JPH06351018A - Communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain temporary viewing, and to attain tariff collection corresponding to it by solving a problem that broadcasting whose service can be received by a communication terminal equipment is limited to one whose reception contract is made, and temporary or short viewing can not be attained, in the communication terminal equipment used for the reception of the pay service broadcasting of a video, audio, and data or the like through a satellite line or a cable line. CONSTITUTION:In the communication terminal equipment constituted of a receiving circuit 2 of broadcasting, scramble releasing device 3 of program data, data outputting device 4, the recording part of prepaid information 5, and central control unit(CPU) 1 which controls those devices, a program tariff transmitted with a program is subtracted from the prepaid sum, so that the tariff collection and service for the viewing of the broadcasting whose contract is not made can be attained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging method and a fee collecting method when a communication terminal device receives a pay broadcast.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, free and paid program broadcasting services using communication satellites have been performed. Among them, the pay program broadcasting service is scrambled so that only a viewer who has a viewing contract can view the program. Only a viewer who has a viewing contract can unscramble the scramble and the viewer can view the content. It is a communication terminal device that provides the program service by judging whether or not the program can be viewed.
(For example, JP-A-62-189). The conventional communication terminal device will be described below. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of a conventional communication terminal device. In FIG. 5, 26 is a CPU,
Control the communication terminal device. Reference numeral 27 is a receiving circuit for receiving and demodulating a signal, 28 is a descrambler for decoding a scrambled signal, and 29 is an output device for outputting the decoded signal to an external device. The operation of the communication terminal device configured as described above will be described below.
First, with respect to the signal sent through the communication line, program data and accompanying program information are obtained through the receiving circuit 27. The viewing availability information included in this program information is sent to the CPU 26.
Decides to control the descrambling circuit 28 and output device
At 29, output / non-output of program data. This viewing availability information depends on whether or not a contract is made for each program, and the device does not descramble and does not provide a service to programs for which the communication terminal device has no contract.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional communication terminal device, whether or not the scramble is descrambled is controlled by the receivability information transmitted at the same time as the program data. Based on
The sender transmits the receivability information for each program at the same time as the program. Therefore, when a viewer wants to receive a program service, he or she has to make a viewing contract for each program, and can not even enjoy a non-confidential general program service in the short-term and temporary without a contract. There was a problem that fees could not be collected for contracted programs. The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication terminal capable of viewing a general program without concluding a viewing contract for each program and collecting charges. .

[0004]

To achieve this object, the communication terminal device of the present invention has a structure in which a recording area for prepaid information for a pay program is added to a conventional communication terminal device. It is a thing.

[0005]

With this configuration, for viewing a program that does not require a contract on a program-by-program basis, the viewing fee sent at the same time as the program data is reduced from the prepaid information to allow temporary or short-term viewing of the program without a contract. It is also possible to collect charges.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is CP
U, 2 is a receiving circuit, 3 is a descrambling circuit, 4 is an output device, and 5 is prepaid information.

The CPU 1 of the communication terminal device, before processing the encrypted program data output from the receiving circuit 2,
First, the non-encrypted program information accompanying it is received. Figure 2
Shows an example of the structure of received data. The received data consists of encrypted program data 7, which is the main body of the program, and information 6 associated with the program. The configuration example of the information 6 attached to this program is
As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the information 8 regarding the program for the receiving terminal to judge whether or not the program can be viewed and the case where the receiving terminal is not an authorized receiving terminal, that is, the received data is a program out of contract for the receiving terminal. Non-contract viewing availability flag 9 indicating whether or not reception is possible, and a viewing fee indicating a viewing fee to be paid when a non-contract program is temporarily viewed
It is composed of 10 pieces of information and encryption information 11 including a decryption key and the like required to decrypt the program data. CPU1
Judges based on the information 6 attached to the program, and determines whether to decrypt the program data. That is, it is judged from the information 8 about the program whether the program is a contract program, and if it is a contract program, the program data 7 is unconditionally deciphered by the descrambling circuit 3 and the output device 4
More output and service.

On the other hand, if the program is out of the contract range, it is judged whether or not the program can be viewed from the non-contract viewing availability flag 9. (1) When viewing is free, the service is provided in the same way as the contract program. (2) When paying for viewing, the prepaid information 5 and the viewing charge 10 are compared, and the service is provided only when the prepaid amount is larger than the viewing charge. When the service ends due to the end of the program or the operation of the viewer 20, the viewing fee is deducted from the prepaid amount and recorded in the prepaid information 5. The flow of this processing will be described with reference to FIG. First, based on the information of the non-contracted viewing permission / prohibition flag 9, it is determined whether or not the viewing is possible even for a non-contracted receiving terminal (S1). If viewing of the uncontracted terminal is prohibited, nothing is done and the program data is discarded. If viewing of uncontracted programs is permitted, processing is performed to provide program services. That is, the program viewing fee 10 is acquired from the received data (S2), the viewing fee amount is checked (S3), and if this fee is free, the prepaid fee of the receiving terminal is not required, so the program service starts (S6). Move to. If it is not free, the prepaid amount recorded by the receiving terminal is acquired (S4), and it is checked whether the viewing fee can be paid (S5). If the viewing fee cannot be paid, the service is not performed and the process ends, and the program data is discarded. If the viewing fee can be paid, the processing moves to the program service start
(S6). After that, the receiving terminal continues the service while decrypting the program data until the end of the program. here,
If the fee payment method is not for each program but for each specific unit, the receiving terminal checks whether or not the fee payment 11 is possible for each specific unit of this fee payment 11, and collects the fee if possible. Continue and terminate service if not possible. In other words, the program service ends in two cases: (1) when the program service end time comes, and (2) when the viewing fee cannot be paid. When the program ends in either of the above two, the viewing fee is deducted from the prepaid information inside the receiving terminal (S8).

FIG. 4 shows a method of distributing prepaid information recorded inside the communication terminal device. Instead of physically giving the monetary amount information to the communication terminal device, distribution is performed using the communication lines of the general public line 21 and the satellite line 25. That is, the viewer
When recording the prepaid amount of money in the communication terminal device, 20 requests the program sender 22 to deliver the prepaid amount of money via the general public line 21. Specifically, we will make a contract to deliver tones using a push line. The program sender 22 who has signed the prepaid information distribution contract distributes the prepaid information to the communication terminal device 24 of the viewer 20 who has the contract using the same satellite 23 and satellite line 25 as the program transmission line. To do. Upon receiving this, the communication terminal device 24 records the sent information in the prepaid information.

[0010]

As is apparent from the above-described embodiments, the present invention allows pre-paid information to be provided, so that the viewer can save the trouble of establishing a viewing contract on a program basis, and the sender can temporarily This has the effect of realizing an excellent communication terminal device capable of collecting charges even for short-term viewing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of received data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for explaining an operation of determining whether or not to view a non-contract program in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method of delivering prepaid information to a communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conventional communication terminal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 26 ... CPU, 2, 27 ... Receiving circuit, 3, 28 ... Descrambling circuit, 4, 29 ... Output device, 5 ... Prepaid information, 6 ... Information associated with program, 7 ... Program data, 8 ... Program related Information, 9 ... Flag for non-contract viewing, 10 ... Viewing fee, 11 ... Encryption information, 20 ... Viewer, 21 ... General public line, 22 ... Program sender, 23 ...
Satellite, 24 ... communication terminal device, 25 ... satellite line (aerial line).

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device for receiving a pay broadcast is provided with prepaid information of a viewing fee, and when the pay broadcast is received, the prepaid amount is reduced based on the prepaid information so that the charge can be collected and a reception contract is concluded. A communication terminal device characterized in that even a terminal device which does not exist can receive pay broadcasting. 2. A prepaid fee contract is made by mutual communication with a sender using a general public line, and prepaid information is sent via a communication line for broadcasting inside the contracted terminal device. It is possible to prevent forgery of prepaid information in a communication terminal device.