Reception apparatus, reception method, transmission apparatus, and transmission method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10433016-B2
Application number	US-201615544540-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2016
Priority date	Feb 17, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

The present technology relates to a reception apparatus, a reception method, a transmission apparatus, and a transmission method that make it possible to do a promotion for a non-subscriber to a pay broadcast service more flexibly. The reception apparatus receives broadcast content that is provided as a pay broadcast service and transmitted in a scrambled manner, acquires a subscription check application for checking presence of a subscription to the pay broadcast service depending on information indicating presence of the subscription check application, the information being included in control information including information regarding a structure of the broadcast content, and controls an operation of the subscription check application. The present technology is applicable, for example, to a television receiver capable of receiving a digital broadcast signal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A reception apparatus comprising:
circuitry configured to
receive broadcast content provided as a pay broadcast service, the broadcast content being transmitted in a scrambled manner;
acquire a subscription check application for checking presence of a subscription to the pay broadcast service depending on information indicating presence of the subscription check application, the information being included in control information including information regarding a structure of the broadcast content;
control an operation of the subscription check application;
acquire a promotion application in response to a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is not present; and
acquire a conjunction application in response to a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is present;

wherein the subscription check application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, the promotion application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, and the conjunction application is transmitted in a scrambled manner.

2. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the circuitry is further configured to cause a transition from the subscription check application to one of the promotion application and the conjunction application to control an operation of one of the promotion application and the conjunction application.

3. The reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to
executes execute the conjunction application in conjunction with the broadcast content when a non-subscribing user subscribes to the pay broadcast service via the promotion application.

4. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the subscription check application, the promotion application, and the conjunction application are transmitted as data, and
the control information includes application control information for controlling the subscription check application and data transmission information including information regarding data transmission.

5. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
a single service is provided as the pay broadcast service, and
the broadcast content, the control information, the application control information, the data transmission information, the subscription check application, the promotion application, and the conjunction application are transmitted as streams of the pay broadcast service.

6. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
a plurality of services are provided as the pay broadcast service,
the broadcast content, the control information, and the conjunction application are transmitted as streams of the pay broadcast service, and
the application control information, the data transmission information, the subscription check application, and the promotion application are transmitted as streams common to other pay broadcast services.

7. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in the subscription check application, a function of checking the presence of the subscription to the pay broadcast service is provided by an application programming interface (API).

8. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
an MPEG media transport (MMT) scheme is employed as a media transport scheme, and
the information indicating the presence of the subscription check application is an application initiative flag described in an access control descriptor placed in an MMT package table (MPT).

9. A reception method of a reception apparatus, the reception method comprising:
receiving broadcast content provided as a pay broadcast service, the broadcast content being transmitted in a scrambled manner;
acquiring a subscription check application for checking presence of a subscription to the pay broadcast service depending on information indicating presence of the subscription check application, the information being included in control information including information regarding a structure of the broadcast content;
controlling an operation of the subscription check application;
acquiring a promotion application in response to a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is not present; and
acquiring a conjunction application in response to a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is present;
wherein the subscription check application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, the promotion application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, and the conjunction application is transmitted in a scrambled manner.

10. A transmission apparatus comprising circuitry configured to:
generate control information including information regarding a structure of broadcast content to be provided as a pay broadcast service, the control information including information indicating presence of a subscription check application for checking presence of a subscription to the pay broadcast service; and
transmission circuitry configured to
transmit the control information in a non-scrambled manner and the broadcast content in a scrambled manner,
transmit the subscription check application,
transmit a promotion application to be acquired by a reception apparatus based on a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is not present, and
transmit a conjunction application to be acquired by the reception apparatus based on a determination that the subscription to the pay broadcast service is present;

wherein the subscription check application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, the promotion application is transmitted in a non-scrambled manner, and the conjunction application is transmitted in a scrambled manner.

11. The transmission apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the promotion application introduces the broadcast content, and the conjunction application is executed in conjunction with the descrambled broadcast content.

12. The transmission apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
the subscription check application, the promotion application, and the conjunction application are transmitted as data, and
the control information includes application control information for controlling the subscription check application and data transmission information including information regarding data transmission.

13. The transmission apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein
a single service is provided as the pay broadcast service, and
the broadcast content, the control information, the application control information, the data transmission information, the subscription check application, the promotion application, and the conjunction application are transmitted as streams of the pay broadcast service.

14. The transmission apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein
a plurality of services are provided as the pay broadcast service,
the broadcast content, the control information, and the conjunction application are transmitted as streams of the pay broadcast service, and
the application control information, the data transmission information, the subscription check application, and the promotion application are transmitted as streams common to other pay broadcast services.

15. The transmission apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
an MMT scheme is employed as a media transport scheme, and
the information indicating the presence of the subscription check application is an application initiative flag described in an access control descriptor placed in an MPT.

16. A transmission method of a transmission apparatus, the transmission method comprising:
genera

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Kitazato Naohisa

Classifications

• H04N21/8193

  dedicated tools, e.g. video decoder software or IPMP tool · CPC title

• H04H60/23

  using cryptography, e.g. encryption, authentication, key distribution · CPC title

• H04H60/15

  on receiving information · CPC title

• H04N21/4345

  Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream · CPC title

• H04N21/8545

  for generating interactive applications · CPC title