Content consumption and notification in a network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11228814-B2
Application number	US-201314058934-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2013
Priority date	Oct 21, 2013
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

A data analyzer engine can be configured to receive feedback indicating different content currently consumed by subscribers in a cable network environment. The data analyzer engine analyzes the feedback to identify most popular consumed content amongst the different content and produces a content guide to include multiple selectable channels from which content is available for retrieval over a shared communication link in the cable network environment. The content guide can include one or more selectable viewing options to view a rendition of content being identified as more or most popular. Each of one or more playback devices or other suitable resources retrieves and initiates display of the content guide on a display screen. Accordingly, a subscriber can view different available content options as well as an identification of content that is currently the most popular consumed content amongst viewers.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
via computer processor hardware, executing operations of:
receiving content ranking information indicating popularity rankings of different content currently consumed by subscribers in a network environment, the content ranking information indicating an identity of currently popular content amongst the different content;
selecting, based on a popularity ranking of the currently popular content as indicated by the content ranking information, the identity of the currently popular content for inclusion in a content guide;
producing the content guide to include identities of multiple selectable channels from which the different content is available over a shared communication link in the network environment, the content guide including a selectable supplemental channel viewing option in addition to the identities of the multiple selectable channels, the selectable supplemental channel viewing option indicating an identity of a particular selectable channel of the multiple selectable channels that currently transmits a rendition of the currently popular content as specified by the content ranking information; and
initiating display of the content guide on a display screen;
wherein the particular selectable channel is a first selectable channel of the multiple selectable channels, the method further comprising:
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to indicate that the first selectable channel supplies first most popular ranked content as indicated by ranking information during a first time slot; and
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to indicate that a second channel of the multiple selectable channels supplies second most popular ranked content as indicated by the ranking information during the first time slot.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the selectable supplemental channel viewing option represents an independent channel with respect to the multiple selectable channels in the content guide, the independent channel allocated to transmit a copy of the currently popular content, the currently popular content being most popularly consumed content amongst the multiple selectable channels, the method further comprising:
in response to detecting the most popularly consumed content, transmitting the copy of the most popularly consumed content over the independent channel.

3. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
in response to receiving selection of the selectable supplemental channel viewing option from the content guide, tuning to the particular selectable channel to playback the rendition of the currently popular content on the display screen.

4. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
receiving selection of a genre amongst multiple genres; and
in response to receiving selection of the selectable supplemental channel viewing option from the content guide, displaying identities of most popularly ranked content for the selected genre.

5. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the display screen is disparately located with respect to a primary display screen controlled by a respective subscriber to view content selected for viewing from the content guide; and
wherein the primary display screen is part of a remote controller device used to select content for viewing and playback of content on the primary display screen.

6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the different content includes different streams of broadcasted content consumed by the subscribers, the method further comprising:
receiving feedback indicating the different streams of broadcasted content currently consumed by the subscribers in the network environment; and
analyzing the feedback in substantially real-time to produce the content ranking information, the content ranking information indicating popularity rankings of the different streams of broadcasted content.

7. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
displaying the selectable supplemental channel viewing option in the content guide as an independently selectable channel with respect to the multiple selectable channels.

8. The method as in claim 7 further comprising:
initiating display of the content guide to include time slot information indicating a respective time slot in which the different content is broadcasted over the shared communication link.

9. The method as in claim 8 , wherein the content ranking information is derived from content viewing selections by a group of the multiple subscribers viewing the different content in the respective time slot.

10. The method as in claim 1 , wherein initiating display of the content guide includes:
statically displaying the selectable supplemental channel viewing option in the content guide at a fixed location on the display screen as a less-than-all portion of the multiple selectable channels displayed on the display screen changes.

11. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
initiating display of the identity of the particular selectable channel of the multiple selectable channels, the content ranking information indicating that the particular selectable channel supplies most popular viewed content to the subscribers; and
initiating simultaneous display of the identity of the particular selectable channel and the selectable supplemental channel viewing option in the content guide, the selectable supplemental channel viewing option indicating a respective title of the most popular viewed content currently available for viewing over the particular selectable channel.

12. The method as in claim 11 further comprising:
producing the particular selectable channel to indicate availability of the respective title of the most popular viewed content over the particular selectable channel.

13. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
producing the displayed content guide to include numerical channel identity information, the numerical channel identity information indicating a respective channel number assigned to each of the multiple selectable channels.

14. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
producing the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to indicate an identity of the particular selectable channel and a respective title of the currently popular content currently supplied over the particular selectable channel.

15. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to indicate that the selectable supplemental channel viewing option supplies currently most popular ranked content as indicated by the ranking information during a first time slot.

16. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a class to which a given subscriber is assigned;
utilizing the content ranking information to identify currently most popular content falling in the class assigned to the subscriber; and
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option in the content guide to indicate the currently most popular content falling in the class assigned to the given subscriber.

17. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to include identities of multiple selectable channels identified by the content ranking information as broadcasting most popular content in multiple different genres.

18. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
populating the selectable supplemental channel viewing option to include a ranking of identities of a list of selectable channels identified by the content ranking informat

Assignees

• Time Warner Cable Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Stern Peter
• Wolf Ethan
• Vanderborgh Craig

Classifications

• H04N21/44222

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04N21/231

  Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion · CPC title

• H04N21/252

  Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data · CPC title

• H04N21/2385

  Channel allocation (H04N21/266 takes precedence); Bandwidth allocation (H04N21/24 takes precedence {; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16}) · CPC title

• H04N21/25875

  involving end-user authentication (restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title