JPH10276161A - Digital broadcast system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the digital broadcast system in which each viewer easily selects a program preferred by each viewer and views it. SOLUTION: The system is made up of a digital broadcast receiver 7 installed to each home 1 and a digital broadcast transmitter that is installed in a broadcast station 2, and the digital broadcast receiver 7 generates view data by which programs viewed actually by viewers are specified and transmits the generated view data to the broadcast station 2 at a proper time. The digital broadcast transmitter of the broadcast station 2 receives the view data as to the view programs sent from each home 1 and recognizes the preference of each viewer as to the programs based on the received view data and generates a mail as to the programs to be preferred for each viewer depending on the recognized preference and sends the mail to each home 1 at a proper time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a satellite broadcast wave using a communication satellite or a broadcast satellite, a cable broadcast wave such as a CATV,
Or, by terrestrial wave, a transmitting device for transmitting digital broadcasting including a plurality of programs from a broadcasting station to each home, a receiving device installed in each home to receive digital broadcasting,
And a digital broadcasting system including both devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital satellite broadcasting systems using communication satellites have been attracting attention as new television broadcasting systems (for example, Nikkei Electronics 1996.9.2).
(See No.669, pp.149-164). In the digital satellite broadcasting system, many programs are broadcasted by far more channels than in the conventional broadcasting system, and each viewer has
The user can select a desired channel from among them and watch a program broadcast on that channel.

[0003]

However, in the digital satellite broadcasting system, since the number of programs that can be viewed is extremely large, it is rather difficult to select a program. For example, a program included in a specific favorite genre is viewed. Whatever you want to do, on what channel, on what channel,
It was not possible to easily know what kind of content is being broadcast, and there was a risk that a desired program was missed.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcasting system in which each viewer can easily select and view a program that suits his or her preference, and a configuration of a digital broadcast transmitting device and a receiving device that constitute the system. Is to clarify.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: means for creating viewing data capable of specifying a program actually viewed by a viewer; Means for transmitting to the broadcast station side.

When creating viewing data, the viewing start time, viewing end time, viewing channel, and the like of an actually viewed program are constantly monitored, and these data are stored as viewing data in a memory. Thereafter, the viewing data is read out from the memory at an appropriate time and transmitted to the broadcasting station via a telephone line together with, for example, billing information. Here, the viewing data is
It is also possible to create a program for a plurality of viewers who view the program using the receiving device. In this case, the viewing data includes identification data unique to the receiving device and identifies each viewer. Identification data is included. Therefore, the broadcast station can recognize the preference of each viewer for the program based on the viewing data sent from each viewer. Then, based on the recognition result, program information corresponding to each viewer's preference can be created and provided to each viewer. It is also possible to organize programs to be broadcast according to the preferences of a plurality of viewers.

[0006] A digital broadcast transmitting apparatus according to the present invention includes means for receiving viewing data of a viewing program sent from each viewer, and a program for each viewer based on the received viewing data. Means for recognizing preferences;
In accordance with the recognized preference, there is provided a means for creating, for each viewer, an e-mail including information on a program that matches the preference, and a means for transmitting the created e-mail to each viewer in a timely manner.

Here, the viewing data sent from each viewer includes a viewing start time, a viewing end time,
And viewing channels. Therefore, the preference recognition means determines the genre of the program watched by the viewer within a certain period, and detects the genre that has been viewed the most times.
Then, the mail creating means extracts a program included in the detected genre from programs scheduled to be broadcast in the future, and includes information about the program, such as a scheduled broadcast date and time, a broadcast channel, and a program name. Create an email. This e-mail is created for each viewer. Therefore, the viewer who has received the mail addressed to him / her can know the scheduled broadcast date / time, broadcast channel, program name, etc. of the program included in his / her favorite genre.

[0008] Further, a digital broadcasting system according to the present invention comprises a combination of the above digital broadcasting receiving device and digital broadcasting transmitting device. Here, specifically, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is provided with mail display means for displaying the contents of the mail sent from the broadcast station on the monitor screen of the TV receiver in a timely manner. Therefore,
The viewer can read the received mail displayed on the screen at the same time as turning on the power of the TV receiver, for example.

[0009]

According to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus, digital broadcast transmitting apparatus and digital broadcasting system according to the present invention, each viewer can easily select and watch a program that suits his / her taste.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention applied to a digital satellite broadcasting system will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the system and the device configuration on the broadcast station side. Each home (1) is provided with a digital satellite broadcast receiving antenna (6), and the received digital satellite broadcast signal is supplied to a digital broadcast receiver (7). An IC card (18) into which billing information and the like are to be written is inserted into the digital broadcast receiver (7). The digital broadcast receiver (7) is connected to a broadcasting station (2) via a telephone line (4).

A transmitting / receiving antenna (5) is installed at the broadcasting station (2), and digital satellite broadcasting is transmitted from the transmitting / receiving antenna (5) to each home (1) via a communication satellite (3). As is well known, the program provided to the broadcasting station (2) by the commissioned broadcaster includes a baseband system (9), an encoder system (10), a transmission / reception system (11), and a transmission / reception antenna.
It is transmitted to the communication satellite (3) via (5). Also, the program information provided by the consigned broadcasting company is a program integrated management system.
The program is supplied to (8), whereby integrated management of all programs is performed. The broadcast station (2) has a customer management system (12) for performing program contracts, billing, billing, etc. of customers (viewers),
Creation of key information and IC card (18) according to the contract with the viewer
Key management system (1
3) An EPG management system (14) for creating program display data to be transmitted based on program information from the program integrated management system (8) is provided.

Further, in the present invention, a program database (15) is connected to the integrated program management system (8), and the customer management system (12) has a program viewing database (16) for each viewer and mail contents. Database (17) is connected. In the program database (15), program data such as a broadcast start date and time, a broadcast end date and time, a broadcast channel, and a genre are stored in advance as a list for programs broadcast in the past and programs scheduled to be broadcast in the future. (Fig. 7
reference). The program-by-viewer database (16) stores, as described below, list of program viewing data such as viewing start date and time, viewing end time, broadcast channel, and the like for programs viewed by the viewer. (See FIG. 8).
The mail content database (17) stores a plurality of types of mails to be transmitted to each viewer (see FIG. 9).

The digital broadcast receiver (7) has the configuration shown in FIG. 2, and the satellite wave received by the receiving antenna (6) is:
First, the signal is input to a tuner (21) and subjected to switching of a reception transponder, demodulation, decoding of error correction, and the like, to form a transport stream, and a transport stream processing circuit (23) via a descramble circuit (22). ). The descrambling circuit (22) performs descrambling using the descrambling key data. The transport stream processing circuit (23) receives program specification information based on the channel selection operation of the viewer, and extracts necessary video data and audio data from the transport stream. The extracted video data is supplied to a video decoding circuit (24), converted into video data before compression, and then converted into an NTSC signal by an NTSC conversion circuit (25), and then to a TV receiver (32). Is output. On the other hand, the extracted audio data is supplied to an audio decoding circuit (27), and is converted into audio data before compression, and then converted into an analog signal by a DA converter (28). Output to (32).

The digital broadcast receiver (7) includes a remote controller (hereinafter, referred to as a remote controller) (19) and a VTR.
And a user interface circuit (29) for inputting and outputting data to and from the remote controller (20). The user interface circuit (29) has a light receiving device for receiving an infrared remote control signal from a remote controller (19). A light emitting device (31) for transmitting an infrared control signal to the device (30) and the VTR (20) is connected. The operation of each of the above-described circuits and the reading / writing of data from / to the IC card (18) are controlled by the control CPU (26). The billing information of the viewer stored in the IC card (18) is transmitted from the control CPU (26) to the telephone line (4) via the modem (37).

FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 show the digital broadcast receiver.
The procedure for creating and transmitting program viewing data according to (7) is shown. FIG. 3 shows the operation after the power switch of the digital broadcast receiver (7) is turned on.
When the power is turned on at step 1, the current time t is stored as time data T and the current viewing channel c is stored as channel data C at step S2.

Thereafter, in step S3, the current channel c is compared with the channel data C to determine whether there is a channel change. If there is a channel change and the answer is YES, the process moves to step S4, where the current time t is compared with a value obtained by adding 5 minutes to the time data T, and 5 minutes have passed since the channel change. Determine if it has passed. If 5 minutes have not passed and there is a channel change and it is determined NO, step S2
Return to

If five minutes or more have elapsed after the channel change, it is determined to be YES, and the flow shifts to step S5 where the time data T, the current time t, and the channel data C are
The data is stored in the non-volatile memory Mi (not shown) connected to the control CPU (26), the counter i is counted up, and the process returns to step S2.

Thereafter, when the power switch of the digital broadcast receiver (7) is turned off, the current time t and the value obtained by adding 5 minutes to the time data T are compared in step S11 in FIG. It is determined whether the program that was being watched last has been watched for 5 minutes or more.
12, the time data T, the current time t, and the channel data C are stored in the nonvolatile memory Mi, and the counter i is counted up.
At 13 the power is turned off.

In this way, the nonvolatile memory Mi (i =
The time memory T stored in (1, 2,... N) indicates the viewing start time of the program watched for 5 minutes or more, the current time t indicates the viewing end time, and the channel data C indicates the viewing channel. And these data (T, t,
C) constitutes program viewing data for each viewer.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an IC according to a request from a broadcasting station.
A digital broadcast receiver (7) for transmitting the above program viewing data (T, t, C) together with the billing information stored in the card (18) to the broadcasting station (2) through the telephone line (4). In step S21, the telephone number for the billing information of the broadcasting station is dialed, and it is determined in step S22 whether the telephone is busy. If yes, after waiting for 5 minutes in step S23, step S2
Return to 1.

If the answer is NO in step S22, the charging information is transmitted to the broadcasting station in step S24, and then the charging information returned from the broadcasting station is received in step S25. Then, the two pieces of charging information are collated to determine whether they match. If a mismatch is determined, the process returns to step S24 to repeat the transmission of the billing information.

If a match is determined in step S26, the process proceeds to step S27, in which the billing information in the IC card (18) is deleted, and in step S28, the program stored in the non-volatile memory is erased. Viewing data is transferred via telephone line (4)
To broadcast station (2). Subsequently, step S2
After resetting the counter i to 0 at 9, the telephone line is disconnected at step S30.

The program viewing data for each viewer transmitted from each home to the broadcasting station in this manner is stored in the broadcasting station (2) shown in FIG.
Is written in the program viewing database for each viewer (16).
As a result, in the program viewing database for each viewer (16), as shown in FIG. 8, for example, the program viewing data including the viewing start date and time, the viewing end time, and the broadcast channel is stored for each viewer.

FIG. 6 shows a broadcasting station intended for a specific audience.
In step S31, the "program viewing data" of the viewer stored in the viewer-specific program viewing database (16) is read out and stored in the program database (15). The number of genres viewed by the viewer is counted from the “program data table”. For example,
As shown in FIG. 9, when the program viewing data shown in FIG. 8 is read from the program data table storing the broadcast start date and time, broadcast end date and time, broadcast channel, and genre for each program, the genre N ( News) once and genre M (movie) twice.

Thereafter, in step S32 of FIG. 6, a genre with the highest number of viewings is extracted. In the above example, the genre M (movie) is extracted as the maximum viewing genre.
Then, in step S33, the maximum viewing genre is set as the genre of the viewer, and a mail corresponding to the genre is read from the mail content database (17) in FIG. 1 and transmitted to the user. For example, in the case of a viewer whose favorite genre is a movie, among the programs scheduled to be broadcast in the future, particularly the latest information about the movie program, for example, the scheduled broadcast date and time of a topical movie program, a broadcast channel, and a movie as shown in FIG. Is transmitted to the viewer as a mail on a satellite wave. Note that the above-described procedure for a specific viewer is executed for all viewers.

In the digital broadcast receiver (7) on the viewer side which has received the above-mentioned mail, the received mail is displayed on the screen of the TV receiver (32) when the power switch is turned on, for example. This allows the viewer to know the scheduled broadcast date and time, the broadcast channel, and the program content of the program that matches his / her taste, and can reliably view the program by making a recording reservation for the VTR (20). I can do it.

The configuration of each part of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the technical scope described in the claims. For example, when a plurality of viewers view digital satellite broadcasts by a common digital broadcast receiver (7) in the same home, by assigning each of these viewers an individual sub ID number, It is also possible to send a different mail to each viewer. or,
In the above-described example, the e-mail that has been created in advance is transmitted to the viewer as it is, but it is also possible to add necessary editing each time the e-mail is transmitted. Further, the transmission of the e-mail is not limited to the above-described example in which the e-mail is transmitted as a satellite wave, and a configuration in which a mail in a written form is mailed may be employed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a digital broadcasting system according to the present invention and a device configuration in a broadcasting station.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a specific configuration of a digital broadcast receiver.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the digital broadcast receiver when a power switch is turned on.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when the power switch is turned off in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of transmitting billing information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation in a broadcasting station.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a program data table.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing program viewing data.

FIG. 9 is a diagram exemplifying mail contents.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (1) Home (2) Broadcasting station (4) Telephone line (7) Digital broadcasting receiver (15) Program database (16) Program viewing database by viewer (17) Mail content database (26) Control CPU (19) Remote control (20) VTR (30) Receiver (31) Light emitter (32) TV receiver

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A receiving device for digital broadcasting including a plurality of programs sent from a broadcasting station, means for creating viewing data capable of specifying a program actually viewed by a viewer, and Means for transmitting the viewing data to the broadcasting station in a timely manner, and the broadcasting station can recognize each viewer's preference for the program based on the viewing data sent from each viewer. Digital broadcast receiver. 2. A transmitting apparatus for digital broadcasting including a plurality of programs, a means for receiving viewing data of a viewing program sent from each viewer, and a program for each viewer based on the received viewing data. Means for recognizing the preference of the user, means for creating, for each viewer, an email containing information about a program that matches the preference, based on the recognized preference, and sending the created email to each viewer in a timely manner. A digital broadcast transmitting device comprising means for transmitting. 3. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus installed in each home and a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus installed in a broadcasting station. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus specifies a program actually viewed by a viewer. Means for creating viewing data capable of transmitting and receiving the created viewing data to the broadcast station in a timely manner. , A means for recognizing a preference for a program for each viewer based on the received viewing data, and a function for viewing an e-mail including information about a program matching the preference according to the recognized preference. A digital broadcasting system comprising: means for creating for each viewer; and means for transmitting the created mail to each viewer in a timely manner. 4. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus is provided with mail display means for displaying the contents of the mail sent from the broadcast station on a monitor screen in a timely manner.
2. A digital broadcasting system according to claim 1.