Verizon and Redbox Digital Entertainment Services, LLC

Rovi Technologies Corporation

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Adeia Technologies Inc.

Imran Arif Maskatia

Brian Frederick Roberts

Paul Bradley Bowers

Matt Henry Van Der Staay

Nicholas James Hottinger

Michael J Chase, Jr

Thomas Lee Rich

Benjamin James Kauffman

Chad Michael Williams

Paul R Cooper

Yvonne N Ellefson

Arleen Camaganacan Fernando

Matthew Patterson

Anthony Marco Lemus

Christina S Siegfried

Ann Gordon Prather

Brandon N Wright

Matthew Ryan Patterson

Mitch Weinraub

Jeffrey L Harris

Television tuner emulation techniques are described. In an implementation, a television tuner is emulated through execution of software on a processing system by a computing device, the emulated television tuner includes functionality to obtain television content over an Internet Protocol (IP) based network. The functionality of the emulated television tuner is exposed to one or more applications that are executed by the computing device such that the application is not aware that the television tuner is emulated through execution of the software.

Emulated television tuner

A method of communicating a media asset includes: receiving a media asset selection from a viewer, determining if the selected media asset is available in a memory of a user device or is currently being broadcast to the user device associated with the viewer, if the selected media asset is available in the memory: retrieving the selected media asset, else: retrieving the selected media asset from a network location and communicating an identity of the requested media asset to a controller.

Transparent media asset substitution using broadcast delivery systems

A method of communicating an alert includes: encoding data received from a plurality of sources by a central content controller (CCC) and determining existence of one or more alerts. If no alerts exist, the encoded data is assigned as streams to subchannels. For existing alerts, a market area (MA) is determined and the alert is assigned as a stream to a data subchannel and the encoded data is assigned as streams to remaining subchannels. For each MA without an applicable alert, the encoded data is assigned as streams to the subchannels. The assigned data is transmitted to regional controllers (RCs) for broadcasting to the associated MAs.

System and method for delivering alerts

A method of communicating an emergency alert includes receiving, by a central content controller (CCC), audiovisual (AV) content from a plurality of sources, encoding the content, transmitting the encoded content to regional controllers (RCs) associated with respective market areas (MAs) for broadcasting over the air (OTA), determining existence of one or more alerts, for each existing alert, identifying recipients designated for receiving the alert and transmitting the alert to devices associated with the identified recipients over a network.

System and method for delivering emergency alerts

A method of communicating an emergency alert includes receiving, by a central content controller (CCC), audiovisual (AV) content from a plurality of sources, determining existence of one or more emergency alerts, encoding the content to form a first stream type and transmitting the first stream type to regional controllers (RCs) associated with a respective market area (MA) if no alerts exist, determining, if an alert exist, a market area for the alert, encode the content and the alert to form a second stream type, transmit the second stream type to a RC associated with a MA for which the alert is applicable and encode the content to form the first stream and transmit the first stream type to RCs associated with a MA without an alert, and broadcast, as AV signals, the received stream types by the RC.

An exemplary method includes a user interface system providing a graphical user interface view that includes a high-level menu including first and second of high-level menu options respectively associated with first and second sub-menus, assigning the first high-level menu option an active status, activating the first sub-menu such that the first sub-menu is navigable with a directional pad ('D-pad') of a remote control device while the first high-level menu option has the active status, receiving user input provided by way of a toggle button of the remote control device designated to toggle between the first and second high-level menu options, toggling the active status from the first high-level menu option to the second high-level menu option, and activating the second sub-menu such that the second sub-menu is navigable with the D-pad of the remote control device while the second high-level menu option has the active status.

Systems and methods for remote control device based interaction with a graphical user interface

An exemplary method includes a computer-implemented media service system 1) establishing a set of one or more conditions for a media-on-demand-based programming channel, 2) selecting, from a repository of on-demand media content and based on the set of one or more conditions, a set of on-demand media programs for inclusion in the media-on-demand-based programming channel, and 3) mapping the selected set of on-demand media programs to the media-on-demand-based programming channel to represent a scheduled, linear playback of the set of on-demand media programs on the media-on-demand-based programming channel in accordance with a linear playback schedule.

Systems and methods of providing a media-on-demand-based programming channel

Emulated television tuner via execution of software by a computing device

A system detects a first activity performed by a first user with respect to a media service while the first user is logged in to the media service with a particular user account and a second activity performed by a second user with respect to the media service while the second user is logged in to the media service with the particular user account, determines that the first activity is performed within a first device context and that the second activity is performed within a second device context, includes, based on the determination, the first activity in a local activity set associated with the first device context, the local activity set including one or more activities performed with respect to the media service exclusively in the first device context, and uses the local activity set to provide a personalized interaction experience with the media service within the first device context.

Device context-based methods and systems for providing a personalized interaction experience with a media service

An exemplary method includes a media service provider system tracking statuses of media programs with respect to a user of a media service through which the media programs are distributed by way of a plurality of different media distribution models and providing a user interface view personalized for the user for display on a display screen, the user interface view including personalized user interface content that indicates one or more of the statuses of one or more of the media programs with respect to the user. In certain examples, the statuses indicated in the user interface view may include at least a first status of a first media program distributed by way of a first media distribution model and a second status of a second media program included in the media programs and distributed by way of a second media distribution model. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Imran Arif Maskatia