JP2003299052A - Cable television charge managing apparatus and managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cable television charge managing apparatus for automatically executing a charging process based on the payment into banks. <P>SOLUTION: A charging DB 19 stores charge information to subscribers. A CPU 11 prepares bill data based on the charge information in the charge DB 19, and issues bills, using a printer 16. Information of the payment into banks are supplied on line from the banks and written in a RAM 13. The CPU 11 deletes those paid amounts equal to corresponding charge amounts, but, if the paid amounts are not equal to corresponding charge amounts, deletes those charges to be cancelled by the paid amounts, and writes the remainders as advance payments in the charge DB 19. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cable television charge management device and management method used for cable TV charge management.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cable television station makes a contract with a large number of subscribers, distributes various broadcasts to subscribers' homes by wire, and receives the price. In that case, the cable television station creates a monthly sales report and calculates a billing charge for each subscriber based on the monthly sales report. Then, according to the calculation result, a bill is issued and sent to the subscriber. Most of the subscribers who receive the bill are contracted to pay the fee by bank deduction, in which case the bill is deducted from the bank without any special processing by the subscriber. On the other hand, some subscribers go to the bank after receiving the bill and pay the bill to the cable TV station by bank transfer.

[0003]

By the way, the above-mentioned bank transfer subscribers do not always pay the billed amount as they are, and may pay less than the billed amount or may pay more than the billed amount. there were. Conventionally, the bank transfer process has been performed manually, but since the transfer amount varies as described above, there is a problem in that the process of billing at a cable television station becomes complicated and time-consuming. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a cable television charge management device and management method capable of automatically performing a billing process based on a bank transfer.

[0004]

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. The invention according to claim 1 is the invention according to claim 1, which is the reception of a subscriber of a cable television station. In a cable television charge management device for managing charges, a database in which billing information for the subscriber is stored, a bill issuing means for issuing a bill based on the billing information in the database, and a bill based on the bill. The storage means for storing the deposit amount, and if the deposit amount matches the billing amount, the corresponding bill is cleared, and if the deposit amount does not match the billing amount, the deposit amount is cleared. A cable television charge management device, comprising: a data processing unit for canceling a bill that can be processed and processing the remaining amount as advance payment.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the cable television charge management device according to claim 1, arithmetic means for calculating the cumulative delinquency amount of the subscriber based on the data in the database is provided. And A third aspect of the invention is the cable television charge management device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the data processing means determines a predetermined amount when the deposit amount does not match the invoice amount. It is characterized in that the amount of money paid is paid in accordance with the order of items.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a cable television charge management method for managing a reception fee of a subscriber of a cable television station, a bill based on billing information stored in a database in which billing information for the subscriber is stored. Is issued, the deposit amount based on the invoice is checked, and if the deposit amount matches the bill amount, the corresponding claim is cleared, and if the deposit amount does not match the bill amount, The cable television charge management method is characterized in that the bill that can be redeemed by the deposit amount is cleared and the remaining amount is processed as advance payment.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a cable television charge management device according to the embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a cable television station 1 and a subscriber's home 2. In the subscriber's home 2 shown in FIG. 2, 3 is a television receiver and 4 is an HT (home terminal). The HT 4 is composed of a tuner section, a video signal demodulation section, an audio demodulation section, a control section, etc., and outputs a video signal supplied from the cable television station 1 via the trunk line 5 and the drop line 6 to the television receiver 3. Also,
An identification number (ID) is set in the internal memory, a channel selection signal transmitted together with the ID is received from the cable television station 1, and the internal control unit automatically sets the receivable channel and the unreceivable channel. In addition,
An STB (Set Top Box) may be used instead of the HT4.

Next, in the cable television station 1, 7 is a headend facility, which is a set of devices between the receiving antenna 8 and the main cable 5. Specifically, demodulators, amplifiers, frequency converters, modulators, scramblers, upstream signal receivers, bidirectional modulators / demodulators, E / O / O
A / E converter, a power supply device, and the like. Reference numeral 9 is a viewing control device, which is an HT of each subscriber's home 2 via the head-end equipment 7.
4 to control the channel selection signal described above. A digital viewing control device may be used instead of the viewing control device 9. 10 is a cable television charge management device according to an embodiment of the present invention, the details of which will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 is a CPU (central processing unit), 12 is a ROM (read only memory) in which a program used in the CPU is stored, 13 is a RAM (read only memory) for temporary data storage, and 14
Is an operation unit such as a keyboard and a mouse, and 15 is a CRT
A (cathode ray tube) display unit or the like, and a printer 16 are provided. Reference numeral 17 denotes an interface, which mediates signal exchange between the cable television management device 10 and the viewing control device 9. Reference numeral 18 denotes a subscriber DB (database) in which personal data such as an ID, a password, an address and a name are stored for each subscriber of the cable television. 1
Reference numeral 9 denotes a billing DB, which stores a transfer account number for each subscriber together with a billed amount, a deposit amount, an advance payment, an unpaid amount, etc. for each month. The transfer account number is different for each subscriber. Reference numeral 20 denotes a communication unit, which is connected to a bank server via a communication line.

Next, the operation of the above cable television charge management device 10 will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS. At the beginning of the month, the CPU 11 first creates a monthly sales report (step Sa in FIG. 3).
1) Next, the billing charge is calculated for each subscriber (step Sa2). Next, a bill correction process is performed (step S
a3). The bill correction process is a process in which the person in charge inputs the correction information (step Sa4) and corrects the bill in accordance with a case where the subscriber cannot be temporarily transmitted due to a cable accident or the like. Next, the printer 16 issues a bill (step Sa5). In this invoice, the transfer bank name is described together with the invoice amount, and further, the transfer account number for each subscriber read from the invoice DB 19 is described. Then, the issued bill is sent to each subscriber. Next, the CPU 11 transmits the billing amount, the account number, etc. of the bank debit subscriber to the bank according to the instruction of the operator, and requests the bank to debit (step Sa).
6).

Next, when payment is received from the bank transfer subscriber, the CPU 11 performs a payment process in accordance with an instruction from the operator (step Sa7). Figure 4 shows the details of this deposit process
It will be described based on. The deposit information is transmitted online from the bank using a communication line and is sent to the CP via the communication unit 20.
Supplied to U11. The CPU 11 writes the supplied deposit information in the RAM 13. Next, the subscriber name is detected from the account number included in the deposit information, and the deposit amount is detected from the deposit information described corresponding to the account number (step Sb1). Next, it is determined whether the deposit amount is equal to the billed amount (step Sb2). When the deposit amount matches the billed amount (YES), the billed amount in the billing DB 19 is erased (step Sb3).

On the other hand, if the deposit amount does not match the invoice amount (NO), it is determined whether or not the deposit amount is smaller than the invoice amount (step Sb4). When the deposit amount is larger than the invoice amount (NO), the invoice amount is erased as in step Sb3 (step Sb5), and then the "in deposit amount-invoice amount" is calculated, and the result is calculated. Invoice as advance payment D
Write to B19 (step Sb6). On the other hand, when the deposit amount is smaller than the billing amount (YES), the basic fee of the cable television station is subtracted from the deposit amount and it is determined whether or not the result is positive (step Sb7). If not positive (NO), all the deposit amount is written in the billing DB 19 as advance payment (step Sb8). On the other hand, if the determination in step Sb7 is positive (YES), the basic fee of the cable television station is erased (step Sb7).
b9), and then, a value obtained by subtracting the basic charge of the cable television station from the deposit amount is written in the billing DB as advance payment (step Sb10).

Next, it is determined whether or not the processing for all the deposit information has been completed (step Sb11). If the determination result is "NO", the process returns to step Sb1 again and the above-mentioned deposit information is described above. Repeat the process. The above-mentioned deposit processing will be specifically described as follows, for example. Now, the basic fee for a cable TV station is 3000 yen, and the reception fee for company A is 2000 yen. Then, it is assumed that a subscriber has a reception contract with only company A. In this case,
If the subscriber pays 5000 yen, the payment is made in step Sb3, and the process ends. When the subscriber transfers 4000 yen, the basic charge of the cable television station is first cleared (step Sb9), and the balance 1000 yen is written in the billing DB 19 as advance payment. In this case, the delinquent status of the bill of Company A for the subscriber is continued.

In the above embodiment, the subscriber is premised on the reception contract of only one channel. However, in the case of the reception contract of a plurality of channels, the priority order of the clearing is determined and the deposit amount is not full. Then, the scrubbing should be done according to the priority.

Now, when the above-mentioned bank withdrawal process and the above-mentioned deposit process are completed for all subscribers,
The CPU 11 proceeds to the process of step Sa8 in FIG. 3 and calculates the total amount of delinquent amounts of each subscriber (cumulative delinquency amount) based on the information in the billing DB 19. Next, it is judged whether or not the delinquent amount is larger than a predetermined prescribed amount (step Sa9). Then, if the determination result is larger than the prescribed amount (YES), the process related to the video cut is performed (step Sa10).

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, the billing process based on the bank transfer can be automatically performed, and the labor of the staff can be greatly reduced. Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, since the calculating means for calculating the cumulative delinquency amount of the subscriber is provided, the effect that the cumulative delinquency amount of the subscriber can be easily known can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a cable television management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a cable television station and a subscriber's house using the cable television management device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the same embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Cable TV station 2 ... Subscriber's house 10 ... Cable TV charge management device 11 ... CPU 12 ... ROM 13 ... RAM 14 ... Operation unit 15 ... Display 16 ... Printer 19 ... Billing DB (database) 20 ... Communication unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A cable television charge management device for managing a reception fee of a subscriber of a cable television station, wherein a database in which billing information for the subscriber is stored, and a bill is issued based on the billing information in the database. Invoice issuing means to perform, storage means for storing the deposit amount based on the invoice, and if the deposit amount matches the invoice amount, the corresponding invoice is erased, and the deposit amount is the invoice amount If not, the cable television charge management device comprises: data processing means for applying a charge that can be applied according to the deposit amount and processing the remaining amount as advance payment. 2. The cable television charge management device according to claim 1, further comprising calculation means for calculating a subscriber's accumulated delinquency amount based on the data in the database. 3. The data processing means, when the deposit amount does not match the bill amount, performs the scrubbing with the deposit amount according to a predetermined order of claim items. The cable television charge management device according to claim 2. 4. A cable television charge management method for managing a reception fee of a subscriber of a cable television station, wherein a bill is issued based on the billing information in a database in which billing information for the subscriber is stored. Check the deposit amount based on the form, and if the deposit amount matches the billed amount, the corresponding claim is cleared, and if the deposit amount does not match the billed amount, the deposit amount is A cable television charge management method characterized by clearing available charges and processing the remaining amount as advance payment.