JP3076142B2 - Pay-TV channel registration system for CATV subscriber terminals - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a pay channel registration system for CATV subscriber terminals, and more particularly to a pay channel registration method for CATV subscriber terminals in a CATV 1WAY home terminal control system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of pay channel registration method, only the input of the presence or absence of a contract is made for a pay channel. Therefore, the presence or absence of a contract is input to each CATV subscriber terminal every month.

[0003] In such a conventional pay channel registration method for CATV subscriber terminals, if there is a subscriber who has contracted a pay channel for six months continuously in one CATV subscriber terminal, the contract is made every month. There is a problem that it is necessary to enter the presence or absence of. There is also a problem that a contract cannot be made on a daily basis since the contract is entered on a monthly basis.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and enables a long-term contract over several months or a contract on a daily basis with a single input. It aims to provide a pay channel registration system for CATV subscriber terminals.

[0005]

A pay channel registration system for a CATV subscriber terminal according to the present invention comprises a plurality of pay channel registration systems based on contract contents.
Pay and free channels for each CATV subscriber terminal
A plurality of subscriber terminals for supplying the video of the
A contract for each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals with the subscriber terminal
CATV including contents and control device for transmitting the image
A pay channel registration system for subscriber terminals, comprising: storage means for storing a contract period comprising a contract start date and a contract end date of each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals in correspondence with each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals. A time measuring means for measuring a current date, a comparing means for comparing the contract period stored in the storage means with a result of the time measuring means, and a plurality of the plurality of times according to a comparison result of the comparing means. CAT
Determining means for determining whether each of the V subscriber terminals is within the contract period ; determining results of the determining means;
Channel and free channel images to the plurality of subscriber terminals.
And means for sending at the end to the controller, the determination hand
The CATV subscriber terminal whose stage is determined to be within the contract period
Only distribute the pay channel and free channel video
The CAT determined by the determination means to be outside the contract period
Means for distributing the free channel video to V subscriber terminals
Is provided in the plurality of subscriber terminals .

[0006]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a contract is made with a 1-way home terminal control unit (hereinafter referred to as a control unit) 1 for identification information for identifying each CATV subscriber terminal (not shown) and a contract period including a contract start date and a contract end date. When a contract content including a pay channel number or the like is input, the contract start date is stored in the contract start date storage unit 11, and the contract end date is stored in the contract end date storage unit 12, corresponding to the identification information of the CATV subscriber terminal. Is memorized.

The timer 13 measures the current time.
The current date is output to the comparison units 14 and 15, respectively. The comparison unit 14 compares the contract start date of each CATV subscriber terminal stored in the contract start date storage unit 11 with the current date from the clock unit 13, and determines that the current date is the CATV subscriber terminal. It detects whether it is a date after each contract start date. The comparison unit 15 compares the contract end date of each CATV subscriber terminal stored in the contract end date storage unit 12 with the current date from the clock unit 13, and determines that the current date is the CATV subscriber terminal. Detects whether the date is before the end date of each contract.

The determination unit 16 detects whether or not the current date falls within the contract period of each CATV subscriber terminal based on the detection results of the comparison units 14 and 15. As a result, if the current date is within the contract period, the determination unit 16 sends the identification information and the contract contents of the CATV subscriber terminal determined to be within the contract period to the signal modulator 2 as contract information.

The signal mixer 4 mixes the contract information from the control unit 1 modulated by the signal modulator 2 with the video from the head end 3, and connects the subscriber terminals 5 a via the CATV coaxial transmission line network 6. , 5b. When each of the subscriber terminals 5a and 5b receives the contract information and the video from the signal mixer 4,
The video is distributed to each CATV subscriber terminal based on the contract information.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A shows a state where the current day a on the time axis t is before the contract period, and FIG. 2B shows a state where the current day a on the time axis t is during the contract period. FIG. 2 (c)
Indicates a state in which the current date a on the time axis t is after the contract period.

That is, the control unit 1 determines whether the current date a on the time axis t is before the contract period d indicated by the contract start date b and the contract end date c (see FIG. 2A), or the contract period d. If it is after that [see FIG. 2 (c)], it is determined that it is out of the contract period, and the fact is notified to the subscriber terminals 5a and 5b.
Each of the subscriber terminals 5a and 5b distributes only the free channel video to the CATV subscriber terminal determined to be out of the contract period by the control unit 1, and performs control to disable viewing of the pay channel video.

On the other hand, the control unit 1 determines that the current date “a” on the time axis “t” is a contract period “d” indicated by a contract start date “b” and a contract end date “c”.
If it is in the middle [see FIG. 2 (b)], it is determined that the contract period is in progress and that effect is notified to the subscriber terminals 5a and 5b. The subscriber terminals 5a and 5b are controlled by the control unit 1 during the contract period.
The video of the free channel and the pay channel is distributed to the ATV subscriber terminal, and the control of enabling viewing of the video of the pay channel is performed.

As described above, the contract start date of each CATV subscriber terminal is stored in the contract start date storage unit 11, and the contract end date is stored in the contract end date storage unit 12, and the contract start date and contract end date are respectively stored. The comparison units 14 and 15 compare the current date of the clock unit 13 with the current date of the clock unit 13 and set C according to the comparison result of the comparison units 14 and 15.
The determination unit 16 determines whether each of the ATV subscriber terminals is within the contract period, and sends the contract information of each of the CATV subscriber terminals to the subscriber terminals 5a and 5b according to the determination result. , 5b, it is possible to register a long-term contract for several months or a contract on a daily basis with a single input by managing whether or not the CATV subscriber terminal can view each pay channel.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the contract period including the contract start date and the contract end date is set to a plurality of Cs.
A plurality of CAs are stored for each ATV subscriber terminal in accordance with the result of comparison between the stored contract period and the current date.
By judging whether or not each of the TV subscriber terminals is within the contract period and managing whether or not viewing of each channel is possible for each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals in accordance with the judgment result, several months are obtained. There is an effect that a long-term contract over a long period or a contract on a daily basis can be made with a single input.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 1 WAY Home terminal control unit 5a, 5b Subscriber terminal 6 CATV coaxial transmission line network 11 Contract start date storage unit 12 Contract end date storage unit 13 Timing unit 14, 15 Comparison unit 16 Judgment unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takeshi Yamaji 5-37-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan Cable Media Engineering Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-59-1111437 (JP, A) JP-A-2-211786 (JP, A) JP-A-60-96977 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 7/10 H04N ^7/ 16-7/173

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Claims: 1. A plurality of CATVs each based on a contract content.
Paid and free channel video for each subscriber terminal
A plurality of subscriber terminals for supplying
The contract contents of each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals and
Claims: 1. A pay channel registration system for a CATV subscriber terminal including a control device for transmitting a video , wherein a contract period comprising a contract start date and a contract end date of each of the plurality of CATV subscriber terminals is set by the plurality of CATV subscribers. Storage means for storing each of the terminals, timing means for timing the current date and time, comparison means for comparing the contract period stored in the storage means and the timing result of the timing means, According to the comparison result of the comparing means, the plurality of Cs
Determining means for determining whether ATV subscriber terminal each is within the contract period, the organic and the determination result of said determining means
Subscription and free channel video to the multiple subscriptions
Means for sending to the user terminal in the control device, wherein the determination means determines that the CATV is within the contract period.
Video of the above-mentioned paid channel and free channel on the subscriber terminal
And the determining means determines that the contract period has not been reached.
The picture of the free channel is distributed to the CATV subscriber terminal.
A pay channel registration system , wherein the plurality of subscriber terminals have means for distributing .