JPH0983991A - Communication system and method for collecting program viewing rate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video-on-demand system that a subscriber can utilize just like a general commercial broadcast program. SOLUTION: The center station 1 of this video-on-demand system with advertisement is provided with a program storing part 11 storing programs, an advertizement storing part 12 storing advertisement, an advertizement attribute storing part 14 storing the attribute of advertisement (advertisement broadcast timing information, etc.), and an output control part 19 outputting advertisement and programs by switching corresponding to the attribute contents of this advertisement attribute storing part 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system and a program viewing fee collection method using, for example, CATV or satellite broadcasting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A general private broadcasting company collects an advertisement fee from an advertiser and broadcasts an advertisement worth the advertisement fee during a program or between programs to establish management. This advertising fee is passed on in the form of being added to the price of the product advertised by the advertiser, so-called sponsor, but since the viewer does not pay directly for watching the broadcast program,
It tends to create the illusion that viewing a broadcast program by a private broadcaster is free.

By the way, in recent years, services for providing various programs only to subscribers have been started by satellite broadcasting using CATV or communication satellites.

These services require viewers to join, collect a predetermined usage fee for each month in advance, and provide the viewers with a program scheduled for each day of the week and time, and a request from the viewer. There is a video-on-demand system, that is, a program that provides a program according to the above, and collects a usage fee correspondingly. In any case, it is premised that the viewer pays the usage fee (viewing fee) to the service providing company.

A conventional video-on-demand system will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional video on demand system, and FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of an output control unit of the video on demand system of FIG. 12 in detail.

As shown in FIG. 12, this video on
The demand system includes an output control unit 61 that outputs a program video to a terminal installed in a subscriber's house, a program storage unit 62 that stores a program, and a subscriber program viewing history storage that stores a viewing history of a program viewed by the subscriber. It is composed of a unit 63 and a billing calculation unit 64 that performs billing calculation based on the viewing history. As shown in FIG. 13, the output control unit 61 includes a transmission control unit 60.
1, a storage device controller 602 and the like.

In the case of this system, when a command (not shown) is sent from the terminal (not shown) to the sending control unit 601 together with the program ID, the sending control unit 601 issues a command for taking out necessary information from the program storage unit 62 to the storage device control unit. It is sent to 602 and the target information is received. Here, when the program transmission is started or stopped, the output control unit 61 outputs the program output 7
When 0 is stopped, a command to start / stop sending is sent to the storage device controller 602. With this system, special playback, rewinding, and fast-forwarding of programs to be broadcast can be performed.
In this case, the command received by the sending control unit 601 is sent to the storage device control unit 602 as it is.

The program viewing history information viewed by the subscriber is sent to and stored in the subscriber program viewing history storage unit 63.
Then, this program viewing history information is read by the billing calculation unit 64 every predetermined period, and is used for fee calculation. The calculated charge is automatically deducted from a financial institution or collected by a collector.

By the way, in the case of the system in which the subscriber pays the fee for watching the program in this way, it is psychological to the viewer who has watched the program for general commercial broadcasting for many years without paying the price directly. Strong resistance,
This is a factor that prevents the spread of this type of service.

Therefore, it is conceivable to introduce a conventional program viewing system of a private broadcasting station. In other words, an advertisement is put in a program and provided to the subscriber, and the subscriber pays the program cost to the broadcasting station side when the subscriber sees the advertisement so that the viewing fee is established.

However, in the current system, only the charging form for collecting the viewing fee from the subscriber is built, and when the advertisement is provided to the program and provided to the subscriber,
The advertiser cannot determine whether the subscriber has seen the advertisement as much as he / she desires, and the program viewing system of the private broadcasting station cannot be introduced as it is.

[0013]

As described above, in the above-described conventional video-on-demand system, that is, the communication system, the charging mode in which the viewing fee is collected from the subscriber only for the programs provided on-demand. Since it was only built, there was a problem that when the subscriber watched the program, the viewing fee was charged to the subscriber without fail, which hindered the spread of the video-on-demand system.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a video-on-demand system that can be used by subscribers of the system as if they were ordinary commercial programs. I am trying.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the invention of claim 1, the center station accepts a program viewing request from a terminal installed in a subscriber's house, and a corresponding program is framed. In a communication system for delivering to a terminal in units, the center station provides a program storage unit for storing a program to be delivered to the terminal in video frame units in response to a program viewing request from the terminal, and provided by a sponsor of the program. An advertisement storage unit that stores an advertisement to be displayed, an advertisement attribute storage unit that stores attribute information for broadcasting the advertisement, and a program in the program storage unit based on the attribute information stored in the advertisement attribute storage unit And an output control unit for switching between the advertisement in the advertisement storage unit and outputting to the terminal.

In the case of the present invention, since the program and the advertisement are interwoven and delivered to the terminal, the subscriber can reduce or offset the viewing fee by viewing the advertisement together with the program.

The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the communication system according to claim 1, ID information indicating an advertisement and ID information indicating a program are recorded as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage section. .

In the case of the present invention, the subscriber can view the advertisement as one of the programs as desired.

Further, in the communication system according to the present invention, the maximum number of repetitions, the ID information of the first-stage advertisement and the second-stage advertisement are associated with the advertisement ID information as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage section. The feature is that the ID information of the advertisement is recorded.

In the case of the present invention, when the subscriber is watching an advertisement as one of the programs, by instructing the ID information of the next advertisement from the terminal to the center station, one of the advertisements before and after the advertisement is displayed. You can view ads in different orders. In other words, the viewer can view the advertisement simply by specifying "before" or "after" without selecting a program menu or the like.

Further, in the communication system according to the present invention, the program exchange unit time of a plurality of advertisement IDs corresponding to each program is recorded as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute recording section. Is characterized by.

In the case of the present invention, the advertisement viewing obligation time can be equivalently exchanged between a plurality of advertisements provided by the same or another advertisement provider.

The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that, in the communication system according to claim 1, inter-advertisement relation information indicating a connection relation between advertisements is recorded as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute recording section. .

In the case of the present invention, the advertisements can be exchanged equivalently by exchanging the advertisement priority settings based on the advertisement relation information.

Further, the invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that, in the communication system according to claim 1, the substitution exchange rate between the program and the advertisement is recorded as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage section.

In the case of the present invention, the viewing fee of the program can be reduced based on the replacement exchange rate according to the time when the advertisement is viewed.

Further, in the communication system according to claim 6, in the communication system according to claim 6, the program viewing time is converted into an advertisement time unit at the exchange rate, and the advertisement viewing duty time is taken, and the advertisement viewing duty time is consumed. It has a billing calculation unit that deducts the program viewing fee paid by the subscriber according to the amount.

In the case of the present invention, when paying the fee for viewing the program, the unsatisfied viewing duty time can be covered by paying the fee.

The invention according to claim 8 is the communication system according to claim 1, wherein, when the output control section inserts an advertisement into the program, the timing when the advertisement is inserted into the video frame of the program. It is characterized in that the program is switched to the advertisement based on information.

In the case of the present invention, since the timing information is inserted in the video frame of the program, it is not necessary to have means for outputting the timing information for broadcasting the advertisement in advance. Further, the invention according to claim 9 is the communication system according to claim 1, wherein when the output control unit outputs the advertisement, the output control section outputs the advertisement based on advertisement output cycle information set in consideration of advertisement efficiency. It is characterized by doing.

In the case of the present invention, the advertisement can be broadcast in consideration of the advertisement efficiency.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the communication system according to the first aspect, the output control unit displays the video frames of the program and the advertisement in accordance with the advertisement insertion position information set in advance in the video frame number of the program. The feature is that the output is switched.

In the case of the present invention, the position at which the advertisement is inserted is detected from the video frame during the broadcasting of the program and the output is switched, so that the advertisement can be broadcast at various times during the program.

Furthermore, the invention of claim 11 is the same as claim 1.
In the communication system described above, when the number of times the advertisement is inserted into the program reaches a predetermined number, the output control unit inserts the next advertisement related to the advertisement based on the relation information of the advertisement. Is characterized by.

In the case of the present invention, when a certain advertisement is broadcast too much, the next advertisement related to the advertisement is broadcast so that the freshness of the advertisement is increased and the advertisement efficiency can be improved. The invention according to claim 12 is a communication in which a center station accepts a program viewing request from a terminal installed in a subscriber's house, and a corresponding program is distributed to the terminal from a plurality of programs held by the center station. In the system, the center station includes an advertiser storage unit that stores a plurality of advertisements and sponsor information for each of these advertisements, a program-specific advertiser storage unit that records sponsor information for each of the programs, and the terminal. A viewing program recording unit that records ID information of programs and advertisements that are currently on air, a viewing time recording unit that records the time during which the programs and advertisements are being aired in association with the ID information, and is aired on the terminal. A subscriber viewing history storage unit that records the history of all the programs and advertisements that have been recorded and a billing calculation unit that performs billing calculation based on the history of the subscriber viewing history storage unit are provided.

The invention according to claim 13 further comprises the step of transmitting a program viewing request from the terminal of the subscriber's house to the center station, the program to which the center station responds to the program viewing request from the terminal, and this program. And a step of distributing the advertisement of the sponsor providing the information to the terminal, a step of measuring the time when the program and the advertisement distributed to the terminal are actually broadcast on the terminal, and converting the time into a viewing fee. And a step of charging the subscriber by subtracting the advertisement viewing fee from the program viewing fee.

In the case of the invention described in claims 12 and 13,
Since the sponsored programs and advertisements of the sponsors are provided to the subscribers, the subscribers are deducted from the program viewing fee according to the time when they see the advertisements, and the reduced amount is allocated to the fee as the advertiser's burden. Viewers will be able to view video-on-demand programs without feeling discomfort, just as if they were familiar with commercial broadcasting for many years, and this will help the smooth deployment of future video-on-demand systems.

[0038]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a video-on-demand system with advertisement by CATV, which is one embodiment of the video-on-demand system according to the present invention.

This video-on-demand system with advertisement has a terminal (not shown) installed in a subscriber's house for issuing a program viewing request, and a center station 1 for delivering a corresponding program to the terminal in response to the program viewing request from this terminal. And are connected via a transmission line.

The center station 1 includes a program storage unit 11 storing programs, an advertisement storage unit 12 storing advertisements, a program-specific advertiser configuration storage unit 13, an advertisement attribute storage unit 14, and a billing calculation unit 1.
5, subscriber program viewing history storage unit 16, program start time /
It is composed of a time recording unit 17 for recording the end time and the like, a current viewing program detection unit 18, an output control unit 19, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, the program storage unit 11 includes
As information other than the program, the advertisement broadcasting timing information 11a in which the switching timing frame No (number) is associated with the program ID is recorded. The advertisement broadcast timing information 11a is information that an advertisement is inserted after the video frame numbers 31350, 54000, 87000 ... Of the program of the program ID "P0001", for example.

Although the advertisement broadcasting timing information 11a is stored in the program storage unit 11, it may be recorded in another storage unit or inserted in the video frame.

As shown in FIG. 3, the advertiser configuration table 13a is stored in the program-by-program advertiser configuration storage unit 13. The advertiser configuration table 13a stores the advertiser (sponsor) of the program corresponding to the program ID, its composition ratio, and the priority broadcast advertisement ID that the sponsor wants to preferentially broadcast for each program. There is.

For example, there are three parties A, B, and C as the sponsors of the program whose program ID is "P 0001", and their composition ratio is 50:30:20, and the sponsor A wants to broadcast preferentially. It can be seen that the ID number of the advertisement is "AdA001".

As the sponsor of the program having the program ID “P 0002”, there are four parties C to F, each of which has a composition ratio of 40: 25: 20: 15, and the sponsor C wants to broadcast preferentially. It can be seen that the advertisement ID number is "AdC002".

As shown in FIG. 4, the advertisement attribute storage unit 14 stores an advertisement-specific attribute recording table 14a indicating exchange rates of programs and advertisements.

This advertisement-specific attribute recording table 14a is for the purpose of preventing a decrease in the viewer's interest due to the continuous flow of advertisements, as the program exchange unit time as an exchange rate between the time when the program is viewed and one advertisement unit time. Minimum cycle time to use for,
The maximum cycle time that prevents the viewer from forgetting the viewer's eyes by not touching the viewer for a long period of time, the number of repetitions that the sponsor thinks that the advertisement content is almost sufficiently known to the viewer, and the like are recorded.

Generally, when the same advertisement is broadcast a plurality of times in a short period of time, the viewer's interest in the advertisement decreases, but if the viewer does not see it for a long period of time, the viewer's memory is memorized. The impression is reduced and the advertising efficiency is reduced. Further, it is said that the effect of an advertisement is saturated even if the same viewer is shown to the same viewer a certain number of times or more.

Therefore, in consideration of these matters, each data is recorded in the advertisement attribute recording table 14a.

For example, the advertisement ID “AdA001” in the advertisement-specific attribute recording table 14a is such that the sponsor takes the fee for watching the program for 15 minutes by watching the advertisement of this advertisement ID for one unit time. Conversely, every 15 minutes of watching a program, the time required to view an advertisement (advertisement viewing time) increases by one unit time.

The advertisement 1 unit time here is independently decided by the sponsor as desired. The minimum period "1m" indicates 1 minute, and indicates the time for preventing the same advertisement from flowing within 1 minute. Further, the maximum period “2d” indicates 2 days, and is information for performing fluid control such as raising the broadcasting priority of the advertisement in the advertisement of the same sponsor when the advertisement does not flow for 2 days.

Equivalent exchange can be performed among a plurality of advertisements by using the advertisement attribute recording table 14a.

That is, in the advertisement attribute recording table 14a, the advertisement with the advertisement ID "AdA001" and the advertisement ID "AdA00"
When the advertisement of 2 "is the same sponsor and this sponsor offers one program, in this table 14a, the advertisement of the advertisement ID" AdA001 "is set to be preferentially displayed. , While the advertisement with the advertisement ID “AdA001” has been played a lot, the setting can be changed so that the advertisement ID “AdA002” is given priority when the advertisement with the advertisement ID “AdA002” is played for a short time or a small number of times. .

In this case, the advertisement with the advertisement ID "AdA001" is
By watching 1 unit, the fee for the program is 15 minutes and the advertisement ID "Ad
The advertisement of "A002" is covered by the charge for 10 minutes of the program by watching 1 unit, and the ratio of each value is "AdA001": "AdA002" = 1.5: 1, and the advertisement ID "AdA001 "1 unit of advertisement is advertisement ID
Equivalent exchange is possible with 1.5 units of "AdA002" advertisement.

FIG. 5 shows the subscriber program viewing history storage unit 16.
The subscriber program viewing history table 16a shown in FIG. 6 and the subscriber advertisement viewing duty remaining recording table 16b shown in FIG. 6 are stored.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the subscriber program viewing history table 16a, the viewed program ID (advertisement ID), the viewing start date and time, the viewing end date and time, the number of repetitions and the charge unit, etc. for each subscriber ID. Each column is provided for recording.

For example, when a subscriber is watching an advertisement and interrupts it halfway, this subscriber program viewing history table 16a
In the column of the charge unit of, the payment charge unit for the viewing time till then is recorded.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the subscriber advertisement viewing / listening obligation remaining record table 16b records the advertisement ID, the remaining viewing / listening duty unit, the number of repetitions, etc. in association with the subscriber ID.

As shown in FIG. 7, the output control unit 19 controls the timing of broadcasting the advertisement.
1. A timer 192 in which a switching timing frame No. from the advertisement broadcasting timing information 11a is set as switching timing data; Sending control unit 19 for sending
3, each storage unit 11 controlled by the sending control unit 193,
The storage device control unit 194 for controlling 13 is included. The output control unit 19 increases the remaining viewing duty unit of the subscriber advertisement viewing duty remaining record table 16b for each program exchange unit time obtained from the advertisement attribute recording table 14a of the advertisement attribute storage unit 14.

As shown in FIG. 8, the video frame generated by the output control section 19 includes BOF ... FID, TY.
P, Content and EOF are configured as one transmission unit. It should be noted that BOF to TYP are headers, and TYP = “01” indicates that the content content is a program, and TYP = “00” indicates that the content content is an advertisement. FID is a frame ID and contains a frame number.

In this video-on-demand system with advertisement, the center station 1 delivers the corresponding program and advertisement in response to the program viewing request from the terminal, and the viewing fee of the program is according to the viewing time of the advertisement. There are various methods of reducing the fee and charging the subscriber, but here, a method of charging each time a program is viewed for a certain period of time will be described in correspondence with an actual service.

In this case, when the viewer selects a program desired by the viewer (a program with a sponsor) at the terminal, a viewing request for the program is sent to the center station 1 through the transmission path.

In the center station 1, the currently viewed program detecting section 18 detects the selected program on the basis of the viewing request from the terminal,
The program start time is recorded in the time recording unit 17.

Subsequently, the output control section 19 reads out the sponsor of the program from the advertiser configuration table 13a of the program-specific advertiser configuration storage section 13.

From the advertiser configuration table 13a, the program ID
It can be seen that the sponsor of the program of “P 0001” is composed of A, B, and C. After each composition ratio,
Advertising IDs (AdA001), (AdB001), which each sponsor A, B, C wishes to preferentially broadcast for this program,
(AdC001) is recorded.

Next, the output control section 19 finds these advertisement IDs from the advertisement-specific attribute recording table 14a of the advertisement attribute storage section 14.
Is read out (such as the advertisement broadcasting timing information and the exchange rate between the program and the advertisement), and the program and the advertisement are switched and output based on the attribute.

Here, the timer 192 of the output control section 19
Monitors the FID in the program data (video frame) read from the program storage unit 11 for each transmission unit,
When a frame program with this FID arrives, a command is sent to the timing control unit 191. With this command, the timing control unit 191 sends a command for temporarily holding the program and switching the video data to be sent to the subscriber from the advertisement storage unit 12 to the sending control unit 193.
To send to.

Also, advertisement timing information is similarly set in the timer 192.

This timer 192 monitors the video frame of the advertisement, and if the advertisement end frame number is set in the timer 192, the timing control unit 1 at the end of the advertisement.
A command is sent to 91 to switch from the advertisement to the original program.

If the program thus distributed to the terminal is actually broadcast on the terminal, the broadcast time is measured accordingly, and each is converted into a charge, and the subscriber program viewing history table shown in FIG. The program ID, start date and time, end date and time, and charge unit of the program are recorded in 16a.

At a certain point of time, the video output is switched from the program to the advertisement by the output control unit 19, the advertisement is distributed to the terminal, and when the advertisement is actually broadcast on the terminal, the subscriber program is also watched. The advertisement ID is recorded in the program ID column of the history table 16a, and the corresponding data is recorded correspondingly.

Here, on the terminal side, for example, when the broadcasting of an advertisement is interrupted midway, the fees up to that point are recorded in the fee unit column corresponding to the advertisement ID.

Advertisement I in the subscriber program viewing history table 16a
The charge unit in the charge unit column in which D is recorded is taken over by the sponsor of the advertisement.
The charge calculation unit 15 subtracts the charge unit of the advertisement from the total number of charge units to be paid by the subscriber. Therefore, the subscriber may pay the charge of the calculation result by using the automatic payment service of the financial institution, or pay the charge collector of the service company that provides this system.

In this video-on-demand system with an advertisement, as a method of allowing a subscriber to watch an advertisement when watching a program, (1) before the program starts, (2) after the program ends,
Various broadcast formats are conceivable, such as (3) another opportunity, and (4) during the program.

(1) Before Program Start In this case, the advertisement of the sponsor of the program is broadcast in advance before the program starts. This broadcast is allocated to the viewing duty.

(2) After the program ends After the program ends, the advertisement of the program sponsor is broadcast. If the viewer does not operate after the program ends, the advertisement will continue to flow for a certain period of time. The viewer can end the viewing of the advertisement in the middle, and in this case, the advertisement in the viewed range becomes the end of the remaining viewing obligation.

(3) Another Opportunity The viewer can view the advertisement as one program by actively viewing the advertisement from the terminal at a convenient time. Even in this case, the time when the advertisement is viewed can be used for the remaining viewing time.

(4) During the program In this case, there are cases where the advertisement broadcast timing information is obtained from the outside during the program broadcast, and cases where the advertisement is interwoven in the video data frame of the program and broadcast. Since the former has been described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 above, the latter will be described.

In order to realize the latter, as shown in FIG. 9, the output control unit 29 includes a timing control unit 291 for controlling the broadcast timing of advertisements, and a video frame read from the program storage unit 11 for each transmission unit. A timing extraction unit 292 that extracts advertisement timing information from the inside, a transmission control unit 293 that reads out programs and advertisements from the respective storage units 11 and 13 and transmits them to the transmission path at the broadcasting timing controlled by the timing control unit 291, and this transmission control The storage device control unit 294 is controlled by the unit 293 and controls each of the storage units 11 and 12.

In this case, the video frames stored in the program storage unit 11 are BOF ... FI as shown in FIG.
D, TYP, Content, and EOF are configured as one transmission unit, BOF to TYP are used as a header part, and TYP of this header part is a location indicating the type of frame content. Information for identifying the program and the advertisement is inserted in this TYP. For example, when TYP = "01",
Indicates that the content of Content is a program, and TYP = "0
When it is 0 ”, it means that the content is Content.
The FID is a frame ID and contains a frame program.

The operation of the system having the output control unit 29 will be described below.

In this case, when the output control unit 29 reads the header portion of the video data frame of the program from the program storage unit 11, it monitors the location TYP indicating the type of frame content of the header portion.

Then, when the frame of TYP = "00" comes, a command is transmitted to the timing control unit 291 and the transmission control unit 293 is instructed to temporarily stop the program video and transmit the advertisement video data according to the command.

At the end of the advertising image, the timing extraction unit 292 detects that the TYP, which is a place indicating the type of frame content, has an end mark.

Then, a command is issued to the timing control unit 291 and the timing control unit 291 commands the transmission control unit 293 to restart the video data of the program.

The sending control unit 293 restarts the output of the video data of the program according to this command.

As a result, the program can be broadcast while the advertisement is interwoven in the video data of the program so that the subscriber can watch the advertisement.

Next, an application example of the present invention will be described.

Although the exchange rate between the program and the advertisement is stored as the attribute of each advertisement in the advertisement attribute recording table 14a, this is modified and the advertisement with inter-advertisement related information is added as shown in FIG. As another attribute record table 14b, the maximum number of repetitions is 50 and the advertisement ID 5 of the next-stage advertisement is associated with the advertisement ID.
It is also possible to associate a plurality of advertisements by recording 1 or the advertisement ID 52 of the preceding advertisement.

In this case, the output control unit 29 reads the maximum number of repetitions 50 and the advertisement ID 51 of the next-stage advertisement from the advertisement-specific attribute recording table 14b with the inter-advertisement relation information, so that the subscriber repeats the maximum number of advertisements. When the content is viewed more than once, the next advertisement can be automatically broadcast.

For convenience when the viewer consciously views the advertisement as one program, the advertisement attribute recording section 14 also records information about the preceding advertisement (such as the advertisement ID 52 of the preceding advertisement). Good.

As a result, the viewer can view the continuous advertisements continuously, or can switch the respective advertisements before and after.

Further, when consent is obtained from a plurality of sponsors who provide a certain program, it is possible to allow the sponsors to exchange the advertisement viewing time.

As a result, the subscriber can absorb the obligation to view the advertisement by positively viewing the advertisement in which he / she is interested. In this way, it becomes possible to provide a series of product advertisements and expandable advertisements that go deeper into the content of the advertisement.

As described above, according to the video-on-demand system with an advertisement, the video-on-demand program (sponsored program) distributed from the center station 1 to the terminal is interlaced with an advertisement. , When the subscriber watches the program, the sponsor takes charge of all or part of the viewing fee of the program, so the subscriber does not have to pay the viewing fee according to the time when the advertisement is watched. As a result, subscribers who have come to the habit of not paying directly for viewing programs on traditional commercial broadcasting can easily use and enjoy video-on-demand programs.

As a result, it is possible to prepare an environment in which the video-on-demand system can be accepted by ordinary households.

Also, by taking advantage of the video-on-demand system, statistical information such as “advertisements seen by the most subscribers” can be obtained, which can be useful for sponsors in planning advertising strategies. it can.

[0099]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the advertisement is interwoven with the program and distributed, the subscriber can
By watching advertisements when watching a program, you do not have to pay all or part of the viewing fee to watch the program, and you can use the video-on-demand system as if you were a general commercial program. .

[0100] Further, since the cycle of repeatedly displaying the advertisement to be provided to the subscriber can be set on an advertising unit basis at the request of the sponsor side, the advertising effect can be enhanced more than ever. Furthermore, by adding relational information between advertisements as an advertisement-to-advertisement attribute, it becomes possible to newly provide a deployable advertisement that advances to the next advertisement when a certain advertisement is viewed a certain number of times or more.

Further, since the advertisement is also provided to the subscriber as one program, the advertisement desired by the subscriber can be seen as needed, and the subscriber can use the advertisement as an information source. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a video-on-demand system with advertisement according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing advertisement broadcasting timing information stored in a program storage unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an advertiser configuration table stored in a program-by-program advertiser configuration storage unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an advertisement-based attribute recording table stored in an advertisement attribute storage unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG. 1.

5 is a diagram showing a subscriber program viewing history table stored in a subscriber program viewing history storage unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a subscriber advertisement viewing duty remaining record table stored in a subscriber program viewing history storage unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG. 1.

7 is a diagram showing a configuration of an output control unit of the video-on-demand system with advertisement in FIG.

8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a video frame when the output control unit of FIG. 7 is used.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of an output control unit when timing information is interwoven in a video data frame of a program.

10 is a diagram showing a configuration of a video frame when the output control unit of FIG. 9 is used.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an advertisement-based attribute recording table with advertisement-related information as an application example of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional video-on-demand system.

13 is a diagram showing an output control unit of the video-on-demand system of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Program storage unit, 12 ... Advertisement storage unit, 13 ... Program advertiser configuration storage unit, 14 ... Advertisement attribute storage unit, 15 ... Billing calculation unit, 16 ... Subscriber program viewing history storage unit, 17 ... Time recording unit , 18 ... Current viewing program detection unit, 19, 29 ... Output control unit.

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A communication system in which a center station accepts a program viewing request from a terminal installed in a subscriber's house and distributes a corresponding program to the terminal in frame units, wherein the center station is a program from the terminal. A program storage unit that stores, in video frame units, a program to be delivered to the terminal in response to a viewing request, an advertisement storage unit that stores an advertisement provided by the sponsor of the program, and attribute information for broadcasting the advertisement And an output control unit that switches between the program in the program storage unit and the advertisement in the advertisement storage unit based on the attribute information stored in the advertisement attribute storage unit and outputs the advertisement to the terminal. A communication system characterized by the above. 2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage unit is an ID indicating an advertisement.
A communication system in which information and ID information indicating a program are recorded. 3. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage unit, the maximum number of repetitions, the ID information of the first advertisement and the ID information of the second advertisement are recorded in association with the ID information of the advertisement. A communication system characterized by the above. 4. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein, as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute recording unit, a program exchange unit time of a plurality of advertisement IDs corresponding to each program is recorded. 5. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein, as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute recording unit, inter-advertisement relation information indicating a connection relation between advertisements is recorded. 6. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein a replacement exchange rate of the program and the advertisement is recorded as the attribute information of the advertisement attribute storage unit. 7. The communication system according to claim 6, wherein the program viewing time is converted into an advertisement time unit at the exchange rate, and the advertising viewing duty time is set, and the subscriber is dependent on the consumption amount of the advertisement viewing duty time. A communication system comprising a charge calculation unit for subtracting a program viewing fee to be paid. 8. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit, when an advertisement is inserted in the program, based on the timing information inserted in the video frame of the program, the program Is switched to the advertisement. 9. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit, when outputting the advertisement, outputs the advertisement based on advertisement output cycle information set in consideration of advertisement efficiency. Communication system. 10. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit performs output switching of the video frames of the program and the advertisement in accordance with the advertisement insertion position information set in advance in the video frame number of the program. Communication system. 11. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit relates to the advertisement based on relation information of the advertisement when the number of times of inserting the advertisement into the program reaches a predetermined number. A communication system characterized by inserting the following advertisement. 12. A communication system in which a center station accepts a program viewing request from a terminal installed in a subscriber's house and distributes a corresponding program from the plurality of programs held by the center station to the terminal, The center station stores a plurality of advertisements and sponsor information for each of these advertisements, an advertiser storage unit for recording the sponsor information for each program, and a program-specific advertiser storage unit for currently broadcasting on the terminal. A viewing program recording unit that records ID information of programs and advertisements that have been recorded, a viewing time recording unit that records the time during which the programs and advertisements were being broadcast in association with the ID information, and all of the programs that were broadcast on the terminal. A subscriber viewing history storage unit for recording the history of programs and advertisements, and a billing calculation unit for billing calculation based on the history of the subscriber viewing history storage unit are provided. Communication system. 13. A step of sending a program viewing request from a terminal of a subscriber's house to a center station, a program corresponding to the center station in response to a program viewing request from the terminal, and an advertisement of a sponsor providing this program. To the terminal, measuring the time when the program and the advertisement distributed to the terminal are actually broadcast on the terminal, and converting the time to a viewing fee, and converting the advertisement from the viewing fee of the converted program. A method of collecting a program viewing fee, comprising the step of reducing the viewing fee and charging the subscriber.