The Directv Group, Inc.

At&t Intellectual Property I, L.p.

At&t Mobility Ii LLC

Directv, LLC

Ranny Q Sue

Kapil Chaudhry

Xavier Riley

Luan Le-Chau

Raynold M Kahn

Pankaj Sharma

Cuong T Ly

Joel M Pamplona

Deanna R Kidd

Jeffrey L Sharkey

Mitch C Jacobs

Constance Goshgarian

Rajendra Dadlani

Michael McBride

Maria Dillard

Umesh Balani

Hanno Basse

Richard B Tatem

Tam T Leminh

Sui-Ky Ringo Ling

Michael E Depies

Vishal Arya

Mitchell B Wasden

Luke J Crook

Earl James Bonovich

Michael R Munsell

Mark T Takamoto

Yeung K Chan

Michael A Makhijani

Aspandyar M Jijina

Jonathan L Tronson

Suja John

Drew T Chen

Atanu Basak

Sivasubramanian Venkataramani

Arlene Cava

Sarah Lyons

Melissa H Tullues

Saranathan Govindarajan

Jason Christopher Tadros

Shridhar Rangarajan

Hermilo C Crisostomo

Paul H Yang

Rasesh Patel

John L Pang

Paul O Viazcan

Haydee C Silva

Jeffrey Wilson

Guillermo Antonio Arguelles-Campoy

Jordan E Bigel

John D Ngo

Xavier D Riley

A method of provisioning entitlement including: receiving within a headend and at a policy management module first conditions and rules for content from a service provider or a third party device; and generating, for a point of presence (POP) device of a customer, a policy for entitlement and usage of content (merged policy). The generating of the merged policy includes: merging conditions and rules of policies including the first conditions and rules to generate the merged policy based on a predetermined hierarchy of the policies. Rules and conditions of the merged policy are multi-dimensional to include customer, POP device, and provider dimensions; and generating a configuration file including conditions or condition based parameters. The method further includes: presenting an offer for the content to the customer via the POP device; receiving an acceptance of the offer from the POP device; and enforcing the merged policy according to the configuration file.

Systems and methods for provisioning multi-dimensional rule based entitlement offers

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method that includes determining, by a processing system, whether a transmission from a client device includes a request to participate in a sponsored data session. If a sponsored data session is requested, the request is sent to equipment of a sponsoring entity. The processing system receives a list of data items available from the equipment of the sponsoring entity in the sponsored data session; initiates the sponsored data session; and generates a session identifier for transmission to the client device. The processing system also determines whether a subsequent request received from the client device corresponds to a listed data item, and causes a sponsored data rate to be applied to a client account for transfer of the data item. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Method and system for sponsoring data on a network

In one example, the present disclosure describes a device, computer-readable medium, and method for discovering and tracking uniform resource locators (URLs) for the purposes of managing sponsored data. For instance, in one example, a method includes monitoring a request for a stream of data delivered to a user endpoint device via a content distribution network, wherein the stream of data is accessed via a digital content distribution application running on the user endpoint device, discovering a uniform resource locator associated with the stream of data, and updating a list of sponsored uniform resource locators in accordance with the discovering, wherein the sponsored uniform resource locators comprise uniform resource locators that are permitted to be accessed by the digital content distribution application without impacting a data allowance allocated to the user endpoint device.

Uniform resource locator discovery and tracking for managing sponsored data

A system and method for operating with profiles includes a head end associating a first account profile having first profile settings and a first identifier and a second account profile having second profile settings and a second identifier with a user account. A first user receiving device operates with the first profile settings. The head end communicates second profile settings to the first user receiving device and the first user receiving device operates with the second profile settings.

Method and system for operating user receiving devices with user profiles

A systemincludes a first content delivery network() for a first type of user device, a second content delivery network() for a second type of user device and a content repositorycommunicating with the first content delivery network() and the second content delivery network(). The first content is in a first format associated with the first content delivery network() and a second content associated with the second content delivery network(). A content management systemgenerates a first content list for the first content delivery networkand generates a second content list for the second content delivery network(). A content distribution systemcommunicates with the content management system and the first content delivery network and the second content delivery network. The content distribution systemtransfers content to the first and second content delivery network from the content repository. The first content delivery network() publishes the content according to a publication start time. The first content delivery network() communicates the first content list to a first user device. The second content delivery network() communicates the second content list to a second user device.

Method and system for distributing content using device-specific content delivery networks

A system for viewing on-demand content includes a user receiving device and a local head end in communication with the receiving device that communicates metadata and material identifiers for on-demand content. Each on-demand content is associated with one of the material identifiers. The user receiving device stores the metadata and the material identifiers for the on-demand content. The local head end receives content. Each content is associated with one of the material identifiers. The user receiving device communicates a request for on-demand content data signal to the local head end. The local head end communicates a manifest comprising material identifiers for content stored at the head end. The user receiving device, after receiving the manifest, displays metadata from the memory of the user receiving device corresponding to the material identifiers.

Method and system for prepositioning content and distributing content in a local distribution system

A system includes a content processing system receiving row ad metadata for a row ad, communicating the row ad to a user device and communicating program guide information to a user device. The program guide information defines a plurality of rows. The user device populates a row from the plurality of rows in response to the metadata and displays the row ad and the program guide on a display associated with the user device.

Method and system for generating row advertising in a program guide

A systemincludes a content management systemhaving a material identification and business rules for content including targets and a work flow systemin communication with the content management system and receiving the material identification and targets. The work flow systemobtains content having an associated business rule identification and associates the content with the material identification. The content management systemassociates the content with the business rules and generates a content list in response to the business rules. The content management systemreceives a selection from the content list. The content delivery networkcommunicates content to a user device in response to the selection.

Method and system for associating business rules with received content in a content processing system and generating a content list therefrom

A communication systemincludes a content repositorystoring a plurality of content files associated with the content distribution system. A transport processing systemcommunicating with the content distribution system, a terrestrial communication network, and a content delivery networkcommunicating with the content distribution systemand the terrestrial network. The content management system assigns a satellite category or a broadband category to each of the plurality of content files in response to a popularity rating. The content distribution systemcommunicates the content to the transport processing system. The transport processing systemcommunicates the content through a satellite from the transport processing system to a user device. The content distribution system, in response to the broadband category, communicates the content to the content delivery network. The content delivery networkcommunicates the content through a terrestrial communication network to the user device.

Method and system for distributing content to a user device through allocated assets of a satellite network and a broadband network

A communication systemincludes a content processing systemand a distribution system. The content processing systemreceives content and stores the content in a first file format in the content repository. A workflow systemdetermines a target for the content and routes the content to a content convertercorresponding to the target. The content converterconverts the content and forms a second file in a second format different than the first format. The content repositorystores the second file therein.

Method and system for converting content into multiple formats

A system includes a content management system having a first set of business rules for a first content including a first target and a second set of business rules for a second content including a second target. The system also includes a workflow system that receives the first and second targets. The work flow system obtains first content with a first business rule identification and second content with a second business rule identification. The content management system associates the first content with the first set of business rules and associates the second content with the second set of business rules. A processing system processes the first content to form first processed content in response to the first business rules and processes the second content to form second processed content in response to the second business rules. A content repository stores the first and second processed content.

Method and system for utilizing multiple content delivery networks for distributing content

A communication systemis used to manage content includes a user device with a storage deviceand a content processing systemin communication with the storage device and communicating content to the storage device, generating a conditional access packet, communicating the conditional access packet to a storage device. The user devicereceives the content and the conditional access packet and controls the storage device to manage the content in response to the conditional access packet.

Method and system for remotely controlling content at a set top box

A system and method for distributing requested content includes a content management systemand a devicesuch as a set top box that selects a selection corresponding to content in the content management systemand transmits a first material identification to the content management system. The content management systemtransmits the content to the device with a second material identification associated therewith. The devicereceives the content and the second material identification and compares the first material identification to the second material identification. When the second material identification corresponds to the content, the device continues downloading the content. When the second material identification does not correspond to the content, downloading of the file is discontinued. A content prefix may also be used alone or in combination with the material identification. The content is prevented from being transmitted if the content prefix does not correspond to the content type.

Method and apparatus of verifying that requested content matches content to be downloaded

Growing community of inventors

Laguna Niguel, CA, United States of America

Ranny Q Sue