System and method for managing program assets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9681164-B2
Application number	US-201514886653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 19, 2015
Priority date	Jan 13, 2004
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A method of operating a communications system storing assets for later transmission, is disclosed. The assets have respective expiration dates beyond which a right to transmit expires. The method comprises checking an expiration date of an asset and deleting the asset from storage based, at least in part, on the expiration date, a predetermined period of time added to or subtracted from the expiration date and/or whether the asset has been selected for later viewing. The predetermined period of time may provide a grace period for completing viewing of a selected asset by a user, either after or before the expiration date, depending on the rights to the asset granted by the source of the asset. The period of time may depend on a playtime of the asset and may be added to the expiration date only if the asset has been selected for viewing. Systems are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a distributor of program content storing program content for later transmission to terminals at user locations, wherein respective program content has respective expiration dates beyond which a right granted by a source of the respective program content to transmit the respective program content by the distributor expires, the method comprising:
receiving selections from terminals for respective stored program content for later viewing;
checking by the distributor an expiration date of respective stored program content, the expiration date being provided by the source of the respective program content;
checking by the distributor whether the respective program content has a pending selection for later viewing; and
deleting the respective program content, by the distributor, based, at least in part, on the expiration date and whether there is the pending selection for the respective program content for later viewing.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising deleting the respective program content if: the expiration date is later than or equal to the current date; and the respective program content does not have a pending selection.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising deleting the respective program content if: the respective program content has not been selected for later viewing by a predetermined date.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether the source has authorized transmission of the respective program content after the expiration date, if transmission starts prior to the expiration date; and if the source has authorized said transmission adding a predetermined period of time to the expiration date to determine the deletion date.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising, if the source has not authorized said transmission, subtracting a second predetermined period of time from the expiration date to determine the deletion date.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first predetermined period of time and the second predetermined period of time are the same.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first and second predetermined periods of time are based, at least in part, on a length of the respective program content.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether the source has authorized transmission of the respective program content after the expiration date, if transmission starts prior to the expiration date; and if not, subtracting a predetermined period of time from the expiration date to determine the deletion date.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving the expiration date for respective program content from a source of the respective program content.

10. The method claim 1 , wherein the distributor is a headend of a cable television network, the source of the respective program content is a broadcast source, and the respective program content comprises broadcast content, the method further comprising: receiving broadcast content from the broadcast source by the headend; and delivering the broadcast content to terminals at user locations, through the cable television network, at respective air dates in accordance with a broadcast schedule, by the headend.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distributor comprises a processor, the method comprising: checking the expiration date, checking whether the respective program has a pending selection, and deleting, by the processing device.

12. A system to distribute program content for later transmission to terminals at user locations, wherein respective program content has respective expiration dates beyond which a right granted by a source of the respective program content to transmit the respective program content expires, the system comprising: memory to store assets; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being programmed to: receive selections from terminals for respective stored assets for later viewing; check an expiration date of an asset, the expiration date being provided by the source of the respective program content; check whether the asset has a pending selection for later viewing; and delete the asset, including the program content, based, at least in part, on the expiration date and whether the asset has a pending selection.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is programmed to delay deletion of respective program content with a pending selection.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is programmed to delete the respective program content if: the respective program content has not been selected by a predetermined date.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further programmed to: delete the respective program content based, at least in part, on a deletion date, the deletion date being a function of the expiration date and a predetermined period of time.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the program content is provided to the system by a source of program content separate from the system, the processor being further programmed to: determine whether the source has authorized transmission of the respective program content after the expiration date, if transmission starts prior to the expiration date; and if the source has authorized said transmission add a predetermined period of time to the expiration date to determine the deletion date.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further programed to: subtract a second predetermined period of time from the expiration date to determine the deletion date if the source has not authorized said transmission.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first and second predetermined periods of time are the same.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the first and second predetermined periods of time are based, at least in part, on a length of the respective program content.

20. The system of claim 12 , wherein the program content is provided to the system by a source of program content separate from the system, the processor being further programmed to: subtract a predetermined period of time from the expiration date to determine the deletion date if the source has not authorized said transmission.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein the distributor is a headend of a cable television network, the source of the respective program content is a broadcast source, and respective program content comprises broadcast content, the distributor further comprising: an interface to receive broadcast content from the broadcast source; and a mechanism to deliver the broadcast content to terminals at user locations, through the cable television network, at respective air dates in accordance with a broadcast schedule; wherein the processor is further programmed to: record the broadcast content and store portions of the recorded broadcast content for delivery to respective users on demand.

22. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to receive the expiration date for a respective program content from a source of respective program content.

23. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to transmit a respective stored asset to a user location in response to a selection, if the respective asset has not been deleted.

24. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: transmitting respective program content to a user location in response to a respective selection, if the respective program content has not been deleted.

Assignees

• Time Warner Cable Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Chen Zhongming
• Thomas Jay

Classifications

• H04N21/8355

  involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed · CPC title

• H04N21/2187

  Live feed · CPC title

• H04N7/17318

  Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests · CPC title

• H04N21/4147

  PVR [Personal Video Recorder] (H04N5/76 takes precedence {; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40}) · CPC title

• H04N21/4335

  Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions {(storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90)} · CPC title