Systems and methods for determining subscription data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9351033-B2
Application number	US-201414268461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 2, 2014
Priority date	Apr 20, 2007
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

A media guidance application is provided by which users can view program listings associated with programming that the user may access using other user equipment devices. The media guidance application, implemented on, for example, a remote system, may determine through communications with television equipment whether or not the television equipment is authorized to provide a particular package of television programming to be viewed by the user. For example, an online program guide application may determine whether or not television equipment allows a user to view particular channels and, based on that determination, proceed to determine what packages of programming the user subscribes to. A customized program guide may then be displayed based on what programming the user subscribes to on various systems.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of using a remote media guidance application, the method comprising:
transmitting a user request for subscription data from a first user equipment device to a second user equipment device, wherein the subscription data identifies packages of television programming available to a user from a remote server, wherein the second user equipment device generates the subscription data in response to the user request;
receiving the subscription data at the first user equipment device;
determining, at the first user equipment device, whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide a package of television programming to the user based on the subscription data; and
in response to determining the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user, generating for display media content from the package of television programming on the first user equipment device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user request further comprises:
instructing the second user equipment device to attempt to access the media content from the package of television programming to determine whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user request further comprises:
instructing the second user equipment device to prompt the user to view the media content from the package of television programming; and
instructing the second user equipment device to receive a user indication as to whether the media content from the package of television programming is viewable by the user.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user, generating for display an advertisement for content associated with the package of television programming.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the second user equipment device is not authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user, not generating for display the media content from the package of television programming on the first user equipment device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to determining that the second user equipment device is not authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user, generating for display an advertisement for content associated with the package of television programming.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user is based on data transmitted by the remote server.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subscription data is received from the remote server.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subscription data is received from the second user equipment device.

10. A system, comprising:
a first user equipment device comprising circuitry configured to:
transmit a user request for subscription data to a second user equipment device, wherein the subscription data identifies packages of television programming available to a user from a remote server, wherein the second user equipment device generates the subscription data in response to the user request;

receive the subscription data;
determine whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide a package of television programming to the user based on the subscription data; and
generate for display media content from the package of television programming in response to determining the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user request further comprises:
instructing the second user equipment device to attempt to access the media content from the package of television programming to determine whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user request further comprises:
instructing the second user equipment device to prompt the user to view the media content from the package of television programming; and
instructing the second user equipment device to receive a user indication as to whether the media content from the package of television programming is viewable by the user.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first user equipment device is further configured to generate for display an advertisement for content associated with the package of television programming in response to determining that the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the first user equipment device is further configured to not generate for display the media content from the package of television programming on the first user equipment device in response to determining that the second user equipment device is not authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the first user equipment device is further configured to generate for display an advertisement for content associated with the package of television programming in response to determining that the second user equipment device is not authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the first user equipment device is further configured to determine whether the second user equipment device is authorized to provide the package of television programming to the user is based on data transmitted by the remote server.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the subscription data is received from the remote server.

18. The system of claim 10 wherein the subscription data is received from the second user equipment device.

Assignees

• Rovi Guides Inc

Inventors

• Olague Craig Alan
• Archer Kuan Hidalgo
• Strader Christopher

Classifications

• H04N21/4126

  The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones · CPC title

• H04N21/4332 Primary

  by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository (interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739) · CPC title

• H04N5/44591

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/44543

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N21/4622

  Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet (web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859) · CPC title