JP2012138917A - Moving image data distribution/appreciation system, program moving image data distribution device, advertisement moving image data distribution device and moving image data appreciation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To adjust standpoints of a sponsor and a user in a server-type broadcast CM.SOLUTION: According to the actual result of CM browsing, a CM distribution station issues a point available for an arbitrary program in addition to demanding an advertisement charge to the sponsor. To a television station, the advertisement charge is distributed from an issue source based on the actual result of point use. A program can be appreciated by a credit even in the case of point shortage. A point from a different issue source is usable. The point is usable for any television station program. In the case of a program specified point, it is used first. The CM distribution station and the television station may be united. The sponsor may also serve as the CM distribution station. The actual results of CM browsing and CM cut are fed back to future CM management. In an initial screen, CM is automatically broadcast with a point display presently held. During program appreciation, a user can insert CM arbitrarily. CM is automatically started at the completion of a program. CM is also broadcast in a program download time. CM can be searched for with a performer etc.

Description

  The present invention relates to a moving image data distribution / viewing system, and more particularly to a moving image data distribution / viewing system in which viewing of moving image data is covered by an advertising fee for an advertising moving image provided by an advertiser. The present invention also relates to a program moving image data distribution device, an advertisement moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device used in such a system.

As a representative example of the above video data distribution / viewing system, there is a television broadcasting system known as a private broadcasting, and the broadcasting program is covered by an advertising fee of an advertiser who provides a so-called commercial message. The viewing is free. However, since the commercial message is not necessarily the target of the viewer's interest, it is often excluded from the target of viewing by the so-called CM cut function especially during recording.
On the other hand, in recent years, so-called server type broadcasting has been put into practical use, and it is also possible to enjoy moving image programs by decompressing and reproducing program moving image data downloaded from a program distribution server via the Internet. However, in such server-type broadcasting by communication, the concept of broadcasting time has collapsed, and the user can download and watch program video data according to his / her convenience.
In the case of normal broadcasting, the content of the next program is not broadcasted unless the end of the commercial message is waited. However, in server type broadcasting, there is no such time restriction. Therefore, if no measures are taken on the program providing side, it is possible to view only the program moving image data without viewing the advertising moving image data corresponding to the commercial message, and the advertiser is provided with the advertising fee. Meaning disappears.

Therefore, in the server-type broadcast as well as the normal broadcast, when reproducing the program moving image data, the reproduction of the advertising moving image data is forcibly inserted every predetermined time, and unless the user views the advertising moving image data, A device is also devised so that the continuation of the program video data cannot be seen. In addition, program video data can be played back by skipping the operation of the scroll bar, but such skipped playback is not possible for the portion of the advertising video data, and once playback is started, it is completely watched. There is an inevitable device.
However, this is just an idea that takes into account the advertiser's position. From the viewpoint of a viewer who is only interested in program video data (hereinafter referred to as a user), the motivation to somehow cut CM remains.

On the other hand, the commercial message is important product information for users who are interested in the content, and is not necessarily a subject to be disliked. Therefore, in server-type broadcasting, it is possible to select only users who are interested in the advertisement video data and distribute contents with different contents for each user by utilizing the fact that detailed services can be provided for each user. Has been done. Thus, the distribution of the advertisement moving image data matches the user's nice.
However, in general, advertising has the purpose of not only providing product information to users who are seeking information but also informing users who were not originally interested in a product with a new concept to encourage purchase. If users with good matching are limited from the beginning, there is a possibility that the market development is mistaken.
From the above viewpoints, conventional television broadcasting is based on interest in programs and restrains users in time, and makes commercial messages appear to users naturally, and is not originally interested in products. It was an extremely effective advertising medium for users. Also, the fact that a commercial message is automatically inserted into a program without any burden on the operation of the TV is dissatisfied with taking time for uninteresting, but rather for the user. It was also an advantage.
In server-based broadcasting, the idea of binding users to forcibly view advertisement video data is to inherit the advertising media effect and advantages of conventional television broadcasting, but it is essentially no longer time. Continuing the above-mentioned artificial contrivance in server-type broadcasts that have lost their restrictions will highlight the contradiction between the traditional advertiser's position and the user's position, and the user's desire for CM cuts. It can be stronger. And if this demand is strong, the history of technological development has always been devised so that it is not necessary to look at the advertisement moving image data against it.

On the other hand, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-285743 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-285830, the user can select a commercial message of interest and point to the user who viewed the commercial message for motivation to see the commercial message. It is also proposed to issue
However, there is a problem in resolving the contradiction between the advertiser's position of wanting to see a commercial message and the user's position of not wanting to spend time on an uninterested commercial message without placing an operational burden on the user. Still remains.

JP 2001-285743 A JP 2001-285830 A

The problem to be solved by the present invention is that, in so-called server-type broadcasting in which program video data and advertisement video data distributed by a server are downloaded by communication, and decompressed and reproduced for viewing, the advertiser's position and the user's position Is to solve the contradiction in consideration of reducing the operational burden on the user.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a moving image data distribution / viewing system having a program moving image data distribution device, an advertisement moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device. In such a system, the advertising video data distribution device issues a program video data viewing right to the video data viewing device according to the viewing performance of the advertising video data by the video data viewing device and charges the advertiser an advertising fee. Have Further, the moving image data appreciation device has control means for arbitrarily selecting program moving image data to be distributed by the program moving image data distribution device using the issued program moving image data appreciation right.
In the above, the program moving image data distribution device is specifically a television station for distributing program moving image data, for example. The advertising video data distribution device is specifically an advertising distribution station that distributes advertising video data, for example, and the program video data viewing right issued by the advertising video data distribution device is specifically an appreciation of program video data distributed by a television station, for example. It is a point that can be used for. Furthermore, the moving image data appreciation device is specifically a user's television, for example.
With the above configuration, the video data viewing device side can use the program video data viewing right issued according to the viewing performance of the advertising video data for viewing any program video data. Is freed from inconveniences such as the requirement to view specific program video data.
The above features can be applied even when the program moving image data distribution device and the advertising moving image data distribution device are integrated or included in the same business entity.

According to a specific feature of the present invention, the program video data distribution device and the advertisement video data distribution device are separate, and the program video data distribution device distributes the advertisement video data based on the usage record of the program video data viewing right. Control means for receiving distribution of advertising fee from the apparatus.
With the above configuration, the program moving image data distribution apparatus can receive the distribution of the advertising fee revenue according to the appreciation performance of the program moving image data from the advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus.
According to another specific feature of the present invention, the program moving image data distribution device credits the program moving image data viewing right even when the program moving image data viewing right is insufficient, and permits the moving image data viewing device to view the program moving image data. Have
With the above configuration, the video data viewing apparatus is freed from the inconvenience that the program video data viewing right must be issued by viewing advertising video data prior to viewing the program video data viewing. The The credit for viewing the program video data that has been credited may be compensated afterwards by browsing the advertisement video data after viewing the program video data.

According to another specific feature of the present invention, there are a plurality of advertising moving image data distribution apparatuses, regardless of which advertising moving image data distribution apparatus has the right to view the program moving image data. Using this, there is a control means for viewing the program moving image data distributed by the program moving image data distribution apparatus.
With the above-described configuration, the moving image data viewing apparatus is freed from inconveniences such as having to properly use the program moving image data viewing right according to the publisher. Of course, even if there are exceptional advertising moving image data distribution stations, it is within the scope of the present invention as long as the above advantages can be enjoyed with respect to at least a plurality of advertising moving image data distribution stations.

According to another specific feature of the present invention, there are a plurality of program video data distribution devices, and the video data appreciation device uses any issued program video data appreciation rights to distribute any program video data device. Regardless of whether it is data, it has a control means for appreciating it.
With the above configuration, the video data appreciation device is freed from inconveniences such as having to use different program video data appreciation rights depending on the program video data distribution device. Of course, even if there are exceptional program video data distribution stations, it is within the scope of the present invention as long as the above advantages can be enjoyed with respect to at least a plurality of program video data distribution stations.

According to another feature of the present invention, the advertising video data distribution device issues a program video data viewing right to the video data viewing device in accordance with the browsing performance of the advertising video data by the video data viewing device and also pays the advertiser an advertising fee. The video data viewing apparatus has control means for viewing the program video data distributed by the program video data distribution apparatus using the issued program video data viewing right, and further the program video The data distribution device includes a control unit that receives distribution of the advertisement fee from the advertising moving image data distribution device based on the usage record of the program moving image data viewing right.
According to the above configuration, the advertisement fee payment from the advertiser to the advertisement distribution device and the distribution of the advertisement fee from the advertisement distribution device to the program video data distribution device are the results of viewing the advertisement video data and the program video data by the video data viewing device. The system functions smoothly.
This feature can be applied even when the advertisement video data distribution device has a control means for designating program video data that can be viewed and issuing a program video data viewing right to the video data viewing device. It is. Such program-designated program video data viewing rights are less convenient to use than general-purpose program video data viewing rights without program designation, but its use value is higher than general-purpose program video data viewing rights. If there is, the existence significance exists. As a result, the motivation of users is increased, and the advertiser has the advantage of increasing viewing opportunities due to the popularity of the program, so there is no dissatisfaction with the expensive advertising fee. Furthermore, the program moving image data distribution apparatus can also receive an advertisement fee distribution that enables production of a specialized program that cannot be expected to have a high audience rating.

According to a specific feature of the present invention, the video data appreciation device receives a program video data appreciation right in which appreciable program video data is designated, and has no program video data designation. It has a control means for using this prior to the viewing right.
With the above configuration, there is an irrational reason that the program video data viewing right that can be used for any program video data is used first and the program video data viewing right that specifies the program video data that can be viewed remains. Is prevented.

  According to another specific feature of the present invention, the advertisement moving image data distributed by the advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus may include an advertisement of the program moving image data itself. According to another specific feature of the present invention, the advertisement moving image data distributed by the advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus includes advertisements that are not subject to the issuance of the program moving image data viewing right according to the browsing performance. It's okay.

According to another feature of the present invention, the advertising video data distribution device has a control means for issuing a program video data viewing right to the video data viewing device according to the browsing performance of the advertising video data by the video data viewing device, The video data appreciation device has control means for appreciating the program video data distributed by the program video data distribution device using the issued program video data appreciation right, and the program video data distribution device further includes program video data Control means for receiving an advertising fee from the advertising moving image data distribution device based on the usage history of the viewing right.
With the above configuration, the video data viewing right is issued according to the browsing performance of the advertising video data, and the distribution of the advertising fee from the advertisement distribution device to the program video data distribution device depends on the usage history of the video data viewing right. The system functions smoothly.
This feature can be applied even when the advertising moving image data distribution device is integrated with the advertiser. In other words, not only the case where the advertiser leaves the management fee to the specialist who has the advertisement video data distribution device but pays the advertising fee, the advertiser itself has the advertisement video data distribution device, and the distribution of the advertisement video data and the video data appreciation Even when managing the issuance of rights, the above-described features of the present invention can be applied.

According to another feature of the present invention, the recording means for recording the usage record of the program video data viewing right issued according to the browsing performance of the advertisement video data, and the same program based on the usage record recorded by the recording means Distribution of program video data having totaling means for counting the program video data viewing rights used for the video data based on the issuance history and notifying means for notifying the issuer of the program video data viewing rights by the counting means An apparatus is provided. As a specific issue history, only the issuer of which advertising video data distribution device issued the program video data viewing right is sufficient, but the history of which advertiser's advertising video data was issued based on It may be.
According to the above configuration, even when program video data viewing rights from different publishers are used together for the same program video data, for a plurality of publishers of program video data viewing rights, It is possible to make a request for advertising fee distribution based on the issuance results.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a distribution means for distributing program video data, and a program video data price that has been distributed but has not yet been viewed is suspended until the program video data is actually viewed There is provided a program moving image data distribution device having management means for performing the above-described operation. The settlement of the program viewing consideration is specifically the use of the program video viewing right issued according to the browsing performance of the advertisement video data, for example.
According to the above configuration, when the program video data is received in the “program recording” state, the payment is paid when the program video data is actually decompressed and played back. You can avoid the settlement.
On the other hand, according to a specific feature of the present invention, the management means performs the payment for the compensation again when the program video data that has been put into the payment settlement pending state again after being viewed is viewed again. In this way, the idea of paying the price based on the actual performance record instead of the distribution standard also leads to the rationality of charging the program video data each time it is played repeatedly or copied, and the delivery of the program video data is delivered. It can be clarified that there is a demand for a service of watching a program rather than a price for the program.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, a distribution unit that distributes program video data, a confirmation unit that confirms the presence or absence of a program video data viewing right necessary for viewing the distributed program video data, and the confirmation unit includes a program video There is provided a program moving image data distribution apparatus having management means for permitting the viewing of program moving image data by crediting the shortage even when a lack of data viewing right is detected. The significance of the credit for viewing the program video data has already been explained.

According to a specific feature of the program video data provided by the present invention, the program video data viewing right usage record is recorded, and the management means stores the credited program video data viewing right in the recording unit. Do not record.
There is a possibility that the program video data viewing right is not yet used in the credit state and is not yet issued. Further, if the credit time limit is exceeded, there is a possibility that payment in monetary rather than program video data appreciation rights may be performed. In this case, appreciation of the program video data is performed for a fee regardless of browsing the advertisement video data. In order to avoid such confusion after the various possibilities, the management means according to the specific features of the present invention does not cause the recording means to record the credited program video data viewing right.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a distribution unit that distributes the advertising video data, an issuing unit that issues a right to view the program video data according to the browsing performance of the distributed advertising video data, and reproduction of the distributed advertising video data An advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus is provided that includes a receiving unit that receives an interruption signal, an issuing unit, and a transmission unit that transmits reproduction management information of advertisement moving image data based on the receiving unit. Specifically, the reproduction management information is information for selecting, for example, advertisement moving image data to be reproduced, managing the reproduction order, the reproduction frequency, and the like.
According to the above configuration, the reproduction management information of the advertisement video data for the video data appreciation device can be changed according to the interest in the ad video data on the individual video data appreciation device receiving the distribution of the advertisement video data. For example, it is possible to manage such that advertisement moving image data that meets the needs of the moving image data appreciation device is reproduced. For example, it is possible to increase the reproduction frequency and priority of advertisement moving image data that tends to be similar to the advertising moving image data for which the program moving image data viewing right is issued. On the other hand, with regard to the advertisement moving image data subject to the reproduction interruption signal and the advertising moving image data having a tendency similar to this, the reproduction frequency and the priority order can be lowered, or the reproduction can be stopped at all in some cases.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a distribution unit that distributes the advertising video data, an issuing unit that issues a right to view the program video data according to the browsing performance of the distributed advertising video data, and reproduction of the distributed advertising video data Provided is an advertisement video data distribution apparatus comprising: a receiving means for receiving an interruption signal; and a management means for changing a relationship between the advertisement video data and the program video data for which the program video data viewing right can be used based on the issuing means and the receiving means Is done.
Specifically, the management means aiming at the issuance of program video data viewing rights, and if multiple advertising video data are competing for the same program, the priority order such as the list and the individual advertisers are charged The basic advertisement fee to be changed can be changed according to the results of the issuing means and the receiving means. More specifically, the management means receives the issuing means when the advertiser is in charge of determining or changing the program video data to be specified in the advertisement video data for issuing the program-specific type program video data viewing right. This can be responded to by analyzing the trend of browsing many other advertisement video data based on the means.
According to the above configuration, when managing the issuance of the program video viewing right specifying the program video data that can be viewed, the advertising video data can be related to the program video data in a form that the advertiser is convinced with.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the first advertising video data for advertising the program video data itself and the second advertising video data related to the advertisement other than the program video data, and the second advertising video data browsing There is provided an advertising moving image data distribution device comprising issuing means for issuing a viewing right for program moving image data advertised by the first advertising moving image data in accordance with the results.
According to the above configuration, the user can touch one end of the program video data through browsing the first advertisement data and, if interested, gains the right to view the program video data by browsing the second advertisement video data. Therefore, the motivation for browsing the second advertisement moving image data in order to view the program moving image data becomes more direct, and the effect can be enhanced for both the viewing of the program moving image data and the browsing of the advertisement moving image data.

According to another feature of the present invention, an operation detection unit that detects an operation to start viewing video data, an input unit that inputs program video data and advertisement video data from the outside, and an operation detection unit detects the video data viewing start operation. Advertisement video data automatic playback means for automatically starting continuous playback of a plurality of advertisement video data input by the input means, and operation for viewing program video data during automatic playback of the advertisement video data A moving image data appreciation device having a control means is provided.
According to the above configuration, the continuous playback of the advertisement video data is automatically started simply by performing an operation for viewing the server-type broadcast. For example, the same as when a power switch is turned on in a conventional television, etc. The user is not burdened with any further special operation for starting the reproduction of the moving image. In this way, the advertisement moving image data can be naturally touched by the user. Further, at any time when the user is not interested in the advertisement moving image data, the user can interrupt the continuous automatic re-transmission of the advertisement moving image data and perform an operation for watching the program moving image data.

According to another feature of the present invention, an operation detection unit that detects an operation to start viewing video data, an input unit that inputs program video data and advertisement video data from the outside, and an operation detection unit detects the video data viewing start operation. Advertising video data automatic playback means that automatically starts continuous playback of multiple advertising video data input by the input means, and operations for acquiring program video data viewing rights during automatic playback of advertising video data There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having a control means.
Even in the configuration described above, the continuous playback of the advertisement video data is automatically started only by performing an operation for viewing the server-type broadcast. First of all, the advertisement moving image data can be naturally touched without the burden of operation. Furthermore, the user can interrupt the continuous automatic re-transmission of the advertisement moving image data at his / her will and perform an operation for acquiring the program moving image data viewing right at any time as long as he / she is interested in the advertisement moving image data.

According to a specific feature of the present invention, the control means detects an operation for specifying one of the plurality of advertisement moving image data, and can acquire the right to view the program moving image data. That is, by specifying one of the advertisement moving image data that is continuously and automatically reproduced, the program moving image data viewing right can be easily acquired for the advertisement moving image data.
According to another specific feature of the present invention, the advertisement moving image data includes the advertisement moving image data of the program, and the control means detects a program specific operation based on the advertisement moving image data and views the program moving image data of the program. Display advertising video data for which rights can be issued. The significance thereof is the same as described above regarding the first advertisement data and the second advertisement moving image data.
According to another specific feature of the moving image data appreciation device of the present invention, selection means for selecting an input source of advertisement moving image data is provided. Accordingly, it is possible to request continuous automatic reproduction of advertising video data that is more interesting, and to change the input source of advertising video data. Although this relates to advertisement moving image data, it is easy to use according to the channel change in the conventional television.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video data appreciation device comprising input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from outside, and search means for searching for advertisement video data. Is done. Specifically, the search means can search for advertisement moving image data for issuing a program moving image data viewing right. The moving image data appreciation device is further provided with operation means for performing an operation for acquiring the program moving image data appreciation right based on the search result.
With the above configuration, the user can acquire the program video viewing right more independently by browsing the advertising video data that he is interested in, and is freed from the uncomfortable feeling that the advertising video data can be forcibly shown.
According to a more specific feature of the present invention, the search means not only searches advertising video data based on information related to the advertised product, but also information that is not related to the advertised product itself. For example, it is possible to search the advertisement moving image data based on the performers of the advertisement moving image data.

According to another feature of the present invention, input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data for issuing program video data viewing rights from the outside, and a search for a blog related to a product advertised in the advertising video data There is provided a moving image data appreciation device characterized by having search means and display means for displaying advertisement moving image data and a blog.
According to the above configuration, not only the advertiser information but also information from other users can be obtained, so that the motivation for browsing the advertisement video data is further enhanced.

According to another feature of the present invention, the input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data that can acquire the program video data appreciation right from the outside, the operation detecting means for detecting the video data appreciation start operation, and the operation There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having display means for displaying a program moving image data appreciation right that has been acquired when the detecting means detects a moving image data appreciation start operation.
With the above configuration, the user can know some of the program video data viewing rights already acquired when he / she intends to watch the video data, and if necessary, browse the advertising video data and watch the program video data You can get the right.

According to another feature of the present invention, the input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, and crediting even if program video data appreciation rights are insufficient. Thus, there is provided a moving picture data appreciation device having an appreciation executing means for enabling appreciation of program moving picture data and a display means for displaying a credited right to watch program moving picture data.
With the above configuration, the user can immediately watch the program moving image data regardless of the presence or absence of the program moving image data viewing right, and can know the occurrence of credits when the right is insufficient.

According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data and input video data that can acquire program video data viewing rights can be input from the outside, storage means for storing the obtained video data, and program video data There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having advertisement moving image data automatic reproduction means for automatically reproducing and displaying the advertisement moving image data stored in the storage unit during data acquisition.
With the configuration described above, the advertisement moving image data can be shown to the user naturally using the time zone necessary for obtaining the program moving image data. Of course, when the acquisition of the program moving image data is completed, the reproduction of the advertising moving image data can be interrupted immediately.

According to another feature of the present invention, the program moving image data and the advertising moving image data that can acquire the right to view the program moving image data are input from the outside, and the program moving image data for the program is specified by specifying the program moving image data. There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having display means for displaying advertising moving image data for which viewing rights can be issued.
According to the above configuration, by specifying the desired program video data, it is possible to easily know the advertising video data that can issue the program video data viewing right for the program, which is efficient for the user. In addition to the advantage that the right to view program video data can be acquired, there is also an advantage that an advertiser can have an opportunity to browse advertisement video data by a user who is interested in the program video data.

According to another feature of the present invention, the program moving image data and the advertising moving image data capable of acquiring the viewing right of the program moving image data are input from the outside, and the advertising moving image data is obtained by browsing the advertising moving image data by specifying the moving image data. There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having display means for displaying program moving image data that can be used by the program moving image data appreciation right.
According to the above configuration, by specifying the desired advertisement video data, it is possible to easily know the program video data that can be used for the program video data viewing right acquired by viewing the advertisement video data, and the user For this, there is an advantage that the usage range of the program video data appreciation right can be understood, and there is also an advantage that the advertiser can further enhance the user's motivation for browsing the advertisement video data.

According to another feature of the present invention, an input means for inputting advertisement video data from the outside, an advertisement video data playback means for playing back and displaying the advertisement video data, and a playback interruption signal for causing the playback means to interrupt the advertisement playback. There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having an advertisement interruption operation section to be generated and an output means for outputting an advertisement interruption signal to the outside.
According to the above configuration, the user can immediately interrupt the reproduction of the advertisement video data that is not interested, and by outputting the interruption operation to the outside, Give feedback on playback.

According to another feature of the present invention, the input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from the outside, the advertisement video data playback means for reproducing and displaying the advertisement video data, There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having a browsing operation unit that generates a browsing record signal indicating that the advertisement moving image data reproduced by the reproducing unit is browsed, and an output unit that outputs the browsing record signal to the outside.
According to said structure, the user can give feedback about future reproduction | regeneration of the advertising moving image data which tends to be interested by outputting the advertising moving image data which is interested outside.

According to another feature of the present invention, the input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from the outside, the advertisement video data playback means for reproducing and displaying the advertisement video data, There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having an evaluation operation unit that generates an advertisement evaluation signal based on advertisement moving image data browsing and an output unit that outputs the advertisement evaluation signal to the outside.
According to said structure, the user can give the feedback with specific evaluation about the future reproduction | regeneration of the advertising moving image data which tends to be especially interested by outputting the evaluation with respect to advertising moving image data outside.

According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data and advertising video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired can be input from outside, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying program video data, There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having an advertising moving image data reproduction operation unit for arbitrarily instructing reproduction of advertising moving image data during reproduction of a program moving image.
According to the above configuration, it is possible to avoid the unpleasantness that advertisement video data is inserted in the middle of a program regardless of the intention of the user, and when the user is tired from watching a program for a long time, it is necessary for the user's own operation. Accordingly, it is possible to instruct the reproduction of the advertisement moving image data at an arbitrary time point to perform a break or change of mood. In addition, necessary viewing rights for viewing program video data can be obtained through browsing of such advertisement video data.

According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data and advertising video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired can be input from outside, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying program video data, There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having advertising moving image data reproducing means that automatically reproduces advertising moving image data when program reproduction is completed.
According to said structure, it becomes possible to utilize the end of a program as an opportunity to acquire the right to view program video data. According to the specific feature of the present invention, when the program video data viewing right is credited and the program video data is viewed, the advertisement video data can be automatically played at the end of the program playback. As a result, it is possible to cope with the necessity of urgent acquisition of the right to view program video data.

According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data and advertising video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired can be input from outside, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying program video data, There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having related program display means for displaying the program moving image data when there is a related program for the reproduced program.
According to said structure, presence of the related program moving image data of the reproduced | regenerated program can be known easily. According to a specific feature of the present invention, there is provided advertisement moving picture data reproducing means for automatically reproducing the advertisement moving picture data when the related program is displayed. According to a more specific feature of the present invention, advertisement moving image data that can issue a program moving image data viewing right designating a related program is displayed. Such a feature makes it easy to acquire the right to view program video data for viewing related programs.

According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data using the input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, and program video data appreciation rights acquired. There is provided a moving image data appreciation device having program moving image data reproducing means for reproducing and displaying data, and management means for using the program moving image data according to the acquisition order of the program moving image data viewing right.
According to the above feature, it is possible to prevent an unreasonable order in the issuance order and use order of the program video data viewing rights and the distribution of the advertising fee free from the entity.
According to another aspect of the present invention, program video data using the input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, and program video data appreciation rights acquired. Program video data playback means for playing back and displaying data, and if program video data viewing rights that specify program video data to be played back have been acquired, this must be done before program video data viewing rights without program video data designation. And a moving image data appreciation device having management means for using.
According to the above feature, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a usage situation in which the advantage is not fully utilized even though there is a high-value program video data viewing right specifying the program video data to be reproduced.
According to a specific feature of the present invention, when the program video data viewing right that designates the program video data to be reproduced is surplus, it is converted into a program video data viewing right that has no program video data designation. .
According to another specific feature of the present invention, when the program video data viewing right that can be used for viewing the program video data to be played back is insufficient, program video data viewing for specifying other program video data is performed. If you have the right, you can use it.
According to the specific features as described above, it is possible to rationally use the program video data viewing right without waste.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in server-type broadcasting, a video data distribution / viewing system that solves the contradiction between the position of the advertiser and the position of the user while considering the operational burden on the user, and the system A program moving image data distribution device, an advertisement moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device used in the system are provided.

It is the drawing substitute photograph which showed the block diagram of the whole structure in the Example of the moving image data delivery and appreciation system in this invention. 2 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a block diagram of information and value exchange between computers in the embodiment of FIG. 2 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a block diagram when there are a plurality of advertisement distribution stations in information and value exchange between computers in the embodiment of FIG. 1. FIG. It is the drawing substitute photograph which showed the television screen figure when the power supply of television was turned on in the user television in the Example of this invention. FIG. 5 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a television screen view when the net mode button 35 is operated in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a television screen view when the program guide button 37 is operated in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5. FIG. 6 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a television screen view when the advertisement search button 44 is operated in FIG. 5. It is the drawing substitute photograph which showed the television screen figure regarding point issuing when reproduction | regeneration of point object advertisement moving image data was performed. FIG. 4 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart showing the operation of the user computer in the embodiment of the present invention in FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 10 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of details of the net mode processing in step S8 of FIG. 9; FIG. 10 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed flowchart of the program guide processing in step S12 of FIG. 9 and step S60 of FIG. 12 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed flowchart of the designated advertisement processing in step S102 of FIG. 12 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed flowchart of the recording process in step S108 of FIG. FIG. 10 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed flowchart of the reproduction mode processing in step S26 of FIG. 9 and step S104 of FIG. FIG. 14 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of details of download processing in step S98 of FIG. 11 and step S148 of FIG. FIG. 11 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed flowchart of the advertisement search process in step S54 of FIG. FIG. 17 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of details of the point acquisition processing in step S46 of FIG. 10, step S118 of FIG. 12, step S186 of FIG. 15, and step S234 of FIG. FIG. 16 is a drawing substitute photograph showing a flowchart of details of the point settlement processing in step S164 of FIG. 14 and step S198 of FIG. 15; FIG. 16 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of details of program video data decompression / reproduction processing in step S166 of FIG. 14 and step S200 of FIG. 4 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of the basic operation of the advertisement distribution station computer in the embodiment of the present invention in FIGS. FIG. 21 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of details of the automatic advertisement management processing executed in steps S360 and S374 of FIG. 21 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of the details of the program-designated advertisement management processing executed in steps S352 and S376 of FIG. 4 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a flowchart of the basic operation of the television station computer in the embodiment of the present invention in FIGS. FIG. 2 is a drawing-substituting photograph showing a detailed block diagram of the user television in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a moving image data distribution / viewing system according to the present invention. The embodiment is configured as a television system in which program distribution is covered by an advertisement fee of an advertisement video (so-called CM or television commercial) provided by an advertiser, and basically a user can watch a program for free.
The television system in the embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of television stations having a program moving picture data distribution function. As a simplest case, FIG. 1 shows the A television station 1 and the B television station 2. However, a third or more television stations may be included in the television system.
The A television station 1 has a plurality of program moving image data, and has an A television station computer 3 that manages programs and their distribution. In FIG. 1, the A1 program moving image data 4 and the B program moving image data 5 are shown as representative of the program moving image data, but there are naturally other program moving image data. Similarly, the B television station 2 includes B1 program moving image data, B2 program moving image data, and a B television station computer 6.
The programs of the A television station 1 and the B television station 2 can be distributed by digital broadcasting radio waves as normal television broadcasting, but are also distributed by communication via the Internet as digital moving image compressed data.

The television system in the embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of user televisions as moving image data appreciation devices. As representatives thereof, FIG. 1 shows a C user television 9 and a D user television 10. Of course, there are many unspecified user televisions other than these, but their illustration is omitted. The C user television 9 and the D user television 10 each have a C user computer 11 and a D user computer 12 that manage television functions and program reception. These computers are connected to the Internet.
The C user television 9 and the D user television 10 can receive a program as a television broadcast by a normal digital broadcast radio wave, but can also receive the program data as digital moving image compressed data by communication via the Internet. FIG. 1 illustrates a state in which the C user television 9 receives distribution of the A1 program moving image data 4 and the B1 program moving image data 7 by communication via the Internet. On the other hand, the D user television 10 receives distribution of the B2 program moving image data 8 by communication via the Internet.
The C user television 9 or the D user television 10 that has received the program data distributed via the Internet stores the downloaded digital compressed moving image data in the storage unit of the C user computer 11 or the D user computer 12, respectively. Therefore, unlike the case of broadcast reception, the user of the C user television 9 or the D user television 10 can decompress and watch the downloaded program data not only immediately after downloading but also at an arbitrary time.

The advertisement distribution station 13 functioning as an advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus transmits the E advertisement moving image data 15 or the F advertisement moving image to the C user television 9 or the D user television 10 based on the management of the advertisement distribution station computer 14 by communication via the Internet. Data 16 is distributed. Then, based on an instruction from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 or an operation of the C user computer or the D user computer itself, the decompression and reproduction are performed in the C user computer or the D user computer. There are many other types of advertisement moving image data that can be distributed by the advertisement distribution station 13, but the illustration is omitted.
In FIG. 1, as an example, the C user television 9 receives the distribution of the E advertisement moving image data 15 and the D user television 10 receives the distribution of the E advertisement moving image data 15 and the F advertisement moving image data 16. ing. Unlike the program video data, in the case of the advertisement video data, the selected advertisement video data cannot be viewed later, and the video playback is automatically performed on the C user TV 9 or the D user TV 10 at the timing linked to the selection. Begins with
Further, the reproduction of the advertisement moving image data is not limited to the one selected by the user, but the advertisement moving image data can be automatically reproduced on the user television by a predetermined procedure. On the user television side, the reproduction of the advertisement moving image data to be reproduced can be arbitrarily cut (so-called CM cut). These will be described later together with the distribution and selection of the advertisement video data.

When the advertisement distribution station 13 confirms that the human has viewed the contents of the advertisement moving image data by the C user television 9 or the D user television 10, points are issued. The points issued in this way serve as program video data viewing rights for the C user television 9 or D user television 10 to view the program video data of the A television station 1 or the B television station 2. That is, the C user television 9 or the D user television receiving the point can download the program video data from the A television station 1 or the B television station 2 and use it for free viewing.
The points include general-purpose points and program-designated points. In the case of general-purpose points without program designation, the C user television 9 or the D-user television 10 is related to which advertising video data is obtained. First, the points can be used for any of the A television station 1 and the B television station 2 and for any program video data. On the other hand, in the case of program designated points, in principle, points can only be used for programs designated at the time of publication. The program designated point can be exchanged for a general-purpose point at a predetermined exchange rate. Details of the issuance and use of points will be described later.

In FIG. 1, only one advertisement distribution station is shown for simplicity, but the embodiment of the present invention includes a case where a plurality of advertisement distribution stations compete. Even in such a case, the user can use the earned points for any program of any television station regardless of which advertisement distribution station has issued.
Also, as a different embodiment, a specific advertisement distribution station and a specific television station form an exclusive line, and points issued by advertisement distribution stations outside the line can be used for downloading program video data of TV stations within the line. You can also avoid it.

The E advertisement moving image data 15 and the F advertisement moving image data 16 managed by the advertisement distribution station 13 are provided from the E advertiser 17 and the F advertiser 18, respectively. Specifically, an advertisement moving image creator that receives an advertiser's request provides advertisement moving image data.
The E advertiser 17 and the F advertiser 18 respectively have an E advertiser computer 19 and an F advertiser computer 20 in order to manage advertisement fee payment. The E advertiser computer 19 and the F advertiser computer 20 are respectively linked with the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and according to the browsing results of the E advertisement moving image data 15 or the F advertisement data 16 by the C user television 9 or the D user television 10. The advertising fee is paid from the E advertiser 17 or the F advertiser 18 to the advertisement distribution station 14.
The advertisement fee obtained by the advertisement distribution station 13 as described above is the program video data of the C user television 9 or the D user television 10 that uses the points after deducting a fee for maintaining the business of the advertisement distribution station 13. It is distributed to the A television station 1 or the B television station 2 according to the browsing results.

2 is exchanged over the Internet by the A television station computer 3, the B television station computer 6, the C user computer 11, the advertisement distribution station computer 14, the E advertiser computer 19, and the F advertiser computer 20 in the embodiment of FIG. It is a block diagram illustrating the flow of information and value. Since the relationship between the D user computer 12 and other computers is the same as that of the C user computer 11, the illustration and description thereof are omitted in FIG. 2 for simplicity. Specifically, in FIG. 2, the C user computer 11 may be replaced with the D user computer 12 for understanding.
In FIG. 2, the exchange of values between the computers is illustrated directly, but a computer of a bank or a credit card company may be interposed between the computers.

In FIG. 2, an advertisement fee payment process from the E advertiser computer 19 to the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is performed between the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the E advertiser computer 19. This advertising fee is composed of a fixed amount portion and a pay-as-you-go portion, and the fixed amount portion is paid by data-up based on the establishment of the distribution management contract for the E-advertisement video data 15, but the pay-per-use portion is sent from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the E-advertisement. Payment processing is performed based on the report of the browsing results of the E-advertisement moving image data 15 performed on the main computer 19. This browsing record is the total of browsing results of all unspecified user televisions who have browsed E-advertisement video data for a certain period of time, and the browsing record of E-advertisement data 15 by D-user television 10 is also included therein. .
The same advertising fee payment processing and browsing performance report processing for the F advertisement moving image data are performed between the distribution station computer 14 and the F advertiser computer 20, but the description is not repeated because it is the same as the case of the E advertiser 17.

Between the C user computer 11 and the advertisement distribution station computer 14, point issue processing from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11 is performed. The point issuance processing is performed each time based on the advertisement moving image data browsing performance performed from the C user computer 11 to the advertisement distribution station computer 14.
In FIG. 1, since the distribution of the E advertisement moving picture data 15 is received, when the browsing is confirmed, points corresponding to the E advertisement moving picture data 16 are issued from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11. Further, when the distribution of the F advertisement moving image data 16 is received, points corresponding to the F advertisement moving image data 16 are issued from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11 based on the confirmation of the browsing. The C user computer 11 accumulates the points acquired by browsing the various advertisement moving image data in this way.

Between the C user computer 11 and the A television station computer 3, point use processing accompanying program viewing is performed. For example, when the distribution of the A1 program video data 4 is requested from the C user computer 11, the presence / absence of points necessary for the distribution is confirmed between computers, and if there are enough points, the used points are subtracted from the accumulated points of the C user computer 11. At the same time, the A1 program moving image data 4 is distributed to the C user computer 11 in exchange.
Even if there are no points or insufficient points, the A1 program moving image data 4 can be downloaded with the credit of the points. This will be described later.
The C user computer 11 performs point use processing associated with program viewing in cooperation with the B television station computer 6, but the description is omitted because it is the same as in the case of cooperation with the A television station computer 3.

Advertising fee distribution processing is performed between the A television station computer 3 and the advertisement distribution station computer 14. The advertisement distribution station computer 14 distributes the advertisement fee to the A television station computer 3 based on the notification of the point use results made from the A television station computer 3. This point use record is a sum of points used for various programs distributed by the A television station in accordance with requests from an unspecified number of user televisions for a predetermined period. Therefore, although not shown, this total includes not only the use points from the C user computer 11 but also the use points from the D user computer 12.
The advertisement distribution station computer 14 performs advertisement fee distribution processing with the B television station computer 6 as well, but the description is omitted because it is the same as that with the A television station computer 3.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the flow of value exchanged between computers of the embodiment of the present invention via the Internet, as in FIG. Unlike FIG. 2, a case where there are a plurality of advertisement distribution stations is illustrated, and a second advertisement distribution station computer 21 is added in addition to the advertisement distribution station computer 14. Since the function of the B television station can be understood in the same manner as the A television station, the B television station computer 6 is omitted from the illustration in FIG. 3 for simplicity. Specifically, in FIG. 3, the A television station computer 3 may be replaced with the B television station computer 6 for understanding.
When there are multiple advertisement distribution stations as shown in FIG. 3, these advertisement distribution stations compete as independent entities, and each has its own advertising management contract with the advertiser, and each TV station has its own advertisement. You have a fee sharing contract.

The second advertisement distribution station computer 21 cooperates with the G advertiser computer 22 and the H advertiser computer 23 to manage advertisement video data provided by the G advertiser and the H advertiser, respectively. Since the cooperation is the same as the cooperation between the advertisement distribution station computer 14, the E advertiser computer 19, and the F advertiser computer 20, description thereof is omitted.
Further, the cooperation between the C user computer 11 and the second advertisement distribution station computer 21 is the same as the cooperation with the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and therefore the description thereof is omitted. However, the points issued by the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the points issued by the second advertisement distribution station computer are mixed and stored in the C user computer. These points can be identified from which advertisement distribution station has been issued. Furthermore, information on the date of issue since when and how many points were issued by any advertisement distribution station is recorded in the C user computer. This is because management is performed from the point of the early issue date, as will be described later.

The points issued by the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the second advertisement distribution station computer 21 stored in the C user computer 11 are added to the A television station computer 3 for distribution of one program, for example, A1 program video data. It is possible to use.
However, the A television station computer 3 separately counts the used points issued by the computer 14 and the points issued by the second advertisement distribution station computer 21. Accordingly, the notification of the point use results to the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is performed only for the points issued by the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and the advertisement fee obtained from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is sent to the A television station computer 3. Is allocated. The same applies to points issued by the second advertisement distribution station computer 21.

As described above, the advertising fee paid based on the browsing performance of the advertisement moving image data is distributed to the television stations according to the usage history of the points issued based on the browsing performance. Therefore, the total advertising fee from all advertisers and the total advertising fee allocated to all TV stations correspond as a whole at the advertising distribution station level, and the points obtained by viewing which advertiser's advertisements are viewed by which TV station It doesn't necessarily matter which of the programs it was used to receive. In addition, since individual advertisers already have a track record of viewing advertisements and are satisfied with paying advertising fees, the use of points thereafter is not necessarily a concern. Furthermore, since the distribution of advertising fees can be received based on the use of points associated with the appreciation of programs distributed as individual TV stations, it does not necessarily matter which advertisements were used based on which advertisements were used. is not. General-purpose points are issued and used based on this concept.
On the other hand, in the program designated point, the advertisement is provided and the point is issued and used on the premise of a specific program in all of the advertiser, the user television, and the television station. Details of the points will be described later.

In FIG. 2 or FIG. 3, the television station and the advertisement distribution station become an integrated entity, and the advertisement fee obtained by the advertisement distribution station computer function part when the point is issued within the same entity is the point associated with the program viewing. Embodiments in the form of being distributed to the television station computer part based on the track record of use are also possible.
Further, in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3, the block of the A television station computer 3 and the block of the advertisement distribution station computer 14 are integrated to omit the point use result notification and advertisement fee distribution process, and the advertisement fee obtained with the point issuance can be obtained. An embodiment is also possible in which the income of the business entity is obtained as it is without waiting for the use of points. In this case, the point use seems to be unrelated to the acquisition of advertising fee at first glance, but the point is originally issued based on the user's motivation for watching TV programs. There is no income. Therefore, the system of the present invention is premised on the existence of attractive programs and the use of points for viewing them.

FIG. 4 is a television screen diagram of the C user television 9 or the D user television 10 in the embodiment of the present invention, and shows a state in which the television is turned on by operating the remote controller. In this state, a normal digital broadcast moving image 32 using broadcast radio waves is displayed on the television screen 31. In addition, a recording button 33 for performing a broadcast recording operation, a playback mode button 34 for performing an operation for entering a mode for reproducing digital broadcast recording or downloaded program moving image data, and a program moving image data distributed via the Internet. A net mode button 35 to be operated when starting the appreciation is displayed. In addition, a channel selection button 36 for selecting a television station and a program guide button 37 operated for displaying a program guide are also displayed. All of the above buttons, the following buttons and other operations are performed by the remote controller.
In the above, when the playback mode button 34 is operated, both of the reproducible programs are displayed as a list regardless of whether they are video data obtained by recording a digital broadcast or program video data obtained by downloading. Is done. Both may be mixed. Also, when the program guide button 37 is operated, a screen on which either a digital broadcast program or program moving image data downloaded from the network can be selected is displayed. Details of these will be described later.

FIG. 5 is a television screen diagram showing a display state when the net mode button 35 is operated in FIG. In this case, the automatic advertisement video 41 is displayed on the television screen 31. In the automatic advertisement moving image 41, data distributed from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is automatically reproduced in a predetermined order by the C user computer. Since the automatic advertisement moving image data decompression process proceeds in parallel with the reproduction of another advertising moving image, the next advertising moving image can be reproduced simultaneously with the end of the reproduction of one advertising moving image.
In addition, about an automatic advertisement animation, the point is issued according to the length of the total browsing time instead of the browsing results for every advertisement. However, the points that can be earned are limited to the lowest level and are only about the electricity cost consumed during the time when the TV is turned on, so keep the TV on in the state of Fig. 5 without watching the automatic advertisement video. Even if you try to earn points by time, it is not worth it. On the premise of the above, the billing of the advertisement fee to the advertiser who provides the automatic advertisement moving image data is also made according to the scheduled broadcast time allocated to each advertisement moving image instead of the browsing results.

Although the automatic advertisement video data can be distributed as it is, it is distributed as a short-time advertisement video data as a digest version or an index version of the E advertisement video data 15 or the F advertisement video data 16 browsed by selection. You can also In this case, since the link display to that effect is performed in the automatic advertisement video 41, if the advertisement point button 42 is operated during automatic advertisement reproduction, the E advertisement video data as the main part can be browsed and viewed. Regular points are issued upon confirmation.
On the other hand, when there is no interest in the automatic advertisement being reproduced, by operating the advertisement cut button 43, the reproduction of the advertisement is immediately interrupted, and the reproduction of the next advertisement is started. Further, the operation of the advertisement cut button 43 is reported to the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and thereafter the reproduction of the same advertisement is refrained under a predetermined rule in the same user computer. Further, the advertisement distribution station computer 14 aggregates the reports of the advertisement cut button operations from the respective user computers, thereby providing feedback to the advertiser regarding the continued advertisement distribution with many advertisement cut operations and poor advertisement efficiency. In addition, for automatic advertisements, measures may be taken to discount the advertising fee charge to the advertiser according to the advertisement cut performance.

In the state of FIG. 5, an advertisement search button 44 that is operated when searching for advertisements and an advertisement channel selection button 45 for selecting an advertisement distribution station when the tendency of automatic advertisement is not desired are displayed. The program guide button 37 has the same function as that displayed in the state of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the current point 46, the credit point 47, and the credit amount 48 acquired by the user are always displayed during the automatic advertisement video broadcast. As long as the credit point 47 is not lost, the display of the current point 46 is zero. Since the user can recognize the necessity of earning points through these displays, the motivation for operating the advertisement point button 42 is increased. The meaning of these displays will be supplemented later.

FIG. 6 is a television screen diagram showing a display state when the program guide button 37 is operated in FIG. 4 or FIG. The program table 51 displays a list of programs that can be viewed at the present time. First, a major category such as a genre is displayed in the program table 51, and by narrowing it down to a fine category by operating the selection button 53, a list of hit programs is displayed. It is also possible to display a list of hit programs by entering a search condition in the search condition box 52 and performing a search. The program displayed in the program list is displayed by mixing both the broadcast program currently being broadcast and the program moving image data that can be downloaded at the present time, and any of them can be selected. A program can be selected from the displayed program list by operating the selection button 53.
In the state where the list of programs that can be viewed at this time is displayed in the program table 51 as described above, it is set so that the recorded digital broadcast program and the downloaded program video data are also listed. You can also. In this case, these displays are distinguishable from other programs that have not been “recorded”.
Further, by operating the current / schedule switching button 54, the display of the program table becomes a list of only broadcast scheduled programs whose broadcast time has not yet come. This is the same as a conventional program table that lists programs by day of the week and time.

To return the conventional program table to the list of programs that can be distributed at the present time, the current / schedule switching button 54 may be operated again. When a list of programs that can be distributed at the present time is displayed in the program table 51, if a digital broadcast program is selected by the selection button 53, the display state shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, and the broadcast is displayed.
On the other hand, when program video data downloadable via the Internet is selected from the program guide 51, the current point 55 stored in the user computer and the necessary point 56 for downloading the selected program are displayed. Is done. When the current point 55 exceeds the necessary point 56, this display disappears in a predetermined time and the program moving image data download starts.
Note that the automatic advertisement moving image 41 of FIG. 5 is sequentially displayed during the download waiting time. At this time, if there is an advertisement of interest, the advertisement point button 42 may be operated to select the main advertisement moving image data to earn points. The operation can be performed in parallel with the downloading of the program moving image data. When the downloading of the program moving image data is completed and the program can be viewed, the television screen 31 changes to a program display. At this time, it may be possible to automatically shift to a program in the middle of advertisement reproduction, but in that case, the advertisement is not treated as an advertisement cut.

On the other hand, if the current point 55 is less than the necessary points 56 for downloading the selected program, the download is suspended and the shortage point 57 is displayed. When the current point is zero, the required points 56 and the deficient points 57 are the same number. In addition, a conversion fee 58 in which the shortage point 57 is converted into an amount for reality is also displayed.
If it is agreed that there is a possibility that the program will be charged and the amount displayed in the conversion fee 58 will be withdrawn from the designated account at a later date, the program video data can be downloaded in the same manner as described above by operating the selection button 53 again. It can be performed. In order to download in such a point shortage state, a dedicated paid download operation button may be operated instead of re-operating the selection button 53 in order to prevent erroneous operation.
When the selection button 53 is operated again as described above, the display of the necessary points 56 is reset and the display of the insufficient points 57 is switched to the display of the credit points added to the credit points so far. Correspondingly, the converted fee 58 is also switched to display the converted credit fee. These displays are a new credit point 47 and a credit amount 48 in FIG. After that, if the due date has passed without any points being earned, the amount displayed in the credit amount 48 will be deducted from the designated account. However, if the credit points are reduced to zero by obtaining new points by the due date, There will be no withdrawal.

When the current point is insufficient, the shortage can be solved by browsing the advertisement moving image data instead of operating the selection button 53 again. In order to enable this, an index of advertisement moving image data that can acquire program specified points is displayed in a list as a still image or a simple moving image in the program specified advertisement list 50. This index is devised so that the outline of the advertisement content can be understood, and is based on the banner advertisement on the Internet website. Each index contains acquirable points, so select one of the advertisement video data from the list using the advertisement selection button 59 in consideration of the degree of interest and the height of the points while comparing with the shortage points 57 To do. As a result, the same result as operating the advertisement point button 42 is obtained, and points are issued upon confirmation of browsing of the advertisement moving image. If the shortage is not resolved by the issue point, the process returns to FIG. 6, and the next advertisement moving image data is selected and browsed. In this way, when the lack point 57 is resolved by the addition of the acquisition points, downloading of the program moving image data starts. The following operations are the same as when there are no missing points.
The index can be made not necessarily a maker name or a product name by an advertiser's device. For example, the name of the manufacturer or the name of the product can be dared to appear, and the name of the performer or other video that may be of interest to the user can be used.
Note that the acquisition of additional points in the event of a shortage of points does not necessarily have to be based on browsing an advertisement video selected from the program-designated advertisement list 50. That is, if there is absolutely no interest in the program-designated advertisement list 50, the program selection is temporarily stopped by remote control operation, the screen shown in FIG. You may win.

If the user wants to “record” the program instead of watching it immediately, the selection from the program guide is performed by the recording button 60 instead of the selection button 53. As a result, the “recording” process is automatically performed in accordance with the selected program.
Specifically, when a normal digital broadcast program is selected by the record button 60, if the program is actually being broadcast, the conventional recording is performed. In addition, when a regular digital broadcast scheduled program that has not yet reached the broadcast time is selected, a conventional recording reservation is made, and when the broadcast time comes, the recording starts and ends automatically and the recorded data is saved. It is stored in the C user computer 11.
On the other hand, when a program that can be distributed via the Internet at the present time is selected, the program is downloaded and stored in the C user computer 11. As described above, these stored programs can be displayed in addition to the list display so as to be distinguishable from the programs that have been “recorded” in the program table 51 by setting.

FIG. 7 is a television screen diagram showing a display state when the advertisement search button 44 is operated in FIG. The advertisement search button 44 is operated to acquire points when product information is desired or when the user wants to enjoy the fun of the advertisement itself.
When the product button 63 is operated when product information is desired in the state of FIG. 7, the search condition 61 displays a large category of product genres, and the search result advertisement list hit by narrowing this down to a fine category 62 is displayed. In the initial state shown in the screen of FIG. 7, the search condition is a product even if no operation is performed. The search result advertisement list 62 is the same as the program-designated advertisement list 50 of FIG. 6 and is an index of a still image or a simple video according to the banner advertisement on the Internet website.
The points that can be obtained by browsing the advertisement moving image data whose index is displayed in the search result advertisement list 62 are set so that the product of the product unit price and the number of units sold is approximately the same in principle. In addition, points are low for mass-consumed products, and points are high for products with low user awareness, high-priced products with a small user population, and products for enthusiasts.
However, in order to prevent advertisement video data distribution from being requested only for high points even if there is no interest, unlike the program-specific advertisement list 50 in FIG. You won't know the points you can earn until you actually view the advertising video. For the same reason, it is prohibited to use the points themselves as search conditions. Furthermore, in order to prevent the advertisement video data that has been found to be high points from being repeatedly browsed just to earn points, the points that can be earned in the second and subsequent distributions for the same advertisement video data are at the lowest level. It is suppressed. Since the advertiser must pay the advertisement fee to the advertisement distribution station according to the point issuance record, the above-mentioned measures can avoid the payment of the advertisement fee that does not match the actual interest of the user.

In general, advertisements are not only for users who are originally interested in products, but also for new users who were not interested in the original products at the same time. Made to pull. In order to realize encounter with the user from such a viewpoint, various search conditions are prepared as well as products. When the performer button 64 is operated, the search condition 61 first displays a 50-sound table as a large classification, and by narrowing down the name from here, an advertisement showing a desired performer appears in the search result advertisement list 62. Is displayed.
Further, when the location button 65 is operated, a 50-sound table or a large classification or map of the area is displayed, and an advertisement for a location that has been hit by narrowing down the name of the place or the historic site name is displayed in the search result advertisement list 62. Is displayed. It is also possible to apply an AND condition to the location by operating the season button 66. Merchandise, performers, location, season, and the like may be selected from a menu or a list that is sequentially displayed in the search condition 61 at the stage of narrowing down, but a free keyword may be written in the search condition 61.

The user's attention to the product to be advertised is not only the product itself, but also related information such as evaluation of the product and relative information between similar products becomes a major attention factor. Examples include user comments on products, discount rates, price comparisons, sales rankings, and the like. When the related information is used as a search condition, the related information button 67 is operated.
In addition, when the free button 68 is operated, it becomes possible to write and set in the search condition 61 a free search category that does not depend on existing search categories such as products, performers, location, season, and related information. Once you have set a free search category, you can save it and recall it for future use. Moreover, it is possible to combine a plurality of these search categories regardless of whether they are existing or free.
When a predetermined index is selected from the search result advertisement list obtained as described above, a distribution request for the corresponding advertisement video data is made, and this results in the same result as operating the advertisement point button 42, and the viewing confirmation Will issue points.
As described above, even when there is no program to be viewed for the time being, it is possible to accumulate points necessary for viewing the program on a daily basis through an advertisement search for obtaining product information or an advertisement search based on mere curiosity. In addition, in anticipation of curiosity of advertising search, advertising artists will strive to produce advertising video data that is attractive as a work.

When a plurality of advertisements are simultaneously displayed on the TV screen 31 as in the above-described program-designated advertisement list 50 in FIG. 6 and the search result advertisement list in FIG. 7, the combination is not determined in advance. Ad voice cannot be used. Therefore, some background music or the like independent of each advertisement is assigned to the audio portion of the list display.
In the embodiment of the present invention, a digest version or a trial version of a music software product is assigned as the background music. Digest version or trial version data of the music software product is distributed in advance to the C user computer 11 from the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and the C user computer is shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 6 according to the instruction code from the C user computer 11. While the screen 7 is displayed, the digest version or the trial version of these music software products is reproduced in a predetermined order. In addition, the television screen 31 displays reference data such as the song title and artist.

FIG. 8 shows the reproduction of the point target advertisement moving image data by the operation of the advertisement point search button 42 in FIG. 5, the selection operation from the program designated advertisement list 50 in FIG. 6, the selection operation from the search result advertisement list 62 in FIG. It is a television screen figure regarding point issuance when it is performed.
When browsing of the point target advertisement video 71 on the television screen 31 is completed, a pattern that can be recognized only by the human eye and brain at random timing is repeatedly displayed on the television screen 31 for a predetermined time. The user views this and operates the completion button 72 a predetermined number of times in synchronization with the pattern display timing. Points will not be issued unless it is confirmed that this operation has been performed correctly. This is illegal, such as automatically playing advertisement video data in the absence of a person in front of the TV screen, or automatically generating a pseudo signal equivalent to the completion button operation without a person. This is to prevent a large number of points from being obtained by simple means.

If the operation for answering the questionnaire is performed during the predetermined number of operations of the completion button 72, the points are doubled. Specifically, when the user operates either the “like” button 73 or the “dislike” button 74 and the “beneficial” button 7 or the “useless” button 76 and then performs the final completion button operation, it is acquired. Double points. The operation of these questionnaire buttons is reported to the advertisement distribution station and fed back to the production of the advertisement video.
These buttons are displayed only when the point target advertisement video 71 is played for the first time on the television screen 31 of the user television, and are displayed to avoid complication when the same point target advertisement video 71 is played for the second time or later. Not. Therefore, there is no treatment for doubling earned points. Such button display control is performed in cooperation with the advertisement distribution station computer 14.
Also in the state of FIG. 8, the current points 46, credit points 47 and credit amounts 48 acquired by the user are always displayed in the same manner as in FIG. 5 in order to increase the user's response motivation for the questionnaire.

If music is adopted in the point target advertisement video 71 displayed on the television screen 31, code information such as the song title and artist is distributed along with the advertisement video data. If there is such code information, the C user computer 11 superimposes character information such as a song title and artist on the point target advertisement video 71 based on the code information and displays it on the television screen 31.
The user designates the character information with the GUI cursor by the remote controller on the screen of FIG. 8 or inputs it as a search condition on the advertisement search screen of FIG. It is possible to search for another advertising video in which the song is used or another advertising video in which the artist appears.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the C user computer 11 according to the embodiment of the present invention in FIGS. 1 to 3, and shows functions when the C user computer is turned on and started up. The flowcharts relating to the operation of the C user computer 11 shown in FIG. 9 and subsequent figures can be applied in common to the D user computer 12 of FIG. 1 and other unspecified user TV user computers.
When the power of the C user computer 11 is turned on, the flow starts, and the normal digital broadcast mode is automatically set in step S2. Next, in step S2, the normal digital broadcast mode is set, and the display of the normal digital broadcast on the channel when the power of the user television was last turned off is started.
Next, in step S6, it is checked whether or not the net mode button 35 has been operated. If it has been operated, the process proceeds to the net mode process in step S8. Details thereof will be described later. If the operation of the net mode button 35 is not detected in step S6, the process proceeds to step S10.
In step S10, it is checked whether or not the program guide button 37 has been operated. If it has been operated, the program guide processing in step S12 is performed. Details thereof will be described later. If no operation of the program guide button 37 is detected in step S10, the process proceeds to step S14.

In step S14, it is checked whether or not the channel selection button 36 has been operated. If the channel selection button 36 has been operated, in step S16, switching to the broadcast channel according to the channel selection is performed, and the flow proceeds to step S18. If the operation of the channel selection button 36 is not detected in step S14, the process proceeds directly to step S18.
In step S18, it is checked whether the recording button 33 has been operated. If it has been operated, recording is started or stopped in accordance with the operation in step S20. Note that broadcast display is continued in parallel with recording. If recorded data is generated, it is stored in step S22, and the process proceeds to step S24. If no operation of the recording button 33 is detected in step S18, the process proceeds directly to step S24.

In step S24, it is checked whether or not the reproduction mode button 37 has been operated. If it has been operated, the process proceeds to the reproduction mode process in step S26. Details thereof will be described later. If the operation of the program guide button 37 is not detected in step S24, the process proceeds to step S28.
In step S28, it is checked whether the power of the C user computer 11 is turned on. If it is turned off, the flow is finished. On the other hand, if the power is not turned off, the process returns to step S6. Hereinafter, unless the power is turned off in step S28 or each button operation in step S6, step S10, and step S24 is not detected, step S6 to step S6 are performed. Repeat S28.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of the net mode processing in step S8 of FIG. When the flow starts, display of the latest point acquisition status is first started in step S32. Specifically, the current point display 46, the credit point 47, and the credit amount 48 of FIG. 5 are displayed. Items that do not have a corresponding point or amount are displayed as zero.
As an example of the modification, a step of detecting that the current remaining point is below a predetermined point or a credit point is generated is provided before step S32, and only when applicable, the process proceeds to step S32 and not applicable. In this case, it is possible to skip step S32 and proceed to the next step. Since the purpose of step S32 is to increase the point acquisition motive, in such a modified embodiment, when sufficient points have been acquired, the display of step S32 is omitted to simplify the screen. In addition, normally, the point display is not performed, and the display of step S32 is performed only when the current remaining point falls below a predetermined point or a credit point is generated, thereby increasing the warning effect to the necessity of acquiring points. You can also.

In the next step S34, notification of the start of automatic advertisement browsing is sent from the C user computer 11 to the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and counting of the browsing time that is the basis for issuing points is started.
Next, in step S36, communication for confirming and maintaining the downloaded automatic advertisement moving image data is performed between the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the C user computer. Automatic advertisement moving image data is automatically sent from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11 periodically, and the downloaded automatic advertisement moving image data is stored in the C user computer 11. The playback order is also designated in advance. However, since there may be some change on the advertisement distribution station computer 14 side from the previous periodical automatic download until the current net mode button is operated, the C user computer for responding to this change in step S36. Update data on the 11 side. Specifically, the C user computer changes the playback order of the automatic advertisement moving image, deletes the automatic advertisement moving image data that has been abolished on the advertisement distribution station computer 14 side, and receives newly added advertisement moving image data.

After the above pre-processing, it will reach step S38 and reproduction of one waiting automatic advertisement animation will be started. Note that the automatic advertisement moving image data stored in the C user computer has already been decompressed according to a predetermined rule. The number of automatic advertisement moving image data that has been decompressed in advance can be set to a considerable number in anticipation of advertisement cut. In any case, since there is at least one decompressed automatic advertisement moving image data, the reproduction can be started immediately in step S38.
Note that the advertisement distribution station 14 can specify in advance the automatic advertisement moving image data to be reproduced first in step S38 after the flow of FIG. 10 is started based on a contract with the advertiser. In this case, it is a condition of the contract that the advertiser of the designated automatic advertisement data pays a predetermined additional advertisement fee to the advertisement distribution station in contrast to the increase in the reproduction opportunities in this way. However, when the advertisement cut button 43 is operated, this designation is removed from the next time.
When the reproduction of one automatic advertisement moving image is started, the process proceeds to step S40, and the decompression of the next automatic advertisement moving image data is started in parallel, and the process proceeds to step S42. The next automatic advertisement moving image decompression started in step S40 ends earlier than the reproduction of the automatic advertisement moving image started in step S38.

In step S42, it is checked whether or not the advertisement point button 42 has been operated. If there is an operation, notification of the end of automatic advertisement browsing is sent from the C user computer 11 to the advertisement distribution station computer 14 in step S44, which is the basis for issuing points. End the browsing time count. The significance of this step S44 is the same for the automatic advertisement browsing end notification in the following steps. After this notification, the process proceeds to point acquisition processing in step S46. Details thereof will be described later.
On the other hand, when the operation of the advertisement point button 42 is not detected in step S42, the process proceeds to step S48, and it is checked whether or not the advertisement cut button 43 is operated. And when operation is not detected, it transfers to step S50.

In step S50, it is checked whether or not the advertisement search button 44 has been operated. If there is an operation, notification of completion of automatic advertisement browsing is sent to the advertisement distribution station computer 14 in step S52, and the advertisement search process in step S54 is entered. Details thereof will be described later. On the other hand, when the operation of the advertisement search button 44 is not detected in step S50, the process proceeds to step S56.
In step S56, it is checked whether or not the program guide button 37 has been operated. If there is an operation, notification of the end of automatic advertisement browsing is sent to the advertisement distribution station computer 14 in step S58, and program guide processing is performed in step S60. Details thereof will be described later. On the other hand, when the operation of the advertisement search button 44 is not detected in step S56, the process proceeds to step S62.

In step S62, the end of the automatic advertisement moving image being reproduced is checked. If not completed, the process returns to step S42, and the operation in any of steps S42, S48, S50, and S56 is not detected, and the end of the automatic advertisement video currently being reproduced is not detected in step S62. As long as steps S42 to S62 are repeated.
When it is detected in step S62 that the currently reproduced automatic advertisement moving image has been completed, the process proceeds to step S64 to check whether or not the advertisement channel selection button 45 has been operated. If there is no operation, the process returns to step S38. As a result, the reproduction of the next automatic advertisement moving image waiting in step S38 is started. Hereinafter, unless an operation in any of Step S42, Step S48, Step S50, Step S56, and Step S64 is detected, the automatic advertisement moving image downloaded from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is automatically reproduced one after another.

When the advertisement channel selection button 45 is operated in step S64, an advertisement distribution station change process is performed based on the designation of the operation. The contents of the processing are the jump of the communication destination to the newly designated advertisement distribution station computer (for example, the second advertisement station distribution station computer 21 in FIG. 3), and the automatic advertisement moving image to the original advertisement distribution station computer 14. This is a browsing end notification.
Then, the C user computer 11 returns to step S <b> 34 to execute each step of the flow starting from the automatic advertisement browsing start notification with the second advertising station distribution station computer 21. Since the contents are the same as the processing with the advertisement distribution station computer 14, the description will not be repeated. Needless to say, every time an operation of the advertisement channel selection button is detected in step S64, the advertisement distribution station computer is changed.

When the operation of the advertisement cut button 43 is detected in step S48, the process proceeds to step S68, and the advertisement cut process and its notification are performed. Specifically, the automatic advertisement video currently being played is immediately interrupted. This is recorded by the C user computer 11 itself and notified to the advertisement distribution station computer 14. Then, this process is performed, and the process proceeds to step S38. As a result, the reproduction of the next automatic advertisement moving image that was waiting in step S38 is started.
Further, every time the process of step S68 is performed, the C user computer 11 and the advertisement distribution station computer 14 lower the reproduction priority of the target automatic advertisement video, and the advertisement cut operation for the same automatic advertisement video is performed more than a predetermined number of times. Then, the automatic advertisement moving image data is not reproduced on the C user computer 11.

In the net mode of FIG. 10 described above, the automatic advertisement moving image data in which the presence / absence and the order of automatic reproduction are determined in step S36 includes the trailer of the program itself provided by the television station and the digest version of the moving image data. Yes. In other words, the TV station is an advertiser for the advertisement distribution station at that time as the distribution source of the program video data.
The advertisement of the program itself from such a TV station is included in the automatic advertisement video, so that the motivation for viewing the program and the motivation for acquiring points by viewing other advertisements are organically linked, and the system is activated. The In addition, in the repetition of the flow of the net mode processing of FIG. 10, a user who is interested in advertising the program itself performs a program guide operation in step S56, and confirms a program-designated advertisement that is efficient for acquiring points. Can do.

Further, in order to facilitate the operation in the above case, the step of identifying whether the normal advertisement video or the advertisement video of the program itself was reproduced when the advertisement point operation was detected is step S44. If it is added after and it is detected that it is an advertising moving image of the program itself, it can be configured to shift to step S58 instead of step S46. When the flow of FIG. 10 is configured in this way, the program guide process can be automatically performed by performing the advertisement point operation in step S42 during the reproduction of the advertisement video of the program itself.
In addition, in the additional identification step, when it is detected that the advertisement video of the program itself is being played when the advertisement point operation is detected, the process proceeds to step S88 of FIG. 11 described later instead of step S46. It can also be configured to jump. When the flow of FIG. 10 is configured in this way, the advertisement point operation in step S42 is performed during the reproduction of the advertisement moving image of the program itself, so that the program moving image data can be automatically acquired.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing details of the program guide processing in step S12 of FIG. 9 and step S60 of FIG. When the flow starts, a large category such as a program genre is displayed on the program table 51 in step S72. Next, in step S74, it is checked whether or not there has been an operation for selecting a list of only broadcast-scheduled programs using the current / schedule switching button 54. If not, the process proceeds to step S76.

  In step S76, it is checked whether or not the narrowing operation from the fine classification to the program list by the operation of the selection button 53 has been performed. If this operation cannot be detected, the process proceeds to step S78, and it is checked whether or not a condition search operation for searching the program list by entering a search condition in the search condition box 52 has been performed. If it is detected that this operation has been performed, the program list obtained by the condition search is displayed in step S80. Even when the narrowing-down operation is detected in step S76, the program list obtained by moving to step S80 is displayed.

The program list displayed in step S80 includes a list of digital broadcast programs that are currently being broadcast, program data that can be downloaded at the present time, recorded digital broadcast programs, and downloaded and unviewed program video data. The However, this is displayed so that it can be identified for each program.
On the other hand, if the condition search operation cannot be detected in step S78, the process returns to step S72. Thereafter, unless any operation is detected in steps S74, S76, and S78, steps S72 to S78 are repeated, and the program genre is repeated. Continue to display.
The steps up to the display of the above program list are executed while appropriately updating each direction station computer and obtaining the latest broadcast or distributable program information.

In the condition search operation in step S78, a specific advertisement name or the like can be input in the search condition box 52. In this case, if the specific advertisement designates a plurality of programs, they are all displayed in the program table 51 in a list in step S80. As a result, the user can know the existence of another program that can be used while maintaining the number of points as program designation points.
For this operation, instead of inputting an advertisement name or the like in the search condition box 52 in FIG. 6, an operation for designating a specific advertisement from the program-designated advertisement list box 50 is performed by the remote controller. A list of programs designated by the specific advertisement can be displayed on the program table 51 in a reverse manner from the specific advertisement.

When the program list is displayed in step S80, the process proceeds to step S82, where it is checked whether or not a program is selected by the program recording operation of the recording button 60. If no operation is detected, the process proceeds to step S84 and the program selection button 53 is checked. It is checked whether the program has been selected by the operation of.
If a program selection operation cannot be detected in step S84, it is checked in step S86 whether a program list reset operation has been performed. The program list reset operation is performed by the remote controller. When the reset operation of the program list cannot be detected in step S84, the process returns to step S82. Thereafter, unless any operation is detected in steps S82, S84, and S86, steps S82 to S86 are repeated to wait for selection of a program.
When the reset of the program list is detected in step S86, the flow returns to step S72, and the display of the program guide 51 is reset to the program genre. Hereinafter, unless an operation is detected in any of step S74, step S82, and step S84, step S72 to step S86 are repeated to wait for selection of a program.

If a program selection operation is detected in step S84, the process proceeds to step S88, indicating that the program has been selected, and proceeds to step S90. In step S90, it is checked whether or not the selected program corresponds to a recorded program. Recorded programs include both recorded digital broadcast programs and downloaded and unviewed program video data. If it does not correspond to the recorded program in step S90, the process proceeds to step S92, and it is checked whether or not it corresponds to the digital broadcast program currently being broadcast.
In the above, if neither of step S90 and step S92 corresponds, it means that the selected program is program data that can be downloaded at the present time, so the process proceeds to step S94, and the selected program is downloaded. Compare the points required for the current and the current point to check if there are not enough points. If there is no shortage of points, the process proceeds to step S96, the current point 55 and the necessary point 56 are temporarily displayed, the process proceeds to the download process in step S98, and the flow ends. Note that the point display performed in step S96 is erased in a short time after shifting to the download process. Details of the download process in step S98 will be described later.

On the other hand, if the point is insufficient in step S94, the process proceeds to step S100, where the current point 55, the necessary point 56, the insufficient point 57, and the converted fee 58 are displayed, and the process proceeds to the designated advertisement process in step S102. The designated advertisement process is a process including displaying an index of an advertisement that can acquire a program designated point in the program designated advertisement list 50, and relates to a case where there is a shortage point. Details thereof will be described later. .
When the designated advertisement process in step S102 is completed, the process proceeds to the download process in step S98, and the flow ends.

When it is detected in step S90 that the selected program corresponds to a recorded program, the process proceeds to step S104, and a playback mode process is performed. Details thereof will be described later. If it is detected in step S92 that the selected program corresponds to a digital broadcast program that is currently being broadcast, the process proceeds to step S106, and the broadcast of the selected program is received by broadcast radio waves.
If it is detected in step S82 that a program has been selected by the recording button 60, the process proceeds to step S108 to perform recording processing. Details thereof will be described later. If it is detected in step S74 that the current / schedule switching button 54 has performed an operation for selecting a list of only broadcast scheduled programs, the process proceeds to step S110 to display a normal broadcast program table. Even when this display is performed, the latest information is obtained while appropriately communicating with each television station computer. Note that the return to the main flow from the normal broadcast program display state can be performed by operating the current / schedule switching button 54, but the illustration in the flow is omitted to avoid complication.

In the flow of FIG. 11 described above, step S80 may be a step of sequentially reproducing the short-term digest version of the listed program as a moving image in the order of the list instead of displaying the list of the program list. In addition, a step of reproducing a digest version as a moving image for a short time in response to a manual operation by the remote controller may be added to a part or all of the program list displayed in step S80.
When a short digest version of a program is sequentially played back as a video as described above, it is not a selection from the list, but a recording of the program or a selection of the program during the digest version playback of the desired program. If the operation is performed, the flow proceeds in the same manner as when a program is selected from the list.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing details of the designated advertisement processing in step S102 of FIG. When the flow starts, the program designated advertisement list 50 is displayed in step S112, and points that can be acquired for each designated advertisement are additionally displayed in step S113. The point addition display is different for different programs depending on the contract relationship between the advertiser, the advertisement distribution station, and the television station even for the same advertisement. In addition, the points are constantly changed according to the program distribution results and the participation or withdrawal of other advertisers for the program. Therefore, step S112 and step S113 are executed based on the latest information while appropriately communicating with the advertisement distribution station and the television station.
Next, in step S114, it is checked whether or not the selection button 53 has been re-operated. If no re-operation is detected, the process proceeds to step S116. In step S116, it is checked whether or not one advertisement moving image data is selected from the program designated advertisement list 50 by the advertisement selection button 59. If no selection is detected, the process returns to step S112, and thereafter, step S112 to step S116 are repeated unless there is an operation of step S114 or step S116.

When one of the advertisement moving image data is selected in step S116, the process proceeds to step S118 and a point acquisition process is performed. Then, after this process is completed, it is checked in step S120 whether the point shortage has been resolved. If the point is still insufficient, the display returns to the display of FIG. 6, and the current point 55, the necessary point 56, the insufficient point 57, and the conversion fee 58 are displayed in step S122, and the process returns to step S112. In this case, the previously selected advertisement moving image data is removed from the list display in step S112 if the browsing is confirmed.
Hereinafter, as long as the operation of step S114 is not detected and the points are insufficient in step S120, step S112 to step S122 are repeated, and the point acquisition processing in step S118 is sequentially performed for the newly selected advertisement video data. It is advanced.
If the point shortage is resolved in step S120, the current point 55 is temporarily displayed in step S124, and the flow ends.
If a re-operation of the selection button 53 is detected in step S114, a credit warning is given in step S126, and the flow ends. In this way, even if there is a shortage point, it is possible to proceed to download of program video data at any time. However, if the process proceeds to the download process without eliminating the shortage point, there is a possibility that the conversion fee will be deducted due to the credit process described later. The credit warning in step S126 calls attention to this.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing details of the recording process in step S108 of FIG. When the flow starts, a display indicating that a specific program is selected as a recording target is displayed in step S132, and the process proceeds to step S134. In step S134, it is checked whether or not the selected program is a normal digital broadcast program that is currently being broadcast. If the program is applicable, the process proceeds to step S136 to perform the conventional broadcast recording process.
On the other hand, if no match is found in step S134, the process proceeds to step S138, and it is checked whether or not the selected program is a normal digital broadcast scheduled program for which the broadcast time has not come yet. If this is the case, a conventional recording reservation is made in step S140. When the broadcast time comes, the recording is automatically started and ended, and the recorded data is stored in the C user computer 11.

If there is no match in step S136 and step S138, it means that the selected program is a program that can be distributed via the Internet at the present time. Accordingly, the process proceeds to step S142, where the points required for downloading the selected program are compared with the current points to check whether there are any points shortage. If there is a shortage of points, a warning to that effect is displayed in step S144, and the process proceeds to step S146. If there is no shortage of points in step S142, the process proceeds directly to step S146. In the case of “recording” of download data, since it is not known whether or not browsing is actually performed, at this point of time, it is not considered that points have been used yet, and points are cleared when the program is actually “played”. For this reason, in step S144, the warning is simply a shortage of points, and the process automatically proceeds to step S146 and subsequent steps.
In step S146, a defrosting suspension process is performed. This process is a process for deferring automatic decompression of program video data in the download process. After performing this process, the process proceeds to the download process in step S148. In step S150, the download data is stored in the C user computer 11 and the flow is terminated. Since the decompression hold processing is performed, when the program list is displayed in the program guide 51, the stored data can be identified and displayed as a “recorded” program, and “recording” is performed in the check of step S90 in FIG. "It is determined that the program is a program.

  Note that the decompression hold processing in step S146 is related to the point settlement processing described later, and the program video data downloaded through the decompression hold processing cannot be viewed unless the operation for reproduction is performed again. In addition, the settlement of points is also suspended. In this way, point settlement and decompression hold processing correspond one-to-one, and point payment will not be made when the downloaded program video data is not being viewed, and viewing without point settlement is also not possible. It is a possible video data distribution and viewing management system.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing details of the reproduction mode processing in step S26 of FIG. 9 and step S104 of FIG. When the flow starts, it is checked in step S152 whether or not a program to be reproduced is selected. In the case of step S26 in FIG. 9, since the program has not yet been selected at the start of the flow, the program selection process is performed in step S154, and then the process proceeds to step S156. The contents of the program selection process in step S154 is a process of displaying the program shown in FIG. 6 and displaying the “recorded” program list in the program table 51 and selecting one by the selection button 53. On the other hand, in the case of step 104 in FIG. 11, since the program has already been selected, the process directly proceeds to step S156.
In step S156, it is checked whether or not the selected program is a broadcast recording, and if applicable, the process proceeds to step S156 to perform a normal broadcast reproduction process. On the other hand, if no match is found in step S156, it means that the selected program is downloaded broadcast program data, and the process proceeds to step S160.

In step S160, the point required for decompressing the selected program is compared with the current point to check whether there is a shortage of points. In the case of “recorded” data, the decompression is suspended and the data itself has already been downloaded, but the necessary points are not yet used, so such a check is necessary according to step S94 in FIG.
If there is no shortage of points in step S160, the process proceeds to step S162, and the current point 55 and the necessary point 56 are temporarily displayed. Then, the point settlement process of step S164 is entered. This is a process related to the point use settlement corresponding to the distribution of the program moving image data, details of which will be described later. When the point settlement processing ends, the program moving image data decompression / reproduction processing starts in step S166, and the flow ends. Details of the decompression / reproduction process will be described later. Note that the point display performed in step S162 disappears in a short time after proceeding after the point settlement processing.

  On the other hand, if the points are insufficient in step S160, the television screen display of FIG. 6 is displayed, and in step S168, the current points 55, necessary points 56, insufficient points 57 and converted charges 58 are displayed, and the designated advertisement in step S170 is displayed. Proceed to processing. This designated advertisement processing is the same as described in FIG. When the process of step S170 is completed, the process proceeds to the point settlement process of step S164. The following is the same as the case where the points are not insufficient in step S160.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing details of the download process in step S98 of FIG. 11 and step S148 of FIG. When the flow starts, downloading of program moving image data from the television station computer is started in step S172. The started download continues in parallel during the execution of the following steps.
Steps S174 to S194 are processing for automatic advertisement display using the download waiting time, and are basically the same as the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S174, the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is notified of the start of automatic advertisement browsing, and the counting of the browsing time that is the basis for issuing points is started.
In step S176, communication for confirming maintenance of the downloaded automatic advertisement moving image data is performed between the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the C user computer. Then, in step S178, one of the waiting automatic advertisement moving images is displayed. Start playback. Then, the process proceeds to step S180, the decompression of the next automatic advertisement moving image data is started in parallel, and the process proceeds to step S182.

In step S182, it is checked whether or not the advertisement point button 42 has been operated. If there is an operation, notification of completion of automatic advertisement browsing is given in step S184, and then the process proceeds to point acquisition processing in step S186. Thus, even if the program moving image data is being downloaded, if there is an advertisement of interest, it is possible to earn points by operating the advertisement point button 42.
On the other hand, when the operation of the advertisement point button 42 is not detected in step S182, the process proceeds to step S188, and it is checked whether or not the download of the program moving image data is completed. If it has not been completed, it is checked in step S190 if the automatic advertisement video currently being reproduced has ended. If the reproduction is still in progress, the process returns to step S182, and if the operation in step S182 is not detected and no end is detected in either step S188 or step S190, steps S182 to S190 are repeated.

  When the end of the automatic advertisement moving image currently being reproduced is detected in step S190, the process returns to step S178, and reproduction of the next automatic advertisement moving image that is on standby is started. Hereinafter, the automatic advertisement moving images downloaded from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 are automatically reproduced one after another unless the operation is detected in step S42 and step S182 or the download end of the program moving image data is detected in step S188.

  When the end of downloading of the program moving image data is detected in step S188, the process proceeds to step S192, and the advertisement cut process and its non-notification process are performed. That is, the automatic advertisement that is currently being played is immediately interrupted. However, since the advertisement cut process in this case does not occur because the user is not interested, the advertisement cut is not recorded in the C user computer 11 and is not notified to the advertisement distribution station computer 14. Therefore, the automatic advertisement interrupted in this case is not removed from the automatic reproduction target of the next opportunity and the priority is not lowered.

  Next, in step S194, notification of the end of automatic advertisement browsing is sent to the advertisement distribution station computer 14, and then it is checked in step S196 whether decompression suspension processing is performed on the downloaded program moving image data. If the thawing suspension processing is not performed, the process proceeds to step S198, and a point settlement process is performed with the television station computer. When the point is settled, the program moving image data is decompressed and reproduced in step S200, and the flow is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is detected in step S196 that the download program moving image data has been subjected to decompression suspension processing, the process proceeds to step S202, and this data is directly stored in the C user computer without being decompressed. Such point settlement processing and decompression processing for the program moving image data is suspended until step S164 and step S166 of FIG. 14 are executed.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing details of the advertisement search process in step S54 of FIG. When the flow starts, the search condition is automatically set to “product” in step S212, and the process proceeds to the large classification display in step S214. In this case, in step S214, the major classification of the product genre is displayed in the search condition 61 of FIG.
In step S216, it is checked whether or not there is an operation for changing the search condition. This corresponds to checking whether any of the performer button 64, the location button 65, the season button 66, the related information button 67 and the free button 68 in FIG. 7 has been operated. If no operation is detected, the process proceeds to step S218, and it is checked whether there is a narrowing search operation. This corresponds to an operation of executing a search after selecting one of the major classifications of the search condition 61 by using a remote controller or by narrowing down to a fine classification or by freely writing a keyword in the search condition 61. In this operation, it is also possible to set a combination of AND and OR as a narrowing condition.

If there is a narrowing search operation as described above in step 218, the process proceeds to step S220, and the search result advertisement list 62 of FIG. 7 is displayed. Next, the process proceeds to step S222, where additional display of acquirable points, which is information linked to the advertisement displayed in the advertisement list, is prohibited.
Note that the search target in the above search is all advertisement moving image data that can be distributed by all advertisement distribution station computers subscribed to the television system.

Next, in step S224, the search result in step S220 and the search results such as the search conditions set for obtaining the result are notified to the advertisement distribution station computer. This notification may be received by all advertisement distribution station computers that subscribe to the television system. However, this notification is not made to an advertisement distribution station in which the advertisement video data provided by the search result is not included at all. Each advertisement distribution station can use this search result notification as a reference for future advertisement creation and efficient distribution thereof. Furthermore, each advertisement distribution station can adjust the automatic reproduction of automatic advertisement moving images and the priority order thereof to a finely-tuned one according to the interest of each user based on such a search result notification from each user television computer. .
Similarly, when it is detected in step S226 that there is a free grant condition in the search, in step S228 this is also notified to the advertisement distribution station computer. The free grant condition corresponds to a free keyword written by the user in the search condition 61, a free search category set by operating the free button 68, and the like. Each advertisement distribution station can also refer to this free grant condition in the future.

When the above notification is completed, it is checked in step S230 whether or not an advertisement selection operation from the search result advertisement list display has been performed by the remote controller. If there is no advertisement selection operation, the process proceeds to step S232, and it is checked whether a reset operation to the displayed search result advertisement list 62 has been performed by the remote controller. If no reset is detected, the process returns to Step S230, and unless there is an advertisement selection operation or advertisement list reset, Steps S230 to S232 are repeated to wait for advertisement selection.
When the advertisement list reset is detected in step S232, the process returns to step S214, and returns to the large category display in the latest category that has led to the reset advertisement list. Hereinafter, unless an advertisement selection operation is performed in step S230, step S214 and step S232 are repeated. Although common to other flows, it is possible to escape from such a repeated state at any time by interrupting other operations with a remote controller or the like.
When an advertisement selection operation is detected in step S230, the process proceeds to step S234, a point acquisition process is performed, and the flow ends.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing details of the point acquisition processing in step S46 of FIG. 10, step S118 of FIG. 12, step S186 of FIG. 15, and step S234 of FIG. When the flow starts, the advertisement moving image data is downloaded from the advertisement distribution station computer in step S242. The advertisement moving image data to be selected and browsed is not downloaded in advance like the automatic advertisement moving image data, but is downloaded in step S242 in response to the selection of the advertisement data.
As for the advertisement video data to be selected and browsed, the advertisement video data is periodically sent from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11 and sent to the C user computer 11 in the same manner as the automatic advertisement video data. It can also be configured to automatically download and store pre-loaded advertisement video data. In this case, if it is detected that the selected advertisement video data has already been downloaded, step S242 is skipped. However, even if the configuration is such that advertisement video data is automatically downloaded periodically in advance, the advertisement video data that has just been uploaded is not yet downloaded even though the list is displayed. Since there is a possibility that this has not been done, step S242 itself is provided.

  Next, the advertisement moving image data immediately selected in step S244 is decompressed and the reproduction thereof is started. Next, in step S246, it is checked whether or not the reproduction of the advertisement moving image data has been completed. If not, it is checked in step S248 whether or not an advertisement cut operation has been performed. When the advertisement cut operation is not detected, the process returns to step S246. Thereafter, unless the reproduction is completed or the advertisement cut operation is not detected, steps S246 and S248 are repeated, and the completion of the reproduction is awaited.

When the reproduction end is detected in step S246, the process proceeds to step S250, and it is checked whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed after the reproduction is completed. When step S250 is newly reached, it is natural that no time has elapsed and the process proceeds to step S252. In step S252, one of the “like” button 73 and the “dislike” button 74 displayed on the television screen 31 as shown in FIG. 8, and one of the “beneficial” button 7 and the “useless” button 76 are operated. If this happens, record that fact.
Next, in step S254, a pattern that can be recognized only by human eyes and brain is displayed on the television screen 31 at random timing. In step S256, it is checked whether or not the completion button 72 has been operated at a timing in response thereto. When the operation of the completion button at the timing in response to the pattern display is detected, the process proceeds to step S258, and it is checked whether or not the number of detected operations has reached a predetermined number (for example, 3 times). When step S258 is reached for the first time, it is naturally less than the predetermined number of times, and the process returns to step S250. Note that the process returns to step S250 also when the completion button operation is not detected at the timing in response to the pattern display in step S256.
Thereafter, unless a predetermined time elapses in step S250 or it is not detected in step S258 that the number of detected operations has reached the predetermined number, steps S250 to S258 are repeated, and a predetermined number of completion operations are performed within the predetermined time. Wait for it to be detected.
Since a chance to record the presence / absence of the questionnaire operation is given every time in step S252 every time the above is repeated, either the “like” button 73 or the “dislike” button 74, and the “beneficial” button 7 and “useless” Any operation of the button 76 may be performed at an arbitrary timing until the completion button 72 is last operated as long as a predetermined time has not elapsed.

When it is detected in step S258 that the number of completed operations has reached the predetermined number, the process proceeds to step S260, and basic points linked to the target advertisement moving image are acquired. Even if it is not recorded that there was a questionnaire operation in step S252, if it is detected in step S258 that the number of completed operations has reached a predetermined number, the process reaches step S260 and basic points can be acquired. .
Next, in step S262, it is checked whether or not the target advertisement moving image is viewed for the first time. If it is the first time, the process proceeds to step S264 to check whether or not a questionnaire operation record is left. If the record remains, the process proceeds to step S266, the point acquired in step S260 is doubled, and the process proceeds to step S268. If no questionnaire operation record remains in step S264, the process proceeds directly to step S268 without changing the acquired points.
If the target advertisement video is viewed for the second time or later in step S262, the process proceeds to step S270, and the points acquired in step S260 are reduced to the lowest level, and the process proceeds to step S268. If the target advertisement video is not viewed for the first time, the questionnaire operation buttons such as the “like” button 73, the “dislike” button 74, the “beneficial” button 7, and the “useless” button 76 are originally displayed in FIG. In addition, since there is no possibility that these operation records remain, the questionnaire operation record check in step S264 is also skipped.

On the other hand, when the predetermined time has passed without detecting the predetermined number of completion operations in step S250, the process immediately proceeds to step S268. At this time, there are no points.
If an advertisement cut operation is detected in step S248, the process proceeds to step S272, and the same advertisement cut process and notification as in step S68 of FIG. 10 are performed. Then, control goes to a step S268. In this case, no points are earned.

In step S268, it is checked whether the program moving image data download process is being executed. In other words, it is checked whether the point acquisition process of FIG. 17 has been executed as step S186 of FIG. If it is true, the flow returns to the download process in step S274 and the flow is terminated. If the program download process is not being executed, the flow is immediately terminated.
When the flow of FIG. 17 is completed, the flow returns to the original flow before entering this flow. For example, when the point acquisition process of FIG. 17 is executed as step S46 of FIG. 10, the process returns to the start of the flow of FIG. Similarly, when the point acquisition process of FIG. 17 is executed as step S234 of FIG. 16, the process returns to step S214 of the flow of FIG. Then, after the return to the original flow, if it becomes necessary to acquire points, the point acquisition process flow can be executed again.

In the above, when it is recorded that the “like” button 73 or the “beneficial” button 7 is operated in step S252, it is considered that the user is highly interested in the advertisement, and the introduction to the related advertisement video is performed. It can be carried out.
That is, if the above record is recorded in step S252, the process proceeds to step S220 in the advertisement search flow of FIG. 16, and it can be set to automatically display a list of related advertisements in step S220. In this list, for example, if the advertisement video that was the subject of the questionnaire operation in the point acquisition process is a car advertisement, it is preset to automatically search for the same class car advertisement of other companies in the same industry and display the list. I can keep it. In addition, it is possible to set in advance to automatically search for and display a list of advertisements in which performers of advertisements that have been subjected to questionnaire operations in the point acquisition process appear.

  As described above, the function of introducing advertisements to the user based on the advertisements that the user is interested in is not limited to the function of automatically performing the advertisement search and displaying the search result advertisement list as described above. For example, when it is recorded that the “like” button 73 or the “beneficial” button 7 is operated in step S252, the advertisement related to the advertisement is automatically searched and its order is automatically determined, and step S17 is performed. You can also set it to repeat in sequence. In this case, related advertisement moving image data is automatically reproduced one after another.

Note that, as a modified example, steps S254 to S262 and S270 may be omitted and step S266 may be replaced with “point acquisition” in the flow of FIG. In this case, points can be acquired only when the questionnaire is answered within a predetermined time.
The flow of FIG. 17 and the flow of the modified embodiment as described above are the same in terms of providing means for confirming the user's advertisement video data browsing when issuing points. That is, the step for obtaining an answer to the questionnaire is a means for obtaining user information and also has a function as a confirmation means for browsing the advertisement moving image data by the user.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing details of the point settlement processing in step S164 of FIG. 14 and step S198 of FIG. When the flow starts, the points necessary for reproducing the program moving image data are confirmed in step S282. In step S284, it is checked whether or not the program designation point designating the program is possessed.
If there is a program designated point, the use procedure is performed in step S286. In the program designated point use procedure, all program designated points usable for the program are extracted. In this case, usually, the necessary points cannot be reached unless the points obtained by browsing a plurality of program-designated advertisements are added. However, if you actually purchase the product that was advertised in the program-designated advertisement before the point settlement, and enter the encryption code that was informed at the time of purchase, the earned points will be treated as triple value become. Therefore, in such a case, the necessary points may be reached only by the points obtained by browsing a single program designation.
Next, in step S288, it is checked whether the necessary points are satisfied by the sum of the program designated points extracted by the program designated point use procedure. If not satisfied, in step S290, it is checked whether or not the general-purpose points are held to make up for the shortage. If no program designated points are held in step S284, the necessary points cannot be satisfied, and the process directly goes to step S290.

If the general-purpose points are held, the process proceeds to step S292, and the general-purpose points are used in the order of acquisition time. This is to prevent unreasonable distribution of advertisement charges from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 and the second advertisement distribution station computer 21 to the A television station computer 3 when there are a plurality of advertisement distribution stations as shown in FIG. belongs to.
For example, it is assumed that points are issued on the old date from the advertisement distribution station computer 14 to the C user computer 11 and points are issued on the new date from the second advertisement distribution station 21. Here, if the C user computer 11 uses the point of the new date from the second advertisement distribution station 21 for the program distributed from the A television station computer 3 first, the advertising fee distribution to the A television station computer 3 is performed. The advertisement fee from the advertiser is retained in the advertisement distribution station computer 14. This does not distribute advertising fees that match the actual situation of earning and using points. Step S292 is for preventing such a situation.

Next, in step S294, it is checked whether the necessary points have been satisfied by using the general-purpose points as described above. If satisfied, the process proceeds to step S296, where the remaining points are calculated and displayed, and the flow ends.
On the other hand, when the necessary points are satisfied only by using the program designated point in step S288, the process proceeds to step S298, and the presence or absence of the program designated point is checked. If there is a surplus, it is converted into a general-purpose point in step S300, and the process proceeds to step S296.

In the conversion in step S300, the number of points is reduced. In general, the point unit price that can be obtained in step S260 of FIG. 17 by browsing one advertisement video is larger when the designated advertisement process of FIG. 12 is performed than when the advertisement search process of FIG. 16 is performed. This is because it is set as follows.
The reason for such setting is that the advertisement list displayed in accordance with the designation of the program that is the user's greatest interest in FIG. 6 is more visible to the user than the advertisement list as the search result of the advertisement search. This is because there is a high possibility that a high advertising fee can be requested from the advertiser.
Also, for TV stations, the ability to obtain appropriate advertisers and set a high unit price for program designation points is also appropriate for high-specialized programs with a strong support from a small number of users and ambitious self-produced programs. This means that the distribution can be expected, and it is possible to start off from the management that is focused only on the production of “high audience rating” programs aimed at the popularity of an unspecified number of people in order to receive the distribution of advertising fees. On the other hand, it is impossible to produce specialized programs or the like with a small number of used points using only general-purpose points.

If it is detected in step S290 that the general point is not held, or if it is detected in step S294 that the necessary point cannot be satisfied even if the general point is used, the process proceeds to step S302. Check if there is a program designation point that designates a program. If there is a point designating such another program, the process proceeds to step S304 and reduction use processing is performed.
As the details of the reduction use process, a step of confirming with the user whether or not a point designating another program can be used first is set. If the user performs an operation that can be used, the point is used. However, the value of the point is used after being reduced to the general-purpose point level.
In step S306, it is checked whether or not the points have been satisfied by adding the above points for reduction use processing. If the points are satisfied, the process proceeds to step S296.

Note that if the points are not satisfied even when the points for the reduction use process are added, the process proceeds to step S308. In the reduction usage process in step S304, even when the user does not agree to use the point specifying another program, the process proceeds directly from the corresponding step in step S304 to step S308.
In step S308, credit processing and display of credit points are performed. In step S310, the credit amount converted from the credit points is displayed, and the flow ends.

  FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing details of the program video data decompression / reproduction processing in step S166 of FIG. 14 and step S200 of FIG. When the flow starts, decompression of the program moving image data is started in step S312. Next, in step S314, the reproduction of the program moving image data is started. Since the program moving image data is divided into a plurality of data, when decompression of the first data is completed in step S312, reproduction of the decompressed data can be started in parallel with decompression of the next data in step S314. Therefore, even for a long-time program, the transition from step S312 to step S314 is executed in a time that does not give stress to the user, and the reproduction is started substantially without being aware of the waiting time.

In step S316, it is checked whether a break operation has been performed by the remote controller. The break operation is performed when the user wants to take a break, for example, when the user is tired while watching the program.
When it is detected in step S316 that the break operation has been performed, the reproduction of the program is interrupted, and the process proceeds to step S318 to perform automatic advertisement processing. The details of the automatic advertisement process are the same as those in the flow of FIG. 10 except that steps S56 to S60 are excluded and the process proceeds from step S50 to step S62. As a result, when the break operation is performed, the automatic advertisement video 41 of FIG. 5 is displayed on the television screen 31, and the advertisement point button 42, the advertisement cut button 43, the advertisement search button 44, and the advertisement channel selection button are displayed. Is possible. Depending on the interest in the advertisement, it is possible to arbitrarily acquire advertisement points by operating these buttons.
Note that when a transition is made to the flow for acquiring advertising points by operating these buttons, it is possible to return to the continuation of program playback at any time by performing an interrupt operation for stopping the advertising process with the remote control.

If no break operation is detected in step S316, the process proceeds to step S320, and the presence / absence of an advertisement archive operation is checked. This operation is similar to the break operation, but is performed when it is desired to intentionally change the mood by interrupting the viewing of the program and browsing the archives of the advertisement.
Even when it is detected in step S316 that the advertisement archive operation has been performed, the reproduction of the program is interrupted, and the process proceeds to step S322 to enter the advertisement moving image data search screen for which the advertisement has expired. These data are stored as archives in the advertisement distribution station or the user computer based on the low maintenance advertisement fee from the advertiser even after the advertisement deadline is over, and the step S322 is independent of the point issuance and the associated advertisement fee. Can be played in. The advertisement archive search screen has the same layout as in FIG. 7, and the user can search for past advertisements such as product names and performers, and search for nostalgic advertisements with a sense of fun. Further, it is possible to select specific advertisement video data based on the search result and browse it.
When the browsing of the specific archives advertisement moving image data in step S322 is completed or stopped, the process proceeds to step S324, and a list of current advertisement moving image data related to the data is displayed. This list can be displayed by a direct link set by the advertiser with specific archives advertisement video data, but also by an indirect link by a user's voluntary search through the performers of the archives advertisement video data. Is possible.

Then, it is checked whether one of the current advertisement moving image data displayed as a list in step S326 is selected within a predetermined time, and if an operation is detected, the point acquisition process of step S328 is entered. In this way, a direct or indirect link from an advertisement that has already expired provides an opportunity to browse currently live advertising video data and thereby earn points.
It should be noted that after proceeding to step S322 by the advertisement archive operation, it is possible to return to the continuation of the program reproduction at any time by performing an interruption operation with the remote controller.
If the advertisement archive operation is not detected in step S320, or if the advertisement selection operation is not detected in step S326 within a predetermined time from the related current advertisement list display, the process proceeds to step S330.
Note that the above-described advertisement archives operation can be executed by interrupting any flow not only in the decompression / reproduction process of FIG. 19 but also by operating the remote controller.

In step S330, it is checked whether or not the reproduction of the program has ended. If not completed, the process returns to step S316, and thereafter, unless an operation is detected in step S316 or step S320, the process is repeated between step S316 and step S330 to wait for the end of program reproduction.
When it is detected in step S330 that the program has been played back, the process proceeds to step S332, and the presence / absence of credit points is checked. If there is a credit point, it is checked in step S334 whether there is any program-designated advertisement for the program that has been viewed yet, and if there is a program-designated advertisement, the designated advertisement process in step S336 is entered. . This measure enables the most efficient point earning for eliminating credit when there is credit after watching the program.
On the other hand, when it is detected that all the program-designated advertisements related to the program that has been viewed in step S334 have been browsed and there is no remaining program, the process proceeds to the net mode process in step S338. As a result, points can be earned by automatic advertisement browsing or advertisement search.
As described above, immediately after watching the program, if it is detected in step S332 that there is a credit, the screen automatically shifts to a screen on which points can be obtained, and prompts the early elimination of the credit. However, if such a screen is troublesome, the flow can be terminated by interrupting step S336 or step S338 at any time by interruption of the remote control operation. If there is no credit in step S332, the process proceeds to step S339 without shifting to the point acquisition screen.

In step S339, it is checked whether there is a sequel to the program that has been reproduced. If there is a sequel, the sequel program introduction process of step S340 is entered. This processing is useful for the user when the program is a series drama or series. In addition, the “sequel” here is not limited to a program having a temporal viewing order in a narrow sense, but includes related programs that can be freely viewed in a different order.
The contents of the sequel program introduction process are the same as those after step S80 in the program guide process of FIG. However, in step S80, a list of sequel programs is displayed. As the sequel program introduction process, instead of the above, after introducing the sequel program, the net mode process of FIG. 10 may be started so that various points can be obtained. If such a sequel introduction screen is troublesome, step S340 can be interrupted at any time by interruption of the remote control operation to end the flow. If there is no sequel program in step S339, the flow is immediately terminated.

  As a modified example of the flow in FIG. 19, a step of thawing suspension treatment similar to step S146 in FIG. 13 can be added between step S330 and step S332. As a result, the program moving image data that has been viewed is placed in a decompression pending state, and when a reproduction operation is performed again, points are settled. With such an offense, the same program video data is settled for each viewing. In this case, it is also possible to take measures such as reducing the number of points used for the second time or later, and enabling reproduction without using points after the predetermined number of times.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the basic operation of the advertisement distribution station computer 14 according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. This flow is executed when the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is turned on or when the advertisement moving image data is uploaded from any advertiser computer, or the point acquisition process or advertisement cut from any user computer. In any case, when a notification of point use is received from any television station computer, each case is executed from the start. The flow of FIG. 20 is common to the second advertisement distribution station 21 and other advertisement distribution station computers.
When the flow starts, it is checked in step S342 whether or not there is an advertisement moving image data from any advertiser. If there is an increase, the fixed amount portion of the advertising fee is electronically received from the advertiser computer in step S344. This flat-rate portion is mainly used for advertising distribution station operating costs. Subsequently, in step S346, the uploaded advertisement moving image data and its attribute data are registered.

Next, in step S348, blog link processing is performed. This process is a process that allows an unspecified number of users to create a blog and link to the uploaded advertisement video data. This process enables the following.
That is, a user who wants to write a blog about the viewed advertisement video data specifies the corresponding advertisement video data from the program designated advertisement list 50 in FIG. 6 or the search result advertisement list in FIG. 7, and creates a blog by operating the remote controller. To do.
On the other hand, a user who wants to see a blog related to advertisement video data performs a blog browsing operation with a remote controller when a specific advertisement video is played on the television screen 31 as shown in FIG. As a result, a list of related blogs is displayed on the television screen 31, and the details of the selected blog can be read on the television screen 31 by selecting one of them with the television remote controller. Thereby, the user can see not only the product information provided from the advertiser by the advertisement moving image data but also the comment of the general user written on the blog. In addition, although the blog written may contain a malicious thing, it is left to the selection of the user himself who reads the blog in principle. However, if there is a complaint from the advertiser, the malicious blog may be deleted at the advertisement distribution station after examination.
Note that the timing at which the user can perform an operation to view the blog is not limited to the time during the reproduction of the advertisement moving image as described above. For example, it is also possible to display a blog list related to the selected program by selecting one of the programs in the program designated advertisement list 50 of FIG. 6 or the search result advertisement list 62 of FIG. 7 with a remote controller. Can jump directly to a linked blog without going through the advertising video.

  Moreover, you may provide the step which issues a point with respect to the user who wrote the blog in the blog link process of step S348. As is clear from the above, since the blog writing operation is performed by the user computer provided on the user's television, the advertisement distribution station specifies the user computer that wrote the blog and assigns a predetermined point to this user computer. Issue. When the points are issued, information corresponding to the browsing results is transmitted to the advertiser computer of the advertisement moving image data targeted for the blog, and the advertisement fee-based portion is electronically received. For malicious blogs, the advertiser computer can request the advertisement distribution station computer to unlink the blog and return the advertisement fee receiving part.

Further, in the blog link process in step S348, as a blog creation support function, an auxiliary menu for pasting advertisement information icons and clip art related to the blog to the blog may be opened. The advertisement information obtained by such an auxiliary menu is not only for direct advertising moving image data to be written on a blog, but also related items, the same genre or competing products are searched and automatically displayed.
The icon or clip art of the advertisement information pasted on the blog by the blog creation support function as described above jumps directly to the advertisement video data in response to the selection of the user viewing the blog screen, and the point acquisition process of FIG. Has the function to start.
Therefore, if a user who writes a blog by using the blog creation support function as described above appropriately pastes an advertisement information icon or clip art on the blog, a part of the created blog screen is displayed in the program designated advertisement list 50 of FIG. It has a function according to the search result advertisement list 62 of FIG. That is, by selecting an icon or clip art from the list on the blog screen, it is possible to proceed directly to browsing the advertisement video data of interest from the blog screen.

When the blog link process is completed, it is checked in step S350 whether the uploaded advertisement moving image data is a program designated advertisement. If it is a program-designated advertisement, a program-designated advertisement management process is performed in step S352. This is because it is necessary to change the reproduction control of the entire program specified advertisement by adding a new program specified advertisement. Details of the program-designated advertisement management process will be described later. Next, in step S354, an additional portion of the advertising fee is electronically received from the advertiser computer. That is, in the case of a program-designated advertisement, the total amount of the fixed amount portion of the advertisement fee is high. Next, in step S356, most of the premium portion is distributed as a prepaid program production cost to the television station producing the designated program, and the process proceeds to step S358.
If it is not a program-designated advertisement in step S350, it means that the uploaded advertisement moving image data is normal advertisement moving image data, so an automatic advertisement management process is performed in step S360, and the process proceeds to step S358. This is because it is necessary to change the reproduction control of the entire automatic advertisement moving image data by adding new advertisement moving image data. Details of the automatic advertisement management process will be described later. If no new advertisement moving image data is uploaded in step S342, the process directly proceeds to step S358.

In step S358, it is checked whether point acquisition processing has been performed in the user computer. If there is a point acquisition process, in response to this, in step S362, a point indicating that the advertisement distribution station computer 14 is the issuing source and the date is issued to the corresponding user computer.
Also, in step S364, in conjunction with the above, the browsing result of the advertisement moving image data is transmitted to the advertiser computer of the advertisement moving image data that is the target of the point acquisition process. In exchange for this, in step S366, the pay-as-you-go portion of the advertising fee is electronically received from the advertiser computer, and the process proceeds to step S368. If there is no point acquisition process in any user computer in step S358, the process directly proceeds to step S368.

  In step S368, it is checked whether or not the point use record has been received from any of the television station computers. If there is reception, the advertisement fee corresponding to the television station computer is distributed in step S370, and the process proceeds to step S372. If no point use record is received in step S368, the process directly proceeds to step S372.

  In step S372, it is checked whether or not there is a point change for the advertisement distribution station due to the issuance of the point in step S358 or the use of the point in step S368, or whether the advertisement cut processing is notified from any user computer. If there is a match, it is necessary to change the playback control for both the automatic advertisement moving image data and the program-designated advertisement. Accordingly, the automatic advertisement management process is performed in step S374 and the program-designated advertisement management process is performed in step S376. Go to end the flow. If not applicable, the flow is immediately terminated.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing details of the automatic advertisement management process executed in steps S360 and S374 of FIG. When the flow starts, in step S382, the partner user computer to be processed is specified. In step S384, communication for confirming the advertisement moving image data distributed to the user computer is performed. The process for reproducing and managing the advertisement video data is performed in FIG. 21, but the distribution itself of the new advertisement video data or the updated version of the advertisement video data is performed at a predetermined timing from the advertisement distribution station to each user computer. It is appropriately executed independently of the processing of FIG.
In step S386, it is checked whether or not there is advertisement moving image data inappropriate for the user's attribute. If there is a corresponding item, it is excluded in step S388, and the process proceeds to step S390. For example, in the case where the user television is an attribute that is viewed only by male users, advertising video data targeting women is excluded from playback targets. If there is no corresponding advertisement moving image data in step S386, the process directly proceeds to step S390.

In step S390, the attribute of the advertisement moving image data subjected to the advertisement cut is statistically processed based on the accumulated advertisement cut operation history of the user so far, and the tendency of the advertisement that the user does not want to reproduce is analyzed. In step S392, on the contrary, the attribute of the advertisement video data targeted for the advertisement point operation is statistically processed based on the accumulation of the advertisement point operation history of the user so far, and the tendency of the advertisement that the user desires to play back. Analyze.
And based on the analysis result of step S390 and step S392, the priority and frequency in automatic advertisement animation reproduction | regeneration are determined in step S394. Specifically, the priority is raised for an advertisement that tends to be highly interested by the user, and the priority and the reproduction frequency are lowered for an advertisement that tends to be less interested by the user.
In step S394, coarse determination is performed, and a specific order for the same priority order and frequency is determined by performing random shuffle within the same advertisement range in the next step S396. As a result, the discomfort that the reproduction of the automatic advertisement moving image is repeated in the same order is reduced.
Note that when the flow of FIG. 21 is executed in step S360, the result is not expected to fluctuate, and therefore step S390 and step S392 may be omitted. In addition, since the advertisement moving image data is newly uploaded, the order of reproduction is given the highest priority in the determination in step S394.

Next, in step S398, the presence / absence of advertisement moving image data newly targeted for the advertisement cut operation is checked. The process of step S390 and step S394 that receives this control is based on a tendency common to a plurality of different advertisements, and controls the priority and frequency of other advertisements in the same tendency that have not yet been subject to the advertisement cut operation. However, step S398 and subsequent steps are only related to the handling of the advertisement itself that is the target of the advertisement cut operation.
If there is a corresponding item in step S398, the process proceeds to step S400 to check whether the advertisement cut operation is the first time. If it is not the first time, it is checked whether it is the second time in step S402, and if it is not the second time, it is the third time. Therefore, in step S404, the corresponding automatic advertisement is excluded from the reproduction target and the process proceeds to step S406.
On the other hand, when it is detected in step S400 that the advertisement cut operation is the first time, the priority order of the corresponding advertisement reproduction is lowered in step S408, and the process proceeds to step S406. Here, the drop in priority order means that the next playback is refrained until a predetermined time elapses, but it does not lower the average frequency over the long term, and aims for repeated advertising effects. On the other hand, when it is detected that the advertisement cut operation is the second time in step S402, the reproduction frequency itself is reduced in step S410, and the emphasis is shifted to relieving discomfort rather than sticking to repeated advertisement effects. However, it is not completely excluded from playback.

  Each process described above is collected as raw management information in step S406 and transmitted to the user computer specified in step S382. When this transmission ends, the flow ends.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing details of the program-designated advertisement management process executed in steps S352 and S376 of FIG. When the flow starts, it is checked in step S412 if the target advertisement moving image data has been newly uploaded.
If it is new advertisement moving image data, it is checked in step S414 whether the contract is for the designated program. In principle, program-designated advertisements are contracted by the advertiser himself / herself by designating the program, but it is also possible to trust the past advertisement effect analysis data in the advertisement distribution station to leave the program designation, and in such a contract Advances to step S416.

In step S416, one of the user computers is randomly sampled anonymously. In step S416, the extracted user attributes in the user computer are also checked. In step S418 and subsequent steps, the relationship between the user attribute and the operation history is analyzed.
First, in step S418, a tendency of interest or dislike of a user's advertisement is examined by point acquisition tendency analysis. Specifically, the relationship between the history of the advertisement point operation, the advertisement selection operation, the advertisement search process, the questionnaire operation, etc. and the user attribute is analyzed. Next, in step S420, the tendency of the advertisement that cannot keep the user's interest in check is examined by the advertisement cut tendency analysis as the above-mentioned assistance. Specifically, the relationship between the history of advertisement cut operations and user attributes in each scene is analyzed.
Next, in step S422, a point use tendency analysis is performed to check the tendency of the user's interest in the program. Specifically, the relationship between the history of program recording operations, program selection operations, and the like, the user attributes obtained in step S416, and the user's interest or likes and dislikes obtained in steps S418 and S520 is analyzed and extracted. Analyzes the correlation between the interest in advertisements and the interest in programs in the selected users.

In step S424, it is checked whether statistical processing is possible based on the above analysis results. Of course, since statistical processing cannot be performed by the first sample extraction, the process returns to step S414 to perform random sample extraction of the next user computer, and from step S414 until the number of samples that can be statistically processed is collected in step S424. Step S424 is repeated.
If it is determined in step S424 that statistical processing is possible, the optimum designated program is determined in step S426, and the advertisement distribution station computer itself starts processing according to the decision, and the designated program is sent to the advertiser computer. Notify
On the other hand, when the contract is not left to the designated program in step S414, the process directly proceeds to step S426 to determine the designated program as desired by the advertiser. In addition, the determination of the result is merely a confirmation report.

Next, the process proceeds to step S428, and the initial list order of the target new advertisement is automatically determined. Then, the advertisement distribution station computer itself starts processing according to the determination and notifies the advertiser computer of the list order. Usually, in the case of a new advertisement, the rank is determined at the top.
Further, in step S430, an initial premium amount portion related to the program-designated advertisement is determined based on the above advertisement conditions, this is notified to the advertiser computer, and the process proceeds to step S432. If the target advertisement is not new in step S412, the process directly proceeds to step S432.

In step S432, it is checked whether or not the target advertisement has passed a predetermined number of days after data up. If the predetermined number of days have elapsed, the process proceeds to step S434, the rank is lowered according to the predetermined rule, this is notified to the advertiser computer, the day count is reset, and the process proceeds to step S436.
Therefore, the list order goes down every time the next number of days have passed and step S434 is reached. As a result, in the program specified advertisement list 50 of FIG. 5, the display moves to a lower-obvious position, and in some cases moves to a position that cannot be seen unless scrolling.
If the predetermined number of days has not elapsed in step S432, the order is not lowered and the process proceeds directly to step S436.

  In step S436, it is checked whether or not the target advertisement has reached a predetermined browsing performance target after the data is updated. If the target has not been reached, the process proceeds to step S438, the rank is lowered according to a predetermined rule, and this is notified to the advertiser computer, the target count is reset, and the process proceeds to step S440. If the target has not been reached after the next time, the list order goes down every time step S438 is reached, as in step S434. If the target has been achieved in step S436, the order is not lowered, and the process directly proceeds to step S440.

In step S440, it is checked whether or not the target advertisement has been electronically received from the advertiser computer with an additional partial amount. If there is a premium reception, the process proceeds to step S442, where the rank is increased according to a predetermined rule, this is notified to the advertiser computer, the premium reception is reset, and the flow ends.
In this manner, if the premium amount portion is increased, even if there is a rank down in step S434 or step S438, it can be restored in step S442, and as a result, the rank down can be avoided. Such treatment is possible every time after step S442.
Note that if it is not detected in step S436 that there has been an increase in the premium amount portion, the flow is terminated without increasing the order.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing the basic operation of the A-TV station computer 3 according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. This flow starts when the TV station computer 3 is turned on and starts up, or when a program download process or point settlement process is requested from any user computer. Is executed from. The flow of FIG. 23 is common to the B television station computer 6 and other television station computers.
When the flow starts, the electronic receipt of the advertising fee fixed amount partial distribution is performed in step S452. This corresponds to the case where the distribution from the advertisement distribution station computer in step S356 in FIG. 20 has been performed. If there is no such distribution, step S452 is omitted.

  Next, it is checked in step S454 whether or not there is a point used by the user that has not been notified to the advertisement distribution station computer. If there is an unnotified use point, it is totaled for each advertisement distribution station of the issuer in step S456 and notified to each advertisement distribution station. In exchange for this, in step S458, the distribution of the pay-as-you-go portion of the advertising fee is electronically received, and the process proceeds to step S460. In step S454, if there is no unused master usage point, the process directly proceeds to step S460.

  In step S460, it is checked whether there is a credit point that has expired for each user computer. If there is an overdue credit, the program fee converted in step S462 is deducted from each user's account, and the process proceeds to step S464. If there is no overdue credit in any user computer, the process directly proceeds to step S464.

In step S464, it is checked whether a download process has been requested by any user computer. In step S466, transmission of the program moving image data is started to the user computer that has requested download.
Next, in step S468, the current download record is added to the past download history with date and time for the program, and the "viewing rate" is newly updated. Here, “viewing rate” is obtained by dividing the cumulative number of downloads within a predetermined period by the predetermined number of downloads determined for each genre. If the “viewing rate” exceeds a predetermined rate determined for each genre, it is recognized as a “popular program”, a program guide popular program code signal is transmitted to each user computer, and the process proceeds to step S472. . This code may be the audience rating itself. If there is a program having this code in the program table processing in each user computer, a display indicating that the program is a popular program or a display of audience rating is added to the program table 51. If there is no request for download processing from any user computer, the process directly proceeds to step S472.

In step S472, it is checked whether or not point settlement processing is requested from any user computer. For the requested user computer, it is checked in step S474 whether the points necessary for settlement are satisfied. If there is a shortage, the credit processing is performed in step S476 and the process proceeds to step S478. If the necessary points are satisfied in step S474, the process directly proceeds to step S478.
In step S478, the points used for tabulation are recorded and the flow is terminated. At this time, the credited points are excluded from the tabulation. If there is no request for point settlement processing from any user computer in step S472, the flow is immediately terminated.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the download process check in step S464 and the point settlement process check in step S472 are separated as described above, and even if the transmission of program video data starts in step S466, the point settlement is immediately performed. Not performed. That is, even if the program moving image data is downloaded by executing step S466, the point use settlement is suspended until the program is actually viewed and the point settlement is requested. That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the point use is not settled at the “recording” stage of the program video data. This corresponds to the functions of steps S196 to S202 of the download process in FIG.

  In FIG. 23, the audience rating calculation in step S468 and the program guide popular program code transmission in step S470 are executed only when there is a download process. However, the execution of these steps S468 and S470 is not limited to this, and for example, it may be configured to be executed unconditionally periodically in a predetermined part of the flow of FIG.

Here, a modified embodiment related to step S456 of FIG. 23 will be described. As a premise of this modified embodiment, in step S362 of FIG. 20, not only the issuer and date when issuing points, but also the identification code of the viewed advertisement is clearly indicated. In step S456, the information is not limited to each issuer's advertisement distribution station, but is further calculated in detail for each advertisement identification code and notified to the advertisement distribution station.
The above-mentioned total information for each advertisement identification code is not necessary for the advertisement fee-based partial distribution with the advertisement distribution station in the following step S458. However, it is used for the following information management or an advertising fee payment special contract with the advertiser at the notified advertisement distribution station.

First, from the viewpoint of information management, the significance of aggregate information by advertisement identification code will be described. This information indicates the correlation between the advertisement viewing tendency and the program viewing tendency by the same user for the advertisement distribution station, and therefore recommends the designated program that matches the advertiser's attribute and product to the advertiser. Information. Therefore, the advertisement distribution station that has received the notification of the aggregated information by advertisement identification code adds a “program viewing tendency analysis” step at an appropriate place between step S416 and step S424 in FIG. 22, and designates the designated program in step S426. Useful for decision.
Next, the significance of the aggregate information by advertisement identification code will be described from the viewpoint of a special contract with the advertiser. As already explained, the advertiser pays the advertising fee for the performance of browsing the advertisement, and the use of the subsequent points is not necessarily a concern. However, the advertising distribution bureau will make a special contract with the desired advertiser to pay the advertising fee after confirming not only the issuance of points by viewing advertising video data but also the viewing of program video data by using points. It is also possible to conclude. In the case of such a special contract, the advertiser can convince the advertising effect after directly confirming the entire process leading to the final point acquisition point. In order to deal with such a special contract, the above-described total information by advertisement identification code is required.

  Further, the significance of the above-mentioned total information by advertisement identification code is significant in the case of the following modified embodiment. That is, in the implementation of the present invention, the advertiser can also serve as the advertisement distribution station. In this case, the advertisement distribution station computer and the advertiser computer are integrated, and the advertiser himself points to the user computer. Issue. In such a case, it is necessary for the advertiser to manage the use of points for each advertisement, and in the simplest case, one advertiser may transmit only one advertisement moving image data. The total information by advertisement identification code can deal with various cases of such advertisers and advertisement distribution stations.

  As described above, the totalization at the stage of step S456 in the A television station computer 3 flowchart has the meaning of totaling point usage based on the point issuance history in a broad sense. Therefore, in the present invention, when referred to as “aggregation based on point issuance history”, it includes not only the aggregation by advertisement distribution station as shown in FIG. 23 but also the aggregation by browsing advertisement as described in the modified embodiment.

In the modified embodiment in which the advertisement distribution station computer and the advertiser computer are integrated as described above, the advertiser makes the following contract with the television station that provides the program video data that can be used for points. be able to. In other words, the program trailer and the program digest version of the movie data, which are the advertisement movie data related to the program movie data itself, are provided free of charge from the television station and distributed to the user computer together with the advertisement movie data. The method is the same as that described above as the function of the advertisement distribution station computer in the embodiment.
According to this contract, since the advertising video data from which points can be earned and the information of the program video data that is the purpose of the points are provided to the user as a set, the TV station has an increased opportunity for advertising programs and Can also strengthen the motivation for viewing their own advertisement video data.
In addition, in the case of such a modified embodiment, a system for issuing points for viewing program video data while introducing the company's advertising video data and broadcast video advertising data on a company's homepage on a normal web is constructed. This also eliminates the need to invest in the establishment of a special advertising distribution station.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating details of the C user television 9 in FIG. 1, and the C user computer 11 includes a control unit 100, a storage unit 102, and an input / output unit 104. The storage unit 102 stores a program for operating the control unit 100 and also stores data such as program moving image data downloaded from a television station and advertising moving image data downloaded from an advertisement distribution station. Exchange with the television station and the advertisement distribution station is performed from the input / output unit 104 via the Internet 106 based on the control of the control unit 100.
The input / output unit 104 also receives an operation signal from the remote control receiving unit 112 that receives the infrared signal 110 from the remote control 108, and causes the control unit 110 to perform a predetermined computer operation. The remote control 108 performs power on / off of the television, broadcast channel switching operation, volume adjustment operation, operation of various buttons displayed on the television screen, selection operation from a list displayed on the television screen, and the like.
The operation signal received by the remote control receiving unit 112 is also directly transmitted to the broadcast receiving unit 114 as necessary. The broadcast receiving unit 114 receives the digital broadcast radio wave 116 in the same manner as a normal television, but selects a broadcast channel based on an operation signal from the remote control receiving unit 112.

Based on the signal from the broadcast receiving unit 114, the display control unit 118 displays the normal digital broadcast moving image 32 on the television screen 31 as shown in FIG. The display control unit 118 further receives control of the control unit 100 of the C user computer, and displays a computer display signal output from the display storage unit 120 via the input / output unit 104 on the television screen 31.
The computer display signal may be displayed on the television screen superimposed on the display of the normal digital broadcast moving image 32 as in the various buttons 33 to 37 in FIG. 4, but as shown in FIGS. In some cases, what is displayed on the screen 31 is a computer display signal from the display storage unit 120.
The digital broadcast video received by the broadcast receiving unit 114 is also sent to the input / output unit 104 of the C user computer 11 and can be stored in the storage unit 102 as “recording” by operating the remote control 108.

In FIG. 24, a block diagram of the C user computer 11 is shown, but the A television station computer 3, the B television station computer 6, the advertisement distribution station computer 14, the second advertisement distribution station computer 21, the E advertiser computer 19, and the F advertiser. Needless to say, the computer 20, the G advertiser computer 22, the H advertiser computer, and the like have the same configuration as the control unit 100, the storage unit 102, and the input / output unit 104 of the C user computer.
Furthermore, it is possible to communicate with other computers in the system via the Internet via the input / output unit of these computers. Further, it is also connected to an operation unit such as a keyboard and a mouse and display means such as a monitor through an input / output unit as necessary.

The present invention can be applied to a moving image data distribution / viewing system in server type broadcasting, a program moving image data distribution device, an advertisement moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data viewing device used in this system.

1, 2 Program video data distribution device 3, 6 Control unit of program video data distribution device 3, 6 Recording unit of program video data distribution device 3, 6 Total unit of program video data distribution device 3, 6 Program video data distribution device Distribution means 3, 6 Management means of program moving picture data distribution apparatus 3, 6, confirmation means of program moving picture data distribution apparatus 9, 10, moving picture data viewing apparatus 11, 12 Control means of moving picture data viewing apparatus 14, 21 Advertising moving picture data distribution apparatus Control means 14, 21 Delivery means of advertisement moving picture data distribution apparatus 14, 21 Issuance means of advertisement moving picture data distribution apparatus 14, 21 Reception means of advertisement moving picture data distribution apparatus 14, 21 Management means of advertisement moving picture data distribution apparatus 31 Display means 31 , 100 Related program display means 31, 108 Selection means 31, 108 Operation means 31, 108 Browsing operation section 31, 1 8 Evaluation Operation Unit 100 Management Unit of Video Data Appreciation Device 100 Advertising Data Reproduction Unit 100 Advertising Video Data Playback Unit 100 Advertising Video Data Automatic Playback Unit 100 Program Video Data Playback Unit 100 Search Unit 100 Credit Appreciation Execution Unit 100 Appreciation Execution Unit 102 Storage Means 104 Input means 104 Output means 112 Operation detection means

Claims (49)

  A moving image data distribution / viewing system having a program moving image data distribution device, an advertising moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device, wherein the advertising moving image data distribution device is responsive to browsing of the moving image data by the moving image data appreciation device. And a control means for issuing a program video data appreciation right to the video data appreciation device and charging an advertising fee to an advertiser, the video data appreciation device using the issued program video data appreciation right A moving image data distribution / viewing system comprising control means for arbitrarily selecting program moving image data distributed by a moving image data distribution apparatus.   2. The moving image data distribution / viewing device according to claim 1, wherein the program moving image data distribution device has control means for receiving distribution of an advertising fee from the advertising moving image data distribution device based on the usage record of the program moving image data viewing right. system.   2. The program moving image data distribution apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit that credits the program moving image data viewing device and permits the moving image data viewing device to view the program moving image data even when the program moving image data viewing right is insufficient. 2. Video data distribution / viewing system described in 2.   There are a plurality of the advertisement video data distribution apparatuses, and the program video data distribution apparatus can be used regardless of which advertisement video data distribution apparatus has the right to view the program video data. 4. The moving image data distribution / viewing system according to claim 1, further comprising control means for viewing the program moving image data to be distributed.   There are a plurality of the program video data distribution devices, and the video data appreciation device uses the issued program video data appreciation right to approve the program video data distributed by any program video data device. 5. The moving image data distribution / viewing system according to claim 1, further comprising:   A moving image data distribution / viewing system having a program moving image data distribution device, an advertising moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device, wherein the advertising moving image data distribution device is responsive to browsing of the moving image data by the moving image data appreciation device. And a control means for issuing a program video data appreciation right to the video data appreciation device and charging an advertising fee to an advertiser, the video data appreciation device using the issued program video data appreciation right Control means for appreciating the program video data distributed by the video data distribution device, and the program video data distribution device distributes the advertising fee from the advertising video data distribution device based on the usage record of the program video data viewing right. A video data distribution / viewing system characterized by having control means for receiving the video data.   7. The moving image data distribution / transmission device according to claim 6, wherein the advertising moving image data distribution device has control means for designating program moving image data that can be viewed and issuing a program moving image data viewing right to the moving image data viewing device. Appreciation system.   The video data appreciation device uses a program video data appreciation right for which appreciable program video data is specified, prior to the program video data appreciation right for which no program video data is specified. 8. The moving image data distribution / viewing system according to claim 7, further comprising a control unit for controlling the moving image data.   9. The moving image data distribution / viewing system according to claim 1, wherein the advertising moving image data distributed by the advertising moving image data distribution device includes an advertisement of the program moving image data itself.   10. The advertisement moving image data distributed by the advertisement moving image data distribution apparatus includes an advertisement that is not a target for issuing a program moving image data viewing right according to a browsing record. Video data distribution and viewing system described in 1.   A moving image data distribution / viewing system having a program moving image data distribution device, an advertising moving image data distribution device, and a moving image data appreciation device, wherein the advertising moving image data distribution device is responsive to browsing of the moving image data by the moving image data appreciation device. Control means for issuing a program video data appreciation right to the video data appreciation device, and the video data appreciation device uses the issued program video data appreciation right to distribute the program video data distributed by the program video data distribution device A moving image characterized by comprising control means for viewing data, and wherein the program moving image data distribution apparatus further comprises control means for receiving an advertising fee from the advertising moving image data distribution apparatus based on the usage record of the program moving image data viewing right. Data distribution and viewing system.   Recording means for recording the usage record of the program video data viewing right issued according to the browsing performance of the advertisement video data, and the program video data used for the same program video data based on the usage record recorded by the recording means A program moving picture data distribution apparatus comprising: a counting means for counting viewing rights based on the issuance history; and a notifying means for notifying a publisher of the program moving picture data viewing rights of a counting result by the counting means.   A distribution means for distributing program video data; and a management means for deferring payment for the program video data until the program video data that has been distributed but has not been viewed is actually viewed. A program video data distribution device.   14. The program video data distribution apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the settlement of the program appreciation price is the use of a program video appreciation right issued according to the browsing performance of the advertisement video data.   14. The program moving image data distribution apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the management means performs the payment for the fee again when the program moving image data which has been put into the payment settlement pending state again after being viewed is viewed again.   Distribution means for distributing program video data, confirmation means for confirming the presence or absence of program video data viewing rights necessary for viewing the distributed program video data, and when the confirmation means detects a lack of program video data viewing rights However, the program moving image data distribution apparatus further comprises management means for crediting the shortage and permitting the viewing of the program moving image data.   17. The program moving image data distribution according to claim 16, further comprising recording means for recording the usage history of the program moving image data viewing right, wherein the management means does not cause the recording means to record a credited program moving image data viewing right. apparatus.   A distribution means for distributing the advertisement video data; an issuing means for issuing a program video data viewing right according to a viewing record of the distributed advertisement video data; a receiving means for receiving a reproduction interruption signal for the distributed advertisement video data; An advertising video data distribution apparatus comprising: an issuing unit; and a transmission unit that transmits reproduction management information of advertising video data based on the receiving unit.   A distribution means for distributing the advertisement video data; an issuing means for issuing a program video data viewing right according to a viewing record of the distributed advertisement video data; a receiving means for receiving a reproduction interruption signal for the distributed advertisement video data; An advertising moving image data distribution apparatus comprising: an issuing unit; and a management unit that changes a relationship between the advertising moving image data and the program moving image data for which the program moving image data viewing right can be used based on the receiving unit.   Distribution means capable of delivering the first advertisement video data for advertising the program video data itself and the second advertisement video data relating to advertisements other than the program video data, and the first advertisement video data according to the browsing performance of the second advertisement video data. An advertising moving image data distribution device comprising issuing means for issuing a viewing right for program moving image data to be advertised.   An operation detecting means for detecting a start operation for watching video data, an input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from the outside, and input by the input means when the start operation for watching video data is detected by the operation detecting section. And an advertisement video data automatic playback means for automatically starting continuous playback of a plurality of advertisement video data, and a control means for enabling an operation for watching program video data during the automatic playback of advertisement video data. A video data appreciation device.   An operation detecting means for detecting a start operation for watching video data, an input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from the outside, and input by the input means when the start operation for watching video data is detected by the operation detecting section. In addition, there is an advertisement video data automatic reproduction means that automatically starts continuous reproduction of a plurality of advertisement video data, and a control means that enables an operation for acquiring the right to view program video data during automatic reproduction of advertisement video data. A video data appreciation device characterized by   23. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 22, wherein the control means detects an operation for specifying one of a plurality of advertisement moving image data so as to acquire a right to view program moving image data.   The advertising moving image data includes advertising moving image data of the program, and the control means detects the specific operation of the program based on the advertising moving image data and displays the advertising moving image data that can issue the program moving image data viewing right of the program. 24. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 22 or 23.   25. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 22, further comprising selection means for selecting an input source of advertisement moving image data.   A moving image data appreciation device comprising input means for inputting program moving image data and advertising moving image data from outside, and search means for searching for advertising moving image data.   The search means is capable of searching advertisement video data for issuing a program video data appreciation right, and has an operation means for performing an operation for acquiring the program video data appreciation right based on the search result. Data appreciation device.   28. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 26 or 27, wherein the search means searches the advertising moving image data based on information related to the advertised product.   29. The moving image data appreciation device according to any one of claims 26 to 28, wherein the search means searches for advertising moving image data based on information unrelated to the advertised product itself.   30. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 29, wherein the searching means searches the moving image data based on a performer of the moving image data.   An input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data for issuing program video data viewing rights from outside, a search means for searching a blog about products advertised in the advertising video data, and advertising video data and a blog A moving image data appreciation device comprising display means for displaying.   Program video data and advertising video data that can acquire program video data appreciation rights can be input from the outside, operation detection means for detecting video data appreciation start operation, and the operation detection means can perform video data appreciation start operation A video data appreciation device comprising display means for displaying a program video data appreciation right already acquired when detected.   Input means for externally inputting program video data and advertising video data that can acquire the right to watch program video data, and viewing that allows program video data to be viewed even if the program video data viewing right is insufficient An apparatus for viewing video data, comprising: execution means; and display means for displaying credited program video data viewing rights.   Input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from the outside, storage means for storing the obtained advertisement video data, and storage in the storage unit during the acquisition of the program video data A moving image data appreciation device comprising: automatic moving image data reproduction means for automatically reproducing and displaying the advertising moving image data.   An input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, and ad video data that can issue program video data appreciation rights for the program by specifying the program video data A moving image data appreciation device comprising display means for displaying.   Program video data and advertising video data that can acquire program video data viewing rights can be input from the outside, and program video data viewing rights acquired by browsing the advertising video data by specifying the advertising video data can be used And a moving image data appreciation device characterized by comprising display means for displaying the program moving image data.   An input means for inputting advertisement video data from the outside, an advertisement video data reproducing means for reproducing and displaying the advertisement video data, an advertisement interruption operation unit for generating a reproduction interruption signal for causing the reproduction means to interrupt the advertisement reproduction, A moving image data appreciation device comprising output means for outputting an interruption signal to the outside.   An input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, an advertising video data reproducing means for reproducing and displaying the advertising video data, and an advertising video data reproduced by the reproducing means A video data appreciation device comprising: a browsing operation unit that generates a browsing result signal indicating that the user has browsed; and an output unit that outputs the browsing result signal to the outside.   An input means for inputting program video data and advertisement video data from which program video data appreciation rights can be acquired from outside, an advertisement video data playback means for reproducing and displaying the advertisement video data, and an advertisement evaluation signal based on the advertisement video data browsing A moving image data appreciation device, comprising: an evaluation operation unit that generates an image and an output unit that outputs an advertisement evaluation signal to the outside.   Program video data and advertising video data that can acquire program video data viewing rights can be input from outside, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying program video data, and optional video data during program video playback A moving image data appreciation device comprising: an advertising moving image data reproduction operation unit for instructing reproduction.   Program video data and advertising video data that can acquire program video data viewing rights can be input from outside, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying program video data, and automatic advertisement when program playback ends A moving image data appreciation device comprising advertisement moving image data reproducing means capable of reproducing moving image data.   The program video data reproducing means has credit appreciation executing means for crediting the program video data viewing right even when the program video data appreciation right is insufficient, and the advertisement video data reproducing means is the credit appreciation executing means. 42. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 41, wherein said moving image data can be automatically reproduced when the program moving image data is reproduced.   When there is an input means for externally inputting program video data and advertising video data that can acquire the program video data viewing right, program video data playback means for playing back and displaying the program video data, and a related program for the played program A moving picture data appreciation device comprising related program display means for displaying the program moving picture data.   44. The moving image data appreciation device according to claim 43, further comprising advertisement data reproducing means for automatically reproducing the advertisement moving image data when the related program is displayed by the related program display means.   45. The advertisement data reproducing means displays advertisement moving picture data that can issue a program moving picture data viewing right for the related program when the related program is displayed by the related program display means. Video data appreciation device.   Input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data that can acquire the program video data viewing right from the outside, and program video data playback means for reproducing and displaying the program video data using the acquired program video data viewing right And a moving image data appreciation device characterized by comprising management means for using the program moving image data appreciation rights based on the acquisition order.   Input means for inputting program video data and advertising video data that can acquire the program video data viewing right from the outside, and program video data playback means for reproducing and displaying the program video data using the acquired program video data viewing right And a management means for using the program video data viewing right without the program video data designation when the program video data viewing right designating the program video data to be reproduced is acquired. A featured video data appreciation device.   The management means, when a program video data viewing right specifying program video data to be reproduced is surplus, converts it into a program video data viewing right without program video data designation. 47. A moving image data viewing apparatus according to 47.   If the program video data viewing right that can be used for viewing the program video data to be played back is insufficient, the management means can use the program video data viewing right that specifies other program video data. 49. A moving image data viewing apparatus according to claim 47 or 48, wherein:

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