JPH10248059A - Pay broadcast system and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the pay broadcast system and its method in which the advance payment system and the recording system of viewed contents are used in common in a pay broadcast service using a smart card. SOLUTION: In a subscriber management center 2, a transmitter 3 sends a qualification control message including information by which authentication of a subscriber and two kinds of services are discriminated in a smart card to the smart card 5 of the subscriber to input a personal qualification management message of the subscriber and to select a group supporting the advance payment system or a group supporting the view recording system and generates a group qualification management message and issues the smart card 5. Whether or not the smart card 5 is possessed by the legal subscriber through the decoding of the two kinds of the messages is certified and whether the advance payment group or the view content recording group is adopted is discriminated and a pay program is supplied to the subscriber.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pay broadcasting system and a method for sharing a prepaid system and a viewing content recording system in a pay broadcasting service using a reception permit card (hereinafter, referred to as a smart card).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A smart card has been developed with a built-in processor and memory in order to supplement the disadvantages of a magnetic card (less storage capacity and weak security). The range of use has exploded.

[0003] Many cable televisions provide pay-broadcasting services. However, in order to store personal reception right information in the receiver, the pay-per-view can be watched in an unauthorized manner or the receiver can be easily remodeled. It is almost unprotected for poor subscribers who watch broadcasts without paying.

[0004] By using a smart card for such a pay-broadcast service, a pay-broadcast program provider can stably collect service usage fees from subscribers. However, conventionally, the smart card can selectively support only one of the prepaid method and the viewing record storage method.

[0005] Therefore, either a smart card that supports a prepaid system or a smart card that accepts a viewing time storage system that is a postpaid system has been selected.
For this reason, the subscriber needs to apply for only one of the prepaid / postpaid services or to purchase two types of cards together to apply for both services.

Therefore, conventionally, when a large number of pay broadcasting service providers share one channel of the transmitter, it is difficult to distribute the viewing fee revenue of the subscriber. In addition, for fair distribution of the revenue, it is necessary to investigate which program the subscriber has selected. However, in order to store the viewing contents in the card, it is necessary to periodically transmit the viewing recording contents in the card to the central accounting processor due to memory restrictions (modem ), And high costs could not be avoided.

[0007] Also, if the two schemes cannot be solved with one card, the subscriber has to pay for two types of cards, and must alternately replace the card with the receiver according to the program. There was an inconvenience.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, which has been devised to solve the above-described problems, includes information which enables a subscriber management center to determine a subscriber's authentication and two types of services in a card. A group that transmits the qualification control message to the subscriber's smart card by a transmitter and inputs the individual qualification management message to the card to additionally support a prepaid system or a group that supports a viewing recording system After generating the group entitlement management message by selecting one or both of the above, issuing a smart card, authenticating the smart card as a valid subscriber by decrypting two kinds of messages, Or a pay content broadcasting system for supplying a pay program by determining whether the program is a viewing content recording group and a method thereof. In particular it is an object.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a pay broadcasting system according to the present invention is provided in a pay broadcasting system using a smart card, wherein an entitlement control message (Entitlement Control Message) is received from a number of external pay broadcasting suppliers.
Message), generating a qualification control message including information that allows the subscriber to be authenticated and the type of service to be determined in the smart card. Entitlement Management message for each subscriber to provide
Message) and a group entitlement management message,
A subscriber management center that issues the smart card;
Accepting programs from a number of external pay providers,
A broadcast transmitter that receives a qualification control message from the subscriber management center and outputs a broadcast signal; and, among broadcast signals received from the broadcast transmitter, classifies the qualification control message to determine whether the subscriber is a normal subscriber. A broadcast receiver that transmits data to the smart card to determine whether the program has been received, and receives a viewing right acquisition signal from the smart card, and decodes and outputs the program, and a qualification input from the subscriber management center. A smart card that decodes a management message and a qualification control message input from the broadcast receiver to process a fee, recognizes that the subscriber is a normal subscriber, and outputs a viewing right acquisition signal to the broadcast receiver; It is characterized by comprising.

The subscriber management center collects program information from a number of external broadcast program suppliers,
Various service groups are generated for each service desired by each program supplier, stored in a database, and a qualification control message for each program is generated and transmitted to the smart card through the broadcast transmitter / receiver. Service group management means for outputting information for use in generating a qualification management message for each service group, individual viewing using viewing authority information for each service group input from the service group management means and subscriber authority information in the database A credential management unit that generates and outputs a qualification management message and a service-specific qualification management message, and a smart card issuing unit that receives the qualification management message from the qualification management unit and issues the smart card. I do.

The smart card decodes a qualification management message received from the subscriber management center when the smart card is issued, and outputs a subscriber authority authentication signal. Qualification management message processing means for outputting a prepaid processing request signal in the case of the prepaid method and outputting a viewing contents recording processing request signal in the case of the viewing contents recording method; Receiving a prepaid processing request signal from the means, prepaid service processing means for reducing a predetermined amount from the stored balance in the smart card, and receiving a viewing content recording processing request signal from the qualification management message processing means. A viewing record processing means for storing the viewing time in the smart card, and a subscriber authority authentication from the qualification management message processing means. Upon receiving the item, characterized in that it comprises a entitlement control message processor means for providing a viewing authority decrypts the entitlement control message input from the broadcast receiver to the broadcast receiver.

[0012] The method of the pay broadcasting system according to the present invention is a pay broadcasting method applied to a pay broadcasting system using a smart card. If the selection is made at the subscriber management center, a first step of determining the type of the selected service and whether or not to pay the fee, and as a result of the first step, the subscriber selects the prepaid service and the viewing content recording service. After paying the fee for using the prepaid service, the subscriber management center generates a group qualification management message for the two services, and when the subscriber selects the prepaid service and pays the fee, the subscriber management center. The management center generates a prepaid service group qualification management message and, when the subscriber applies for the viewing content recording service, Management center and a second step of generating a viewing content recording service group entitlement management message,
A third step of generating a personalized entitlement management message for each subscriber and recording the generated entitlement management message on the smart card together with the generated service group entitlement management message, based on the price information provided by the pay program provider and the service group information; Generating a qualification control message and transmitting the qualification control message to the smart card, scrambling and transmitting the pay broadcast program, and receiving the broadcast signal. Classifying and transmitting to the smart card, the smart card decrypting the smart card with a key in a personalized qualification management message to determine whether the subscriber is valid;
A sixth step of determining the type of service included in the group-specific qualification management message if the subscriber is valid as a result of the determination in the fifth step and performing fee processing on the selected service type; The card provides a viewing right to a broadcast receiver, and the broadcast receiver decodes a pay broadcast program and outputs it to a subscriber.

In the sixth step, if the subscriber is valid, the type of service selected by the subscriber included in the group-specific qualification management message is determined; If the subscriber has selected all of the two service groups, the subscriber is asked to decide on the method he or she wants to receive, accept the result as an input, and determine whether it is a prepaid method or a viewing content recording method. Confirming, if the subscriber has selected one service group, immediately confirming whether the prepaid system or the viewing content recording system, and, as a result of the confirmation of the step, the smart card provides the prepaid service If you only have a group that includes
Confirming whether there is a prepaid balance remaining in the smart card, terminating if there is no remaining balance, decreasing the remaining balance if there is a balance, and confirming that the smart card has only the viewing record storage service. Determining whether there is an extra storage space in the card, and ending if not, and recording the viewing time if there is. I do.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a pay broadcasting system according to the present invention, in which 1 is a pay broadcast provider, 2 is a subscriber management center, 3 is a broadcast transmitter, 4 is a broadcast receiver, and 5 is a smart card. Each is shown. First, pay broadcast provider 1
Sends an entitlement control message (Entit
The price information of the program, which is information necessary for generating the lement control message), is notified, and the program is transmitted by the broadcast transmitter 3 to the pay broadcast receiver 4 of each subscriber.
At this time, a large number of pay broadcast providers 1 can share one channel of the broadcast transmitter 3.

[0015] The subscriber management center 2 generates a qualification control message as program price information and transmits it to the broadcast receiver 4 through the broadcast transmitter 3. Also, the subscriber management center 2 transmits a subscriber qualification management message (Entitlement Management Message) for giving each subscriber viewing authority.
e) is generated and the smart card 5 is issued. The broadcast receiver 4 transmits a qualification control message to the smart card 5 in the received broadcast signal to determine whether the subscriber is a valid subscriber.

Finally, the smart card 5 confirms that the subscriber is a valid subscriber, and sends a viewing right acquisition signal to the broadcast receiver 4.
Then, the broadcast receiver 4 can decode the program and view a normal original broadcast signal through the television.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the subscriber management center 2 and the smart card 5 according to the present invention, wherein 21 is a service group management unit, 22 is subscriber / service group / program information, and 23 is a qualification management unit. , 24 is a smart card issuing unit, 25 is a qualification control message processing unit, 2
6 denotes a qualification management message processing unit, 27 denotes a prepaid service processing unit, and 28 denotes a viewing record processing unit.

In order to support the prepaid service and the viewing content recording service desired by the subscriber with one smart card, the subscriber management center 2 on the transmitting side and the smart card 5 purchased by the subscriber are: Perform the following roles:

The subscriber management center 2 manages a service group and generates the qualification control message, a qualification management unit 23 that generates a qualification management message for each subscriber / group, a smart card, And a database 22 for storing data.

The service group management unit 21 collects program information from a large number of broadcast program suppliers, classifies them according to the service desired by each program supplier (prepaid or viewing content recording system), and various service groups. Is generated and stored in the database 22, while a qualification control message for each program is generated and transmitted to the qualification control message processing unit 25 of the smart card 5 through the broadcast transmitters / receivers 3 and 4. The separate viewing authority information is sent to the qualification management unit 23 for use in generating a service group-specific qualification management message.

Using this information and the subscriber authority information in the database 22, the qualification management unit 23 generates an individual and service-specific qualification management message and sends the smart card to the smart card that the subscriber purchases through the smart card issuing unit 24. 5 to the qualification management message processing unit 26. In order to receive two types of services, the smart card 5 has a qualification control message processing unit 25 and a qualification management message processing unit 2.
6, viewing record processing unit 28, prepaid service processing unit 2
7 is included.

The qualification management message processing unit 26 of the smart card 5 provides the subscriber control function to the qualification control message processing unit 25, determines whether to use the prepaid method or to record the contents of the viewing, and records the viewing. Processing unit 28, or
Requests processing to the prepaid service processing unit 27. If the payment is prepaid, the stored amount in the card is reduced by the corresponding price. Store.

When the authority authentication for the subscriber is completed, the qualification control message processing unit 25 decodes the qualification control message from the transmission side and gives the broadcast receiver 4 the viewing authority.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are flowcharts showing processing for a pay broadcasting system sharing the prepaid system and the viewing contents recording system according to the present invention. 5 is a flowchart of a service providing side (FIG. 3) and a service using side (FIG. 4) in the case of implementing a pay broadcasting service supported by.

First, the flowchart of the service providing process of FIG. 3 is as follows. In order to provide a service, a subscriber first selects a service he or she wants to receive at the subscriber management center 2 (step 101), and branches depending on the type of the selected service and whether or not the fee is paid.
If the subscriber has selected both the prepaid service and the viewing content recording service and has paid for the prepaid use (step 102), the subscriber management center 2 displays a group-based qualification management message according to the two services. Is generated (step 105).

If the subscriber selects the prepaid service and pays the cost (step 103), the subscriber management center 2 generates a prepaid service group qualification management message (step 106).

If the subscriber has applied for the viewing content recording service (step 104), the subscriber management center 2 generates a viewing content recording service group qualification management message (step 107).

Thereafter, a qualification management message for each subscriber is generated (step 108), and is recorded on the smart card 5 together with the already generated service group qualification management message (step 109). This message is used inside the smart card 5 to authenticate the authority of the subscriber.

Next, a qualification control message is generated based on the price information and each service group information provided by the pay broadcast program provider (step 110), and the qualification control message is transmitted through the broadcast transmitter / receivers 3 and 4 to the smart side of the receiver. The information is transmitted to the card 5 (step 111). Thereafter, the pay broadcast program is scrambled so as to be viewed only by the subscribers having viewing authority, and then transmitted (step 112).

Next, a flowchart of the service use process of FIG. 4 is as follows. If the broadcast receiver 4 of the subscriber using the service receives the broadcast signal from the broadcast transmitter 3 (step 113), the smart card 5 attached to the receiver is classified by classifying only the qualification control messages among them. (Step 114).

The smart card 5 decrypts this data with the key in the personalized qualification management message that has been input (step 115) and determines whether the subscriber is a valid subscriber. (Step 116) If not valid, the process proceeds to step 113 of the data receiving process. If the subscriber is valid, the service type selected by the subscriber included in the already entered group-specific qualification management message. (Step 117), if the subscriber has selected all the two types of service groups, the system that the subscriber intends to receive is determined (step 118). Branch to the service.

If the smart card 5 has only a group including the prepaid service (step 11)
9), it is confirmed whether or not there is a prepaid balance remaining in the card (step 121). If there is no remaining balance, the process is terminated. If there is a balance, the amount is reduced by a predetermined amount (step 123). Thereafter, the smart card 5 grants the viewing authority to the broadcast receiver 4 (step 125), and the broadcast receiver 4 interprets the authority to enable viewing of the pay broadcast through the television (step 126).

If the smart card 5 has only the viewing record storage service (step 120), it is determined whether or not a sufficient storage (memory) space exists in the card 5 (step 122). If it does not exist, the process ends. If it does, the viewing time is recorded (step 124). Thereafter, the smart card 5 gives the viewing authority to the broadcast receiver 4 (step 125), and the broadcast receiver 4 interprets the authority to enable viewing of the pay broadcast through the television (step 126).

The present invention described above can be variously replaced, modified and changed by those who have ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs without departing from the technical idea of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and the attached drawings.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, by sharing a channel among a large number of providers, it is possible to save the radio wave resources required for transmitting a broadcast signal, and to provide a pay broadcast service provider with a view for each subscriber. It helps to ensure fair distribution of viewing fees by maintaining records and secure a stable operating fund by accepting a prepaid system.By supporting two types of services with one smart card, subscribers can be smart. This has the effect of reducing the cost of purchasing the card and improving convenience in use.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a pay broadcasting system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a subscriber management center and a smart card according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a service providing side of a pay broadcasting system sharing a prepaid system and a viewing content recording system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the present invention on the service use side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 paid broadcast provider 2 subscriber management center 3 broadcast transmitter 4 broadcast receiver 5 smart card 21 service group management unit 22 subscriber / service group / program information 23 qualification management unit 24 smart card issuing unit 25 qualification control message processing unit 26 Qualification management message processing unit 27 Prepaid service processing unit 28 Viewing record processing unit

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Zoo Hyun Suk Hanbbi Apartment 131-1306, Yuein-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea

Claims (5)

[Claims] In a pay broadcasting system using a reception permitting card, a qualification control message (Ent) is received from a number of external pay broadcast suppliers.
It accepts the price information of the program necessary for generating an itlement Control Message, and generates a qualification control message including information that allows the authentication of the subscriber and the type of service to be determined in the reception permission card. Qualification management message for each subscriber (Entitle
ment management message) and a group qualification management message, and receives a program from a number of external pay broadcast providers, and a subscriber management center that issues the reception permission card.
A broadcast transmitter that receives a qualification control message from the subscriber management center and outputs a broadcast signal; and, among the broadcast signals received from the broadcast transmitter, classifies the qualification control message to determine whether the subscriber is a normal subscriber. If data is transmitted to the reception permission card in order to judge, and a viewing right acquisition signal is received from the reception permission card,
A broadcast receiver for decoding and outputting the program; a qualification management message input from the subscriber management center; and a qualification control message input from the broadcast receiver. A pay-per-view system comprising: a reception permitting card for recognizing that the user is a broadcaster and outputting a viewing right acquisition signal to the broadcast receiver. 2. The subscriber management center collects program information from a plurality of external broadcast program suppliers, generates various service groups for each service desired by each program supplier, stores the service groups in a database, and stores each program group in a database. Service group management means for generating a qualification control message, transmitting the qualification control message to the reception permission card through the broadcast transmitter / receiver, and outputting the service group viewing authority information for use in generating a service group qualification management message; Qualification management means for generating and outputting an individual qualification management message and a service-specific qualification management message using service group viewing authority information input from the group management means and subscriber authority information in the database; Accepts entitlement management messages from administrative means,
2. The pay-broadcasting system according to claim 1, further comprising: a reception permission card issuing unit that issues the reception permission card. 3. The reception permission card decodes a qualification management message received from the subscriber management center when the reception permission card is issued, outputs a subscriber authority authentication signal, and determines whether a prepaid payment method is used. A qualification management message processing means for judging whether or not the qualification is a recording method, outputting a prepaid processing request signal in the case of the prepaid method and outputting a viewing contents recording processing request signal in the case of the viewing contents recording method; A prepaid service processing means for receiving a prepaid processing request signal from the management message processing means and reducing a predetermined amount from the stored balance in the reception permit card; and a viewing content recording processing request signal from the qualification management message processing means. And a viewing record processing means for storing the viewing time in the reception permission card, and a subscriber authority recognition from the qualification management message processing means. 3. A qualification control message processing means for receiving a signal, decoding a qualification control message input from the broadcast receiver, and giving a viewing right to the broadcast receiver. Pay broadcasting system. 4. A pay-broadcasting method applied to a pay-broadcasting system using a reception permit card, wherein a service providing process on the transmitting side is performed by selecting a service to be received by a subscriber at a subscriber management center. A first step of determining the type of service provided and whether or not to pay the fee; and, as a result of the determination in the first step, the subscriber selects a prepaid service and a viewing content recording service, and pays for the use of the prepaid service. Then, the subscriber management center generates a group-based qualification management message for the two services, and when the subscriber selects the prepaid service and pays the cost, the subscriber management center generates the prepaid service group qualification. The subscriber management center generates a management message and, when the subscriber has applied for the viewing content recording service, the subscriber management center issues the viewing content recording service group. A second step of generating a loop entitlement management message; a third step of generating a subscriber individual entitlement management message and recording it on the reception permission card together with the already generated service group entitlement management message; A fourth step of generating a qualification control message based on the provided price information and the service group information, transmitting the generated qualification control message to the reception permission card, scrambling and transmitting a pay broadcast program, and Receives the broadcast signal, classifies the dual qualification control message, and transmits the classified qualification control message to the reception permission card. The reception permission card is decrypted with a key in the personalized qualification management message so that the subscriber can A fifth step of determining whether the subscriber is valid, and if the result of the fifth step is that the subscriber is valid, a qualification management message for each group is displayed. A sixth step of performing the type of service selected by determining the type of services included in the di Rates processing, the reception permission card provides a viewing permission to broadcast receivers,
A seventh step in which the broadcast receiver decodes the pay broadcast program and outputs it to the subscriber. 5. The method according to claim 6, wherein, if the subscriber is valid, a type of service selected by the subscriber included in the entitlement management message for each group is determined. If the subscriber has selected all of the two service groups, the subscriber is asked to decide on the method he or she wants to receive, accept the result as an input, and determine whether it is a prepaid method or a viewing content recording method. Confirming, and if the subscriber has selected one service group, immediately confirming whether the prepaid method or the viewing content recording method is used, and the result of the step confirms that the reception permitting card is a prepaid service. If there is only a group that includes, the step of confirming whether there is a prepaid balance remaining in the reception permit card, terminating if there is no remaining balance, and decreasing the remaining balance if there is any remaining balance; As a result of the confirmation in the above step, if the reception permit card has only the viewing record storage service, it is determined whether or not a sufficient storage space exists in the card. 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of recording the viewing time.