that terminals 12, 12,... Used by users who want to receive distribution of television programs as contents are connected to the network 11 by wire or wirelessly.

Specifically, the terminal 12 may be a television receiver, a personal computer, a mobile phone, or the like having an information communication function.

On the other hand, for the network 11,
A broadcasting station 13 that broadcasts television programs in real time;
Server device 14 for delivering television programs as contents
Is connected.

The server device 14 is affiliated with the broadcasting station 13 and stores a moving image file of a television program broadcasted by the broadcasting station 13 in real time in a content database (DB) 15 as content to be distributed, by genre. Terminals 12, 12,.
Deliver to ...

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

First, as shown in FIG.
The process for registering the distribution content for No. 4 will be described.

Here, it is assumed that the terminal 12 is a mobile phone having a web browser, the server device 14 is registered as a user who receives the content distribution service, and the server 11 is registered as a user. Websites are set up on the Internet, and HTT is used as a communication protocol between them.
P (HyperText Transfer Prot)
ocol).

First, the web browser of the mobile phone as the terminal 12 is started, and the user logs in to the homepage of the web site provided by the server device 14 (step T0).
1).

The server device 14 responds to the request (step S01) and recognizes the user of the terminal 12 who has logged in by performing user authentication (step S0).
2) A menu screen for selecting content to be registered is transmitted (step S03).

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of this menu screen. Here, "Recommended 1" to "Recommended" are set for each genre of "movie", "sports", "news", "drama", "variety", and "document". A tag “Recommended 3” and a “Search” button for searching for another program are displayed.

The terminal 12 receiving the menu screen for selecting the distribution content (step T02) displays the screen on the display unit (step T03) and distributes an arbitrary program by a predetermined key operation. (Step T04). In this case, the terminal 12 also specifies the distribution order and distribution time of a plurality of programs.

By performing a key operation related to this selection on the terminal 12, the corresponding selection information is stored in the server device 14.
(Step T0)
5) Upon receiving these selection information (step S03), the server device 14 extracts a moving image file of the corresponding program from the content database 15 as content to be distributed based on the selection information (step S0).
5) Register in the transmission buffer (step S06).

Then, the server device 14 performs a billing process for the user of the terminal 12 corresponding to the registered content (step S07), and transmits a notification indicating that the registration has been completed to the terminal 12 (step S07). In step S08), a series of registration processing on the server device 14 side is completed.

On the other hand, in the terminal 12 which has received the notification of the completion of the registration from the server device 14 (step T06), this is displayed on the display unit instead of the menu screen for the selection (step T07). A series of registration processing ends.

FIG. 4 exemplifies the contents of the user information stored in the server device 14 after the registration process is completed. As shown in the figure, the information includes personal information of a registered user, a distribution destination, distribution content information, and the like.
As the distribution destination, for example, it is assumed that a mobile phone, a television receiver, and a personal computer are respectively allocated to “distribution destination 1” to “distribution destination 3”.

Next, with reference to FIG. 5, a description will be given of the processing contents when the server device 14 distributes a moving image file of a television program as content in response to a distribution request from the terminal 12 after the above-described registration is completed. .

First, when a request for reproducing a moving image file of a television program as a content is transmitted from the terminal device 12 to the server device 14 (step T51), the server device 14
Receives this (step S51), authenticates the user of the terminal 12 with the user information shown in FIG. 4 (step S52), and then confirms the content information in the user information, thereby distributing. It is determined whether or not it is time to perform (step S53).

If it is determined that it is time to perform the distribution, the distribution operation is continued until it is determined that the distribution has ended (steps S54 and S55).

The terminal 12 receives the distributed content (step T52), and reproduces the television program as the content by the display on the display unit and the loudspeaker sound emission by the receiver (step T53). By repeatedly performing the operation of determining whether or not the content has ended (step T54), reception and reproduction of the content are continued.

If it is determined in step S53 that the requested time is within the time to deliver the content, the server device 14 sends message data indicating that the content is not to be delivered because the time is not to be delivered. Is transmitted to the terminal 12 (step T56).

In response to this, the terminal 12 displays the message in place of the television program by reproducing the content, and determines in step T54 that the content is immediately terminated.

It should be noted that the server device 14 sends the terminal 12
When distributing the content to the terminal device, the server device 14 collectively transmits the compressed content data to the terminal device 12, and the terminal device 12 that receives the data expands the original bit stream and reproduces it. Alternatively, the server device 14 may distribute the bit stream content, and the terminal device 12 may receive the content and reproduce the content in real time.

When the server device 14 determines in step S55 that the content distribution to the terminal device 12 has been completed, the server device 14 transmits an end code and the next schedule data to the terminal device 12 (step S57). A series of processes related to content distribution ends.

After judging the end of the content to be reproduced in step T54, the terminal device 12 receives the end code and the next schedule data sent from the server device 14 (step T55), and thereby distributes it. After the reproduction of the television program as the content is completed, the schedule of the next content is displayed (step T56), and then a series of processes related to the content distribution is ended.

FIG. 6 illustrates a state in which a large number of users receive distribution of a moving image file of a television program and an audio file of a part of a radio broadcast based on a registered distribution program, and are reproducing them. .

As described above, the content of the content for each user,
Since the order and the delivery time can be set arbitrarily and delivered, compared to a conventional push-type television broadcast or the like in which all users determine the content uniformly, user requests, Content distribution can be performed according to convenience.

Further, after registering a plurality of contents to be distributed, the server 12 transmits the distribution request again from the terminal 12, so that the server 14 performs the distribution. In this case, it is not necessary to specify the contents each time the contents are distributed, and the contents to be distributed can be efficiently selected and designated.

In the above embodiment, the delivery time is specified at the time of registration, and the delivery is executed only when the delivery time is specified in response to the delivery request. However, the delivery time is not necessarily specified. It is not necessary to perform the distribution, and the distribution may be freely received without worrying about the distribution time.

The present invention also relates to the specific contents of the content, the terminal 12 receiving the distribution of the content, and the terminal 12.
The form of the network 11 connecting the server and the server device 14, the alliance between the server device 14 and the broadcasting station 13, and the like are not limited to the above embodiment.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof.

Furthermore, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiments, at least one of the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved and the effects described in the column of the effect of the invention can be solved. In a case where at least one of the effects described above is obtained, a configuration in which this component is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0044]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, if a plurality of contents to be distributed are selected on the terminal side and registered in advance in accordance with the distribution order, the terminal can respond to the distribution request. Content can be received immediately and in the order specified, so that the user can freely receive content distribution according to the convenience and intention of the user.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the first aspect of the present invention, the time for distributing the content can be specified, so that the content having a particularly important distribution time can be specified. With regard to, the delivery can be received after the time is strictly set.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, if a plurality of contents to be distributed are selected on the terminal side and registered in advance in accordance with the distribution order, the contents are immediately set in response to the distribution request. Since the contents can be distributed in the specified order, the contents can be freely distributed according to the convenience and intention of the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an entire interactive digital television broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart showing processing executed by the terminal and the server at the time of distribution content registration according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view showing a menu screen for selecting distribution content according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing contents of a user information field stored in the server device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary flowchart showing processing contents executed by the terminal device and the server device at the time of content distribution according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary view showing a state of content distribution to a plurality of users according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Network 12 ... Terminal 13 ... Broadcasting station 14 ... Server device 15 ... Content database (DB)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/173 640 H04N 7/173 640A

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A content distribution system comprising a terminal, and a server connected to the terminal via a network and distributing content in response to a distribution request from the terminal, wherein the terminal is According to a content menu given from the server device, a plurality of contents to be distributed and a distribution order thereof are designated and registered in the server device in advance, and the server device is registered in advance in response to a distribution request from the terminal device. A content distribution system for distributing a plurality of contents to a terminal in accordance with an order specified at the time of registration. 2. The terminal device also specifies a distribution time when registering content to be distributed, and the server device determines whether a distribution request from the terminal matches a distribution time registered in advance. 2. The content distribution system according to claim 1, wherein only the content is distributed to the terminal. 3. A terminal connected to the terminal via a network,
A content distribution method executed by a server device that distributes content in response to a distribution request from the terminal, comprising: providing a content menu to the terminal;
A registration step of receiving and specifying in advance a plurality of contents to be distributed and a designation of the distribution order; and, in response to a distribution request from the terminal, ordering the plurality of pre-registered contents in the registration step. A distribution step of distributing the content to the terminal according to the following.