Method and system for managing content subscription data

Abstract

To provide a preferred method and system for managing content subscription data.SOLUTION: In some aspects, a control circuit receives, at a content provider server that is associated with first subscription service, a first authentication key from a content aggregator server that is associated with second subscription service, before a user subscribes to the first subscription service. The control circuit generates and stores, at the content provider server, a first user account after comparing the first authentication key to acceptable authentication. In response to storing the first user account, the control circuit receives a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, where the request includes a second authentication key. The control circuit compares the first authentication key to the second authentication key, and in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key, proves validity of the first user account and grants access to the first subscription service through the first user account.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 14

Description

[Background technology]

[0001] Services that offer content subscriptions often allow users to stream content provided by multiple content providers, with each provider in the content subscription providing a finite number of streams for accessing the content. However, users of the content subscriptions may find the task of managing the data associated with their subscriptions overwhelming, both when they subscribe and when they are streaming the content. That is, users may find the process of creating an account and then remembering and maintaining confidential information along with each account associated with each content provider tedious and tedious. In addition, users may become frustrated with an insufficient number of streams made available by the content provider, such as when all users of the content subscription are interested in watching new episodes of a television program as soon as the episodes are available, and the number of users exceeds the number of available streams. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0002] Thus, described herein are methods and systems for media guidance applications that free users from having to manage multiple accounts for multiple subscription services. For example, by monitoring user activity and managing user accounts on behalf of the user, the media guidance application may recommend subscription services and / or subscription service terms tailored to the user's individual needs.

[0003] Additionally, the media guidance application may act on behalf of the user and retrieve and process large amounts of data from multiple content providers to determine the subscription service and / or the particular plan from a particular subscription service that best meets the user's needs. As discussed in more detail below, the media guidance application may process large amounts of data (often accessible only through computer-readable code) by comparing separate and disparate data sets to identify trends and statistical optimizations for the user's benefit.

[0004] For example, a media guidance application implemented on the control circuitry may detect the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from a subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of available streams by analyzing data stream input and output metrics over a given period of time. For example, the control circuitry may analyze the data stream input and output metrics to detect 12 instances during a user's subscription period in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeded the number of available streams. In response, the control circuitry may determine whether an alternative subscription service / plan, when compared to the data stream input and output metrics, could improve the number of streams available to the user while controlling for other variables (e.g., price). If applicable, the control circuitry may transmit a message recommending the alternative subscription service / plan (e.g., indicating that additional streams are available for purchase).

[0005] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may detect multiple instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry may detect that in 12 instances, the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. In other words, on 12 occasions, at least one user was unable to stream content from the content subscription service. As a result, users who stream content using subscriptions may become frustrated by being unable to view the content at a time of their choosing. Furthermore, users may not be aware of the ability to purchase additional streams and may not be aware of the viewing habits of other users who use subscriptions. Thus, frustrated users may have few options to improve their viewing experience and may begin streaming media using a competing subscription service or cancel their subscriptions altogether.

[0006] The control circuitry may generate multiple timestamps, each corresponding to one of the multiple instances. For example, if the control circuitry detects 12 instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, the control circuitry may generate multiple timestamps, each corresponding to one of the 12 instances. As a result, the control circuitry may utilize the timestamps to effectively record those instances where the user was unable to stream content due to an insufficient number of available streams by correlating the timestamps with each instance.

[0007] The control circuitry may then compare each of the multiple timestamps with a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period. For example, if the control circuitry generates 12 timestamps, the control circuitry may compare each of the 12 timestamps with the subscription period for the subscription service to determine (based on their corresponding timestamps) the number of instances that fall within the subscription period. For example, the subscription period may be defined by a start timestamp and an end timestamp. The control circuitry may then compare each of the 12 timestamps to determine whether each timestamp falls within the start and end timestamps of the subscription period. Based on the number of timestamps that fall within the range of the start and end timestamps of the subscription period, the control circuitry may determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period.

[0008] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may compare, at the server, the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period with a threshold number for the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry may determine that the threshold number is set to 8 for a given subscription period and compare the two numbers. For example, the threshold number may indicate the number of instances after which a user may become frustrated with the lack of available streams. By determining whether the threshold number is exceeded, the control circuitry may determine whether the user is likely to want to obtain additional streams.

[0009] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may transmit a message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of multiple instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the subscription period. For example, in response to determining that the number of multiple instances occurring during the subscription period (e.g., 12) exceeds a threshold number (e.g., 8), the control circuitry transmits a message from the server to the device indicating that a user associated with the device can purchase additional streams. By transmitting the message, the control circuitry may address the user's frustration about being unable to stream content and may provide the user with an opportunity to address the issue of an insufficient number of streams available.

[0010] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may select a threshold number for a subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on the length of time of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry may select a lower threshold number (e.g., 10) for a one-month subscription period to account for the fact that there will be fewer instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service during a shorter time period, such as a one-month period. Thus, instead of relying on a single static threshold, the control circuitry may apply a threshold that is related to the user's viewing habits, since individual users have different abilities to tolerate unavailable streams.

[0011] Additionally or alternatively, the control circuitry may select the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry may analyze the number of streams associated with the subscription and determine that a user associated with a subscription with a large number of available streams at one time had a small number of streams and added streams to minimize streaming problems caused by an insufficient number of streams. Thus, the control circuitry may determine that a user of a content subscription characterized by a small number of available streams may be more likely to attempt to understand how frequently the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. On the other hand, a user of a content subscription characterized by a large number of streams available to the user from the subscription service may be less likely to attempt to understand how frequently the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service because the user may have already increased the number of available streams to avoid a situation where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service.

[0012] Additionally or alternatively, the control circuitry may compare each of the plurality of timestamps with a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of the subscription period for the subscription service to determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry may compare each of the timestamps with a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of the subscription period during which popular programs air (e.g., the entire portion of the subscription period corresponding to the 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM time slot corresponding to the airing of new episodes of the program "The Simpsons") and determine the occurrence of 10 timestamps within the range of timestamps corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. Further, the control circuitry may compare, at the server, the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period with a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry compares the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period (e.g., 10) with a threshold number (e.g., 6). Finally, the control circuitry may modify a message transmitted from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry determines that the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period (e.g., 10) exceeds the threshold number (e.g., 6). In response, the control circuitry modifies a message transmitted from the server to one of the devices used by the user to stream media from the subscription, for example, by indicating that the number of requests to simultaneously stream media will often exceed the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service during the corresponding portion of the subscription period (e.g., during the time slot between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, corresponding to the broadcast of new episodes of the show "The Simpsons").

[0013] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may select the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on the length of time of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry may select a larger number (e.g., 20) for the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period if the length of the subscription period is longer (e.g., 1 year) compared to a shorter subscription period length (e.g., 1 month), in which case the control circuitry would select a smaller number (e.g., 3). Thus, the control circuitry may take into account the fact that while the probability of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service is constant over time, more instances will occur in longer time periods than in shorter time periods.

[0014] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may select a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. For example, in response to determining that the date of the season premiere of a popular television program (e.g., "The Simpsons") falls within the portion of the subscription period, the control circuitry selects a lower threshold number for the portion of the subscription period to account for the fact that a majority of users of the subscription are interested in watching episodes of the season of the popular television program (e.g., "The Simpsons").

[0015] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may select a threshold number for a portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time of day corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. For example, in response to determining that a portion of the subscription period (e.g., a time slot between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM during a given day) corresponds to a time when users of the subscription are most likely to stream media, the control circuitry selects a lower threshold number. Thus, the control circuitry may take into account the fact that time ranges of peak demand may exist based on users' viewing habits (e.g., a majority of users of a subscription service may desire to relax after work by watching streaming media) when selecting the threshold number.

[0016] Additionally or alternatively, the control circuitry may select a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. For example, some subscription services periodically add new media assets (e.g., three complete seasons of "The Simpsons") to their media lineup. The control circuitry may determine the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period based on the number of media assets added to the subscription service media offering. For example, if the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during other portions of the subscription period, the control circuitry selects a lower threshold number to account for the fact that users of the subscription may be more likely to stream media assets and therefore may be more likely to attempt to understand how frequently the number of requests exceeds the number of streams available to users from the subscription service.

[0017] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may transmit a message including a recommendation to reduce the frequency of the multiple instances. For example, in response to determining that the number of multiple instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the subscription period, the control circuitry transmits a message from the server to one of the different devices used by the user of the subscription. The message may include a recommendation to reduce the frequency of the multiple instances. For example, the control circuitry informs the user that the user would be more likely to successfully stream media outside of certain times (e.g., outside of the 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM time slot on Wednesdays, which corresponds to the broadcast of new episodes of the show "The Simpsons," which other users may be interested in watching).

[0018] Furthermore, by subscribing to a content aggregator service, a user may become authorized to access media content provided by multiple subscription services. The media content provided by each subscription service is not always made available directly at the content aggregator service, thus forcing the user to access the content through each content provider's website. Before being able to access the content, the user must create an account with each content provider, a task that the user may find tedious and tedious. Additionally, the process of remembering and maintaining sensitive information associated with multiple subscription service accounts may further overwhelm the user.

[0019] In some embodiments, the control circuitry may automatically receive the authentication information from the content aggregator service. For example, a media guidance application implemented on the control circuitry may receive the authentication information and associate the authentication information with a user account before the control circuitry receives a request to subscribe the user to a subscription service. The control circuitry may then receive the request to subscribe the user to the subscription service, thus validating the account and granting the user access to the subscription service offerings.

[0020] The control circuitry may receive a first authentication key at a content provider server (e.g., Hulu) associated with the subscription service from a content aggregator server (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) associated with a second subscription service, where the first authentication key is received before the user subscribes to the first subscription service. For example, the user may subscribe to the content aggregator service (i.e., the second subscription service). As soon as the user completes their registration with the second subscription service, the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server associated with the second subscription service may generate authentication keys to associate the user with some or all of the subscription services available as part of the content aggregator subscription and transfer the generated authentication keys to servers associated with each subscription service (e.g., the first subscription service). Each authentication key may be encrypted to ensure that information stored in the key is securely transmitted to the servers associated with each subscription service. Additionally, each authentication key may include information identifying the user and the second subscription service. Control circuitry implemented on a content provider server associated with the first subscription service may then receive the generated authentication key from the content aggregator server. In some instances, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may decrypt the authentication key and extract the information stored in the key. The control circuitry may additionally store the authentication key on the content provider server. In that way, authentication information associated with the first user may be transmitted to the first subscription service without burdening the user with manually creating an account.

[0021] Control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may compare the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determine whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key. For example, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may extract information stored in the first authentication key and determine the name of the subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) listed in the portion of the key associated with the identifier of the second subscription service. The control circuitry may then retrieve a list of subscription services previously identified to enable the control circuitry to create user accounts on the first subscription service and compare the name of the subscription service with each subscription service in the retrieved list. In effect, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server can securely receive information about new users from the content aggregator (i.e., the second subscription service) while maintaining control over the accounts created. For example, the first subscription service may enter into an agreement with the second subscription service to provide a subscription to the first subscription service at a discounted price. Thus, by encapsulating information about the second provider in the authentication key, the first subscription service ensures that only accounts are created for users associated with trusted content aggregators.

[0022] Control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may generate a first user account on the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys. For example, the control circuitry may use information contained in the authentication key, such as a username, password, and subscription service name, to create the information necessary to generate an account on the content provider server. In some cases, the control circuitry may store an indication associated with the first account specifying that the account has not been authenticated. In other words, the account is created but is not accessible by the user. If the user or the second subscription service decides to authenticate the account in the future, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may efficiently authenticate the account with little or no required input from the user, as will be described in further detail below.

[0023] The control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may store the first user account in a database entry indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key. For example, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may store information related to the created user account in a database entry stored in the database. The control circuitry may further associate the user account with the authentication key, for example, by storing a pointer to the location of the authentication key in the database entry associated with the user account. By associating the stored user account with the first authentication key, the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may ensure that the account can be quickly authenticated if a second subscription or user decides to authenticate the account on the first subscription service.

[0024] Following the step of storing the first user account, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may receive a request from the content aggregator server at the content provider server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including the second authentication key. The control circuitry may receive the second authentication key in response to the user request to subscribe to the first subscription service. For example, the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may detect that a user of the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) desires to subscribe to the first subscription service (e.g., Hulu). In a different embodiment, the control circuitry implemented on the second service may automatically send a request to the first service when the cost of subscribing to the first service meets a cost criterion. The control circuitry on the first subscription service may decrypt the information stored in the second key, retrieve the information stored in the second key, and store the authentication key on the content provider server. By providing a framework for receiving the second authentication key, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may securely validate the account for the user.

[0025] Control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may compare the first authentication key to the second authentication key. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may read information from the second key associated with the name of the user associated with the key and then query a database to determine whether an account associated with the identified user has previously been created. In a different embodiment, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may compare unencrypted data comprising the second authentication key to unencrypted data of a previously received authentication key stored on the content provider server.

[0026] Control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may validate the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key. For example, based on a comparison of the first authentication key with the second authentication key, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may then identify a user account associated with either key. The control circuitry may then query a database to identify the account and store an indication that the account has been validated. By validating the account, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server allows a user authenticated by the content provider server to access media content provided by the first subscription service.

[0027] In some embodiments, in response to validating the first user account, control circuitry implemented on the first server may allow access to the first subscription service through the first user account. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may generate and transmit a message to the content aggregator server indicating that the account is available for use. In this manner, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may notify the user that a second subscription service offering may be accessed by the user.

[0028] In some embodiments, the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. For example, the authentication key may include an automatically generated password that complies with the password requirements of the first subscription service and a username that corresponds to a username associated with the content provider server.

[0029] In some embodiments, the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from a content aggregator server. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may receive a list of authentication keys from the second subscription service at regular intervals. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may routinely transmit an authentication key associated with all new users who create an account with the second subscription service.

[0030] In some embodiments, a database entry stored on the content provider server includes a first database field that includes a pointer to a first user account and a second database field that includes a first authentication key. For example, the database entry on the content provider server may include a pointer stored in the first database field that points to a second database entry that contains information about the user's account, such as the user's username, password, and subscription level.

[0031] In some embodiments, the database entry stored on the content provider server includes a third database field containing subscription terms for the first subscription service. The subscription terms may determine a price for the subscription, and the price the user pays to subscribe may also be stored in the third database field.

[0032] In some embodiments, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe a user to a first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for a second subscription service at the content aggregator server. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may generate two subscription levels: a “premium” level, which may include a subscription to the first subscription service, and a “basic” level, which does not include a subscription to the first subscription service. The control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may transmit a request to the second subscription service only in response to determining that the user has selected the “premium” level subscription.

[0033] In some embodiments, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may transmit a confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to validating the first user account. For example, once the control circuitry validates the user account, the control circuitry may transmit a message comprising the confirmation to the content aggregator server. By transmitting the confirmation, a user of the second service may be informed that the user can access media associated with the first subscription service.

[0034] In some embodiments, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may receive a request from a content aggregator server to access media content of a first subscription service through a first user account. For example, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may receive a user request to access media content (e.g., an episode of the television program "The Simpsons"). In response to receiving a request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account, control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may create a direct connection between the content provider server and user television equipment 402. By creating a direct connection, media content may be transferred between the content provider server and user television equipment 402 more quickly and efficiently than if the media content were transmitted from the content provider server to the content aggregator server before being transferred to user television equipment 402.

[0035] In some embodiments, control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may retrieve a user interface skin associated with a first subscription service in response to a direct connection between the content provider server and user television equipment 402. For example, the user interface skin associated with the first subscription service may define the appearance of user interface elements, such as background colors, fonts, and menu locations, of the user interface associated with the first subscription service. In addition, the interface skin may include branding characteristics defined by the subscription service, such as a logo associated with the first subscription service, which may be displayed at defined locations on the screen, and a color palette associated with the first subscription service, which may define the background colors of screen elements. The control circuitry may extract parameters associated with the user interface skin and apply the parameters to a user interface skin associated with a second subscription service.

[0036] In some embodiments, the control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may receive a user selection of a media content listing from a content aggregator server through a first user account. For example, the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may utilize a connection created between the content provider server and the content aggregator server to retrieve a media content listing of content available on the content provider server. The control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may then detect a selection of the media content listing created by a user, the user being associated with an account on the content aggregator server. Once the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server receives the selection, the control circuitry may generate for display a media asset corresponding to the media content listing selected by the user. For example, the control circuitry implemented on the content aggregator server may retrieve the media asset using the connection created between the content provider server and the content aggregator server. The media asset may be retrieved via download or via streaming.

[0037] It should be noted that the systems and / or methods described above may be applied to or used in accordance with other systems, methods and / or devices. (Item 1) 1. A method for managing sensitive information across multiple subscription services, comprising: receiving, at a content provider server associated with a first subscription service, a first authentication key from a content aggregator server associated with a second subscription service, the first authentication key being received before a user subscribes to the first subscription service; comparing the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determining whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key; creating the first user account at the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; storing the first user account in a database entry at the content provider server indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key; subsequent to storing the first user account, receiving, at the content provider server, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including a second authentication key; comparing the first authentication key to the second authentication key; validating the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key; in response to validating the first user account, permitting access to the first subscription service through the first user account; and A method comprising: (Item 2) Item 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. (Item 3) Item 10. The method of item 1, wherein a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. (Item 4) Item 10. The method of item 1, wherein the database entry includes a first database field containing a pointer to the first user account and a second database field containing the first authentication key. (Item 5) Item 10. The method of item 1, wherein the database entry includes a third database field that includes subscription terms for the first subscription service. (Item 6) Item 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for the second subscription service at the content aggregator server. (Item 7) Item 10. The method of item 1, further comprising transmitting a second subscription service confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to validating the first user account. (Item 8) receiving a second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; creating a direct connection between the content provider server and a user equipment device in response to receiving the second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; Item 1, the method of claim 1 further comprising: (Item 9) retrieving a user interface skin associated with the first subscription service in response to the direct connection between the content provider server and the user equipment device; generating a user interface skin for displaying a list of media content using the user interface skin; Item 9. The method of item 8, further comprising: (Item 10) receiving, from the content aggregator server, a user selection through the first user account of a media content listing; generating the media content listing for displaying corresponding media assets; and Item 10. The method of item 9, further comprising: (Item 11) 1. A system for managing confidential information across multiple subscription services, the system comprising: control circuitry; receiving, at a content provider server associated with a first subscription service, a first authentication key from a content aggregator server associated with a second subscription service, the first authentication key being received before a user subscribes to the first subscription service; comparing the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determining whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key; creating the first user account at the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; storing the first user account in a database entry at the content provider server indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key; subsequent to storing the first user account, receiving, at the content provider server, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including a second authentication key; comparing the first authentication key to the second authentication key; validating the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key; in response to validating the first user account, permitting access to the first subscription service through the first user account; and A system configured to: (Item 12) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. (Item 13) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. (Item 14) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein the database entry includes a first database field that includes a pointer to the first user account and a second database field that includes the first authentication key. (Item 15) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein the database entry includes a third database field that includes subscription terms for the first subscription service. (Item 16) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein the request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for the second subscription service at the content aggregator server. (Item 17) Item 12. The system of item 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to transmit a second subscription service confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to verifying the authenticity of the first user account. (Item 18) The control circuit further comprises: receiving a second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; creating a direct connection between the content provider server and a user equipment device in response to receiving the second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; Item 12. The system of item 11, configured to: (Item 19) The control circuit further comprises: retrieving a user interface skin associated with the first subscription service in response to the direct connection between the content provider server and the user equipment device; generating a user interface skin for displaying a list of media content using the user interface skin; Item 19. The system of item 18, configured to: (Item 20) The control circuit further comprises: receiving, from the content aggregator server, a user selection through the first user account of a media content listing; generating the media content listing for displaying corresponding media assets; and 20. The system of item 19, configured to: (Item 21) 1. A system for managing confidential information across multiple subscription services, comprising: means, at a content provider server associated with a first subscription service, for receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server associated with a second subscription service, the first authentication key being received before a user subscribes to the first subscription service; means for comparing the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determining whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key; means for creating the first user account at the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; means, at the content provider server, for storing the first user account in a database entry indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key; subsequent to storing the first user account, means for receiving, at the content provider server, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including a second authentication key; and means for comparing the first authentication key with the second authentication key; means for validating the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key; means for authorizing access to the first subscription service through the first user account in response to validating the first user account; A system comprising: (Item 22) 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. (Item 23) 22. The system of claim 21, wherein a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. (Item 24) 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the database entry includes a first database field that includes a pointer to the first user account and a second database field that includes the first authentication key. (Item 25) 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the database entry includes a third database field that includes subscription terms for the first subscription service. (Item 26) Item 22. The system of item 21, wherein the request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for the second subscription service at the content aggregator server. (Item 27) 22. The system of claim 21, further comprising means for transmitting a second subscription service confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to verifying the authenticity of the first user account. (Item 28) means for receiving, from the content aggregator server, a second request to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; means for creating a direct connection between the user equipment device and a content aggregator server in response to receiving, from the content aggregator server, the second request to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; Item 22. The system of item 21, further comprising: (Item 29) means for retrieving a user interface skin associated with the first subscription service in response to the direct connection between the content provider server and the user equipment device; means for generating a user interface skin for displaying a media content listing using the user interface skin; Item 29. The system of item 28, further comprising: (Item 30) means for receiving, from the content aggregator server, a user selection through the first user account of a media content listing; means for generating a media asset corresponding to the media content listing for display; Item 30. The system of item 29, further comprising: (Item 31) 1. A method for managing sensitive information across multiple subscription services, comprising: receiving, at a content provider server associated with a first subscription service, a first authentication key from a content aggregator server associated with a second subscription service, the first authentication key being received before a user subscribes to the first subscription service; retrieving a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; comparing the first authentication key to the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determining whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key; creating the first user account at the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; storing the first user account in a database entry at the content provider server indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key; subsequent to storing the first user account, receiving, at the content provider server, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including a second authentication key; comparing the first authentication key to the second authentication key; validating the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key; in response to validating the first user account, permitting access to the first subscription service through the first user account; and A method comprising: (Item 32) Item 32. The method of item 31, wherein the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. (Item 33) 33. The method of any of items 31-32, wherein a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. (Item 34) 34. The method of any of items 31-33, wherein the database entry includes a first database field containing a pointer to the first user account and a second database field containing the first authentication key. (Item 35) 35. The method of any of items 31-34, wherein the database entry includes a third database field that includes subscription terms for the first subscription service. (Item 36) A method as described in any of items 31-35, wherein the request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for the second subscription service at the content aggregator server. (Item 37) 37. The method of any of items 31-36, further comprising transmitting a second subscription service confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to validating the first user account. (Item 38) receiving a second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; creating a direct connection between the content provider server and a user equipment device in response to receiving the second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; 38. The method of any one of items 31-37, further comprising: (Item 39) retrieving a user interface skin associated with the first subscription service in response to the direct connection between the content provider server and the user equipment device; generating a user interface skin for displaying a list of media content using the user interface skin; 39. The method of any one of items 31-38, further comprising: (Item 40) receiving, from the content aggregator server, a user selection through the first user account of a media content listing; generating the media content listing for displaying corresponding media assets; and 40. The method of any one of items 31-39, further comprising: (Item 41) 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions recorded thereon for managing confidential information across multiple subscription services, the instructions comprising: instructions, at a content provider server associated with a first subscription service, for receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server associated with a second subscription service, the first authentication key being received before a user subscribes to the first subscription service; instructions for comparing the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determining whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key; instructions for creating the first user account at the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys; instructions at the content provider server for storing the first user account in a database entry indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key; subsequent to storing the first user account, instructions for receiving, at the content provider server, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including a second authentication key; and instructions for comparing the first authentication key to the second authentication key; instructions for validating the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key; instructions for granting access to the first subscription service through the first user account in response to validating the first user account; and 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising: (Item 42) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, wherein the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. (Item 43) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, wherein a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. (Item 44) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, wherein the database entry includes a first database field that includes a pointer to the first user account and a second database field that includes the first authentication key. (Item 45) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, wherein the database entry includes a third database field that includes subscription terms for the first subscription service. (Item 46) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Item 41, wherein the request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for the second subscription service at the content aggregator server. (Item 47) Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, further comprising instructions for transmitting a second subscription service confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to verifying the authenticity of the first user account. (Item 48) The instructions further include: instructions for receiving, from the content aggregator server, a second request to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; instructions for creating a direct connection between the content provider server and a user equipment device in response to receiving the second request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account; Item 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 41, comprising: (Item 49) The instructions further include: instructions for retrieving a user interface skin associated with the first subscription service in response to the direct connection between the content provider server and the user equipment device; instructions for generating a media content listing using the user interface skin; Item 49. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Item 48, comprising: (Item 50) The instructions further include: instructions for receiving, from the content aggregator server, a user selection through the first user account of a media content listing; instructions to generate a media asset corresponding to the media content listing; Item 50. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 49, further comprising: (Item 51) 1. A method for recommending to a user whether to increase the number of content streams from a subscription service, comprising: Detecting multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service; generating a plurality of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the plurality of instances; comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period to a threshold number for the subscription period; transmitting a message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the subscription period; and A method comprising: (Item 52) 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising selecting the threshold number of subscription periods from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 53) 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising selecting the threshold number of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 54) comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period to a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; modifying the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period; 52. The method of claim 51, further comprising: (Item 55) 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 56) 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 57) 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 58) 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 59) 55. The method of claim 54, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. (Item 60) Item 52. The method of item 51, wherein the message includes a recommendation for reducing the frequency of the multiple instances. (Item 61) 1. A system for recommending to a user whether to increase a number of content streams from a subscription service, the system comprising: a control circuit; Detecting multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service; generating a plurality of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the plurality of instances; comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period to a threshold number for the subscription period; transmitting a message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the subscription period; and A system configured to: (Item 62) 62. The system of claim 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 63) Item 62. The system of item 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 64) The control circuit further comprises: comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period to a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; modifying the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period; Item 62. The system of item 61, configured to: (Item 65) 65. The system of claim 64, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 66) Item 65. The system of item 64, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 67) 65. The system of claim 64, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 68) 65. The system of claim 64, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 69) Item 65. The system of item 64, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. (Item 70) Item 62. The system of item 61, wherein the message includes a recommendation for reducing the frequency of the multiple instances. (Item 71) 1. A system for recommending to a user whether to increase the number of content streams from a subscription service, comprising: means for detecting multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service; means for generating a plurality of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the plurality of instances; means for comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the subscription period; means, at a server, for comparing the number of instances occurring during the subscription period with a threshold number for the subscription period; means for transmitting a message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the subscription period; A system comprising: (Item 72) 72. The system of claim 71, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 73) Item 72. The system of item 71, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 74) means for comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period; means, at the server, for comparing the number of instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period with a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; means for modifying the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; Item 72. The system of item 71, further comprising: (Item 75) 75. The system of claim 74, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 76) Item 75. The system of item 74, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 77) 75. The system of claim 74, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 78) 75. The system of claim 74, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 79) Item 75. The system of item 74, further comprising means for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. (Item 80) Item 72. The system of item 71, wherein the message includes a recommendation for reducing the frequency of the multiple instances. (Item 81) 1. A method for recommending to a user whether to increase the number of content streams from a subscription service, comprising: Detecting multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service; generating a plurality of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the plurality of instances; comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period to a threshold number for the subscription period; generating a message at the server; transmitting the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the subscription period; and A method comprising: (Item 82) 82. The method of claim 81, further comprising selecting the threshold number of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 83) 83. The method of any of items 81-82, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 84) comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period; at the server, comparing the number of the instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period to a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; modifying the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period; 84. The method of any of items 81-83, further comprising: (Item 85) 85. The method of any of items 81-84, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 86) 86. The method of any of items 81-85, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 87) 87. The method of any of items 81-86, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 88) 88. The method of any of items 81-87, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 89) 89. The method of any of items 81-88, further comprising selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. (Item 90) 89. The method of claim 89, wherein the message includes a recommendation for reducing the frequency of the multiple instances. (Item 91) 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions recorded thereon for recommending to a user whether to increase a number of content streams from a subscription service, the instructions comprising: instructions for detecting multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service; instructions to generate a plurality of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the plurality of instances; instructions for comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the subscription period; instructions at a server for comparing the number of instances occurring during the subscription period to a threshold number for the subscription period; instructions for transmitting a message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds the threshold number for the subscription period; and 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising: (Item 92) 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 91, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 93) 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 91, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 94) The instructions further include: instructions for comparing each of the plurality of timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine a number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period; instructions at the server for comparing the number of instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period to a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period; modifying the message from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of the plurality of instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period exceeds the threshold number of the portion of the subscription period; Item 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Item 91, comprising: (Item 95) 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 94, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a length of time of the subscription period. (Item 96) 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 94, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. (Item 97) 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 94, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 98) 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 94, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a time corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. (Item 99) Item 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of Item 94, further comprising instructions for selecting the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. (Item 100) Item 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of item 91, wherein the message includes a recommendation for reducing the frequency of the multiple instances. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0038] These and other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout.

[0039] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by a media guidance application according to some embodiments of this disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a content aggregator display screen generated by a media guidance application according to some embodiments of this disclosure. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system according to some embodiments of the disclosure. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining the number of instances within a subscription period, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is pseudocode of illustrative steps for determining the number of instances within a subscription period, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining the number of instances within a portion of a subscription period, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is pseudocode of illustrative steps for determining the number of instances within a portion of a subscription period according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in transmitting a message to a device when the number of instances exceeds a certain number, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 10]FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for creating an account on a content provider server based on receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is pseudocode of illustrative steps for creating an account on a content provider server based on receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for validating a first user account based on a request from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is pseudocode of illustrative steps for validating a first user account based on a request from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in creating and validating a first user account on a first subscription service, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0040]

[0006] Disclosed herein are methods and systems for detecting the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from a subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of available streams, and for transmitting a message to one of the devices when the number of instances exceeds a certain number. For example, the control circuitry may determine that during a subscription period, there are 12 instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of available streams available to the user from the subscription service. Further, the control circuitry may determine that the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of available streams available to the user from the subscription service exceeds a threshold number of 8 times, and in response, the control circuitry transmits a message to one of the devices indicating that additional streams are available for purchase.

[0041] As used herein, the term "instance" should be understood to correspond to a particular moment in time, for example, an instance corresponds to a particular timestamp, such as a timestamp defined by a date and time.

[0042] As used herein, the term "subscription service" should be understood to refer to any product or service to which a user subscribes to access media content. For example, a user subscribes to an online subscription service (e.g., Hulu) to access a television series (e.g., "The Simpsons"). A user may be able to access media content provided by a subscription service by purchasing a content subscription. An entity that provides access to content through a "subscription service" is referred to herein as a "content provider." The term "content provider server" refers to any networked device used by a content provider to provide access to media content to user equipment.

[0043] A product or service that provides access to media content available from other subscription services is referred to herein as a "content aggregator subscription." An entity that offers a content aggregator subscription is referred to herein as a "content aggregator." The term "content aggregator server" refers to any networked device used by a content aggregator to collect and provide data about content available from content providers and to facilitate access to such content to user equipment.

[0044] As used herein, the term "account" should be understood to refer to data associated with a user and stored in a subscription service's database. The subscription service enables a user to access media content by authenticating the user through the data stored in the account. In addition, the account may include information listing the user's name, password, credit card information, viewing preferences, and subscription settings. A valid user account may be used by a user to access media content, while an account that has not yet been authenticated may not be used by a user to access media content.

[0045] As used herein, an "authentication key" should be understood to refer to data that can be decrypted by an algorithm. For example, a user's username and password may be encrypted on a content aggregator server. The resulting data may then constitute an authentication key that can be transferred to a content provider server. The content provider server may contain the information necessary to decrypt the first key.

[0046] As used herein, the term "subscription period" should be understood to refer to a continuous period of time during which a user of a subscription service has access to media content provided by the subscription service. For example, a subscription period may correspond to the billing cycle of a subscription service (e.g., a subscription period corresponding to the month of March). Furthermore, a subscription period may be associated with a start timestamp (i.e., the date and time when the media provided through the subscription becomes available to the user) and an end timestamp (i.e., the date and time when the media provided through the subscription is no longer available to the user). A "portion" of a subscription period may refer to one or more any contiguous or non-contiguous time ranges of the subscription period. For example, a portion of a subscription period corresponds to a time slot occurring between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM on Wednesdays during the subscription period. In a different embodiment, a portion of a subscription period corresponds to a range of dates in the subscription period during which a season of a television program (e.g., "The Simpsons") airs, e.g., August through November.

[0047] The term "stream" refers to media content data transmitted from a sender to a receiver over a period of time. For example, digital data corresponding to media content (e.g., an episode of "The Simpsons") is delivered over a network from a server (i.e., sender) to a user device (i.e., receiver) over a period of time corresponding to the time required for playback of the media content. A subscription service may provide a finite number of streams for simultaneous use to subscribing users (e.g., a subscription service allows four simultaneous streams of media content). Embodiments implementing a streaming process (i.e., a process for delivering streams) may apply to digital media distribution methods, but may also apply to other content distribution methods (e.g., cable). A streaming conflict refers to a situation in which the number of requests to stream media exceeds the number of available streams. When a streaming conflict occurs, at least one of the received requests (e.g., typically the most recent request) is not fulfilled.

[0048] The term "direct connection" refers to a network connection that, once established between a content provider server and a content aggregator server, allows the content aggregator server to access data stored on the content provider server without authentication.

[0049] The term "interface skin" refers to a collection of data used to define the appearance of a user interface. For example, the background color of windows in the user interface, the fonts used in the user interface, and the location of menus in the user interface may be defined in the data associated with the interface skin. When the control circuitry generates the visual components of the user interface for display, the control circuitry may read data in the interface skin file to determine how each element or group of elements in the user interface is rendered. Additionally, the collection of data used to define the appearance of the user interface may include graphics and text defined by a service associated with a content provider server. For example, an interface skin associated with a subscription service (e.g., Hulu) may include a collection of data including a Hulu logo that may be displayed at a defined location on the screen and a Hulu color palette that may define the background color of screen elements.

[0050] As referenced herein, the term "in response to" refers to "initiated as a result of." For example, a first action taking place in response to another action may include an intervening step between the first and second action. As referenced herein, the term "in direct response to" refers to "caused by." For example, a first action taking place in direct response to another action may not include an intervening step between the first and second action.

[0051] The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery system can be enormous. As a result, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows them to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify potentially desirable content. Applications that provide such guidance are referred to herein as interactive media guidance applications, but may also be referred to as media guidance applications or guidance applications.

[0052] Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and identify many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface screens that allow users to navigate among, identify, and select content.

[0053] As referred to herein, the terms “media assets” and “content” should be understood to mean electronically consumable user assets such as television programs, pay programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, photos, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, e-books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and / or any other media or multimedia, and / or combinations thereof. The guidance application also allows users to navigate among and identify content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two of the different content forms described above, e.g., text, audio, images, video, or interactive content forms. The content may be recorded, played, displayed, or accessed by user equipment devices, but may also be part of a live performance.

[0054] The media guidance application and / or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on a computer-readable medium. A computer-readable medium includes any medium capable of storing data. A computer-readable medium may be transient, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or non-transitory, including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as hard disks, floppy disks, USB drives, DVDs, CDs, media cards, register memory, processor cache, random access memory ("RAM"), and the like.

[0055] With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed wireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment devices that they had not previously used. As referred to herein, the terms “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content described above, such as a television, smart TV, set-top box, integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for supporting satellite television, digital storage device, digital media receiver (DMR), digital media adapter (DMA), streaming media device, DVD player, DVD recorder, connectable DVD, local media server, BLU-RAY® player, BLU-RAY® recorder, personal computer (PC), laptop computer, tablet computer, Web TV box, personal computer television (PC / TV), PC media server, PC media center, handheld computer, landline telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, portable video player, portable music player, portable game console, smartphone, or any other television equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and / or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, user equipment devices may have front and rear screens, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, user equipment devices may have front and / or rear cameras. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and identify the same content available through televisions. Consequently, media guides may also be available on these devices. The guides provided may be for content available only through televisions, content available only through one or more other types of user equipment devices, or content available through both televisions and one or more other types of user equipment devices.The media guidance application may be provided as an online application (i.e., hosted on a website) or as a stand-alone application or client on a user equipment device. Various devices and platforms on which the media guidance application may be implemented are described in further detail below.

[0056] One of the functions of a media guidance application is to provide media guidance data to a user. As referred to herein, the phrases “media guidance data” or “guide data” should be understood to mean any data related to content or data used in operating the guidance application. For example, guide data may include program information, guidance application settings, user preferences, user profile information, media listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast time, broadcast channel, title, content, rating information (e.g., parental control rating, critics' rating, etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo data for broadcaster or provider logos, media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.), advertising information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guide data that helps a user navigate among and identify desired content selections.

[0057] 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While the displays in FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full-screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid on displayed content. A user may indicate a desire to access content information by selecting a selectable option (e.g., a menu option, a list option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) provided on the display screen or by pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a “Guide” button) on a remote control or other user input interface or device. In response to a user indication, the media guidance application may provide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, kids, or other program categories), or other predetermined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.

[0058] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative grid of program listings display 100 arranged by time and channel, which also enables access to different types of content within a single display. Display 100 may include a grid 102 with (1) columns of channel / content type identifiers 104, where each channel / content type identifier (a cell in a column) identifies a different available channel or type of content, and (2) rows of time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (a cell in a row) identifies a program time slot. Grid 102 also includes cells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides the title of the program provided above the listing's associated channel and time. Using a user input device, a user can select a program listing by moving highlight region 110. Information about the program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, program content, the time the program is offered (if applicable), the channel on which the program airs (if applicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.

[0059] In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., content scheduled for transmission to multiple user equipment devices at predetermined times and provided according to a schedule), the media guidance application also provides access to nonlinear programming (e.g., content accessible to user equipment devices at any time and not provided according to a schedule). Nonlinear programming may include content from different content sources, including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content stored on any of the user equipment devices described above or other storage devices), or other content that is not time-sensitive. On-demand content may include movies or any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g., HBO, which offers "The Sopranos" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" via its HBO GO service). THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOURE ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events such as chat sessions or webcasts, or content available on demand as streaming or downloadable content through an Internet website or other Internet access (eg, FTP).

[0060] Grid 102 may provide media guide data for non-linear programming, including on-demand listings 114, recorded content listings 116, and Internet content listings 118. A display that combines media guidance data for content from different types of content sources is sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may be displayed, different from display 100, may be based on user selection or guide application definition (e.g., displaying only recorded and broadcast listings, displaying only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings 114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time slot displayed in grid 102 to indicate that selecting these listings may provide access to a dedicated view of on-demand listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for these content types may be included directly in grid 102. In response to a user selecting one of navigation icons 120, additional media guidance data may be displayed (depressing arrow keys on a user input device may affect the display in a similar manner to selecting navigation icon 120).

[0061] Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisements 124, and options region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to watch and / or preview programs that are currently available, will be available, or have been available to the user. The content of video region 122 may correspond to or be independent of one of the listings displayed in grid 102. A grid display that includes a video region is sometimes referred to as a picture-in-guide (PIG) ​​display. PIG displays and their functionality are described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 to Satterfield et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001 to Yuen et al., which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. PIG displays may also be included in other media guidance application display screens in embodiments described herein.

[0062] Advertisements 124 may provide advertisements for content that is currently available for viewing, will be available for viewing in the future, or may never be available for viewing, depending on the viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscription programming), and may correspond to one or more of the content listings in grid 102, or may be unrelated. Advertisements 124 may also be for products or services that are related or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisements 124 may be selectable and may provide further information about the content, provide information about the product or service, enable purchase of the content, product, or service, provide content related to the advertisement, etc. Advertisements 124 may be targeted based on user profile / preferences, monitored user activity, the type of display provided, or other suitable targeted advertising basis.

[0063] Although advertisements 124 are shown as rectangular or banner-shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and location within the guidance application display. For example, advertisements 124 may be provided as rectangles horizontally adjacent to grid 102. This may be referred to as a panel advertisement. Additionally, advertisements may be overlaid on content or the guidance application display or embedded within the display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other types of content described above. Advertisements may be stored within the user equipment device having the guidance application, in a database connected to the user equipment, in a remote location (including a streaming media server), or on other storage means or a combination of these locations. Providing advertisements in media guidance applications is discussed in further detail, for example, in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003 / 0110499 to Knudson et al., filed January 17, 2003, U.S. Patent No. 6,756,997 to Ward, III et al., issued June 29, 2004, and U.S. Patent No. 6,388,714 to Schein et al., issued May 14, 2002, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. It will be understood that advertisements may be included in other media guidance application display screens in the embodiments described herein.

[0064] Options area 126 may allow a user to access different types of content, media guidance application views, and / or media guidance application features. Options area 126 may be part of display 100 (and other display screens described herein) or may be invoked by the user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. Selectable options in options area 126 may relate to features related to program listings in grid 102 or may include options available from a main menu display. Features related to program listings may include finding other broadcast times or reception methods for programs, recording programs, enabling continuous recording of programs, setting programs and / or channels as favorites, purchasing programs, or other features. Options available from a main menu display may include search options, VOD options, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device sync options, second screen device options, options for accessing various types of media guidance data displays, options for subscribing to premium services, options for editing the user's profile, options for accessing a browser overlay, or other options.

[0065] The media guidance application may be personalized based on user preferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize the display and features to create a personalized “experience” with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may be created by allowing the user to input these customizations and / or by the media guidance application monitoring user activity to determine various user preferences. A user may access the personalized guidance application by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application. Customization of the media guidance application may be performed according to a user profile. Customization may include changing the presentation style (e.g., display color scheme, text font size, etc.), aspects of the displayed content listings (e.g., HDTV programs only or 3D programs only, user-specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, channel display sorting, recommended content, etc.), desired recording characteristics (e.g., recording or continuous recording for a particular user, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social media content, email, electronically distributed articles, etc.), and other desired customizations.

[0066] The media guidance application may allow the user to provide user profile information or may automatically compile user profile information. The media guidance application may, for example, monitor the content the user accesses and / or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application. In addition, the media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user profiles associated with a particular user (e.g., from other websites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the user accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses, from another of the user's user equipment devices, etc.) and / or obtain information about the user from other sources the media guidance application may access. As a result, the user can be provided with a unified guidance application experience across the user's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience is described in further detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additional personalized media guidance application features are described in further detail in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005 / 0251827 to Ellis et al., filed July 11, 2005, U.S. Patent No. 7,165,098 to Boyer et al., issued January 16, 2007, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002 / 0174430 to Ellis et al., filed February 21, 2002, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

[0067] Another display arrangement for providing a media guide is shown in FIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 for content information organized based on various organizational criteria, such as recommendations, inclusion in a watchlist, and / or type of content. In display 200, movie listings option 204 is selected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as movies. In display 200, the listings may provide graphical images including cover art, still images from the content, previews of video clips, live video from the content, or other types of content that indicate to the user the content described by the media guidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also be accompanied by text to provide further information about the content associated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include more than one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216. Media portion 214 and / or text portion 216 may be selectable to watch the content full screen or to view information related to the content displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings from specific content providers).

[0068] The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212), although all listings may be the same size if desired. The listings may be different sizes or graphically enhanced to indicate a degree of user interest or to highlight certain content, as desired by the content provider or based on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphically enhancing content listings are discussed, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010 / 0153885 to Yates, filed November 12, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0069] A user may access content and media guidance applications (and their display screens, described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment of an illustrative equipment device 300. A more specific implementation of the device is discussed below in connection with FIG. 4. Equipment device 300 may be implemented on user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406. Additionally, device 300 may be implemented as part of a server associated with content providers 416 and 418 and as part of a server associated with content aggregator 430. Device 300 may receive content and data via input / output (hereinafter “I / O”) path 302. I / O path 302 may provide content (e.g., broadcast programs, on-demand programs, Internet content, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and / or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includes processing circuitry 306 and storage device 308. Control circuitry 304 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data using I / O path 302. I / O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (specifically, processing circuitry 306) to one or more communication paths (described below). I / O functions may be provided by one or more of these communication paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

[0070] Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuit, such as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processing circuitry is understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include multi-core processors (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or supercomputers. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may include multiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multiple processing units of the same type (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., Intel Core i5 processor and Intel Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage device 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed by the media guidance application to perform the functions discussed above and below. For example, the media guidance application may provide control circuitry 304 with instructions for generating a media guidance display. In some implementations, any actions taken by control circuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the media guidance application.

[0071] In client-server-based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may include suitable communications circuitry for communicating with a guidance application server or other network or server. Instructions for implementing the aforementioned functionality may be stored on the guidance application server. The communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) modem, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, an Ethernet card, a wireless modem for communicating with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications network or path (described in further detail in connection with FIG. 4). Additionally, the communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of equipment devices or communication of equipment devices at locations remote from each other (described in further detail below).

[0072] The memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage device 308 that is part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase “electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, a hard drive, an optical drive, a digital video disc (DVD) recorder, a compact disc (CD) recorder, a BLU-RAY® Disc (BD) recorder, a BLU-RAY® 3D Disc recorder, a digital video recorder (DVR (sometimes called a personal video recorder), or PVR)), a solid-state device, a quantum storage device, a game console, game media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storage device, and / or any combination thereof. Storage device 308 may be used to store various types of content described herein and the media guidance data described above. Non-volatile memory may also be used (e.g., to run boot-up routines and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, as described in connection with FIG. 4, may be used to supplement or in place of storage 308.

[0073] The control circuitry 304 may include video generation and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, a high-definition tuner, or any other suitable tuning or video circuitry, or a combination of such circuitry. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. The control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting content to a preferred output format for the equipment device 300. The circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the equipment device to receive and display, play, or record content. The tuning and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guide data. For example, the circuitry described herein, including tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, encryption, decryption, scaler, and analog / digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general-purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to accommodate simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multi-tuner recording, etc.) If storage 308 is provided as a device separate from equipment device 300, tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.

[0074] When equipment device 300 is implemented on user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless user communications device 406, a user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user input interface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, a mouse, a trackball, a keypad, a keyboard, a touchscreen, a touchpad, a stylus input, a joystick, a voice recognition interface, or other user input interface. Display 312 may be provided as a stand-alone device or may be integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen or a touch-sensitive display. In such situations, user input interface 310 may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor, television, liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low-temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electrowetting display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high performance addressing display, thin film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conduction electron emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotube, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any other suitable device for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-compatible. In some embodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video or graphics card may generate output to display 312.The video card may provide various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be any of the processing circuitry described above in connection with the control circuitry 304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304. The speakers 314 may be provided as an integration with other elements of the equipment device 300 or may be a stand-alone unit. The audio component of video and other content displayed on the display 312 may be played through the speakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via the speakers 314.

[0075] The guidance application may be implemented using any suitable architecture. For example, it may be a standalone application implemented entirely on the equipment device 300. In such an approach, the application's instructions are stored locally (e.g., in storage 308), and data for use by the application is periodically downloaded (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may read the application's instructions from storage 308 and process the instructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine what action to take when input is received from input interface 310. For example, moving a cursor up / down on a display may be indicated by the processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that the up / down button has been selected.

[0076] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-server-based application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on equipment device 300 is retrieved on demand by issuing requests to a server remote from equipment device 300. In one example of a client-server-based guidance application, control circuitry 304 executes a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For example, the remote server may store instructions for the application in a storage device. The remote server may use circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) to process the stored instructions and generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device may receive displays generated by the remote server and display the contents of the displays locally on equipment device 300. In this manner, the processing of instructions is performed remotely by a server, while the resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300. Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from a user via input interface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server for processing and generating corresponding displays. For example, the appliance device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that the up / down button was selected via the input interface 310. The remote server may process instructions according to the input and generate a display of the application corresponding to the input (e.g., a display that moves the cursor up / down). The generated display is then transmitted to the appliance device 300 for presentation to the user.

[0077] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded and interpreted or otherwise invoked by an interpreter or virtual machine (invoked by control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and invoked by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding schemes), the guidance application may be encoded and transmitted, for example, in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the program's MPEG audio and video packets.

[0078] 3 may be implemented in system 400 of FIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of user equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable game console. For simplicity, these devices may be collectively referred to herein as user equipment or user equipment devices and may be substantially similar to the user equipment devices described above. User equipment devices on which a media guidance application may be implemented may function as stand-alone devices or may be part of a network of devices. Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and are discussed in further detail below. Additionally, equipment device 300 may be implemented as part of a server associated with content providers 416 and 418 and as part of a server associated with content aggregator 430.

[0079] User equipment devices utilizing at least some of the system features described above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solely as user television equipment 402, user computing equipment 404, or wireless user communications device 406. For example, user television equipment 402, like some user computing equipment 404, may be Internet-enabled, allowing access to Internet content, while user computing equipment 404, like some television equipment 402, may include a tuner, allowing access to television programs. The media guidance application may have the same layout on various different types of user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For example, on user computing equipment 404, the guidance application may be provided as a website accessed by a web browser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless user communications device 406.

[0080] In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of user equipment device, but to avoid overcomplicating the drawing, only one of each is shown in Figure 4. Additionally, each user may utilize more than one type of user equipment device and also more than one of each type of user equipment device.

[0081] In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example, the second screen device may complement the content presented on the first user equipment device. The content presented on the second screen device may be any suitable content that complements the content presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured for interacting with other second screen devices or for interacting with a social network. The second screen device can be located in the same room as the first device, in a different room from the first device but in the same home or building, or in a different building from the first device.

[0082] Users may also configure various settings to maintain consistent media guidance application settings across in-home and remote devices. Settings include those described herein as well as favorite channels and programs, program preferences utilized by the guidance application to recommend programs, display preferences, and other desired guidance settings. For example, if a user configures a channel as a favorite on their office personal computer, e.g., on the website www.allrovi.com, the same channel may be displayed as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computer equipment) and on the user's mobile device, as desired. Thus, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another user equipment device, whether the device is the same or a different type. Additionally, changes made may be based on settings input by the user and user activity monitored by the guidance application.

[0083] User equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414. That is, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communications network 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively. Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including the Internet, a cellular network, a mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), a cable network, a public switched telephone network, or other types of communications networks, or combinations of communications networks. Paths 408, 410, and 412, separately or together, may include one or more communications paths, such as satellite paths, fiber optic paths, cable paths, paths supporting Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications paths, or combinations of such paths. Path 412 is depicted in the exemplary embodiment shown in Figure 4 as a dashed line to indicate that it is a wireless path, and paths 408 and 410 are depicted as solid lines to indicate that they are wired paths (although these paths may also be wireless paths, if desired). Communication with a user equipment device may be provided by one or more of these communication paths, but is shown in Figure 4 as a single path to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

[0084] Although communication paths are not depicted between the user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication paths such as those described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412, and other short-range point-to-point communication paths such as a USB cable, an IEEE 1394 cable, a wireless path (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via a wired or wireless path. BLUETOOTH® is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth® SIG, INC. User equipment devices may also communicate directly with each other through an indirect path via communication network 414.

[0085] System 400 includes content providers 416 and 418 and a content aggregator 430 coupled to a communications network 414 via communications paths 420, 422, 424, 426, and 428, respectively. Paths 420, 422, 424, 426, and 428 may include any of the communications paths described above with respect to paths 408, 410, and 412. Communications with content provider 416 and content aggregator 430 may be exchanged via one or more communications paths, but are shown in FIG. 4 as a single path to avoid overcomplicating the diagram. Additionally, there may be more than one content provider 416 and content aggregator 430, but only two content providers and one content aggregator are shown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the diagram. (Different types of each of these sources are discussed below.) Although communication between content providers 416 and 418 and user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 is shown as being through communications network 414, in some embodiments content providers 416 and 418 may communicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via communications paths (not shown), such as those described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412. In some cases, communication between content providers 416 and 418 and user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 occurs through content aggregator 430. For example, communication between user television equipment 402 and content provider 416 may occur via paths 426, 428, and 408.

[0086] Content providers 416 and 418 may include one or more types of content distribution equipment, including television distribution facilities, cable system headends, satellite distribution facilities, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and / or servers, internet providers, on-demand media servers (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.), and other content providers. NBC is the National Broadcasting Company, are trademarks owned by Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by American Broadcasting Company, INC., and HBO is a trademark owned by Home Box Office, Inc. Content provider 416 may be a content originator (e.g., a television broadcaster, a webcast provider, etc.) or a non-content originator (e.g., an on-demand content provider, an Internet provider of broadcast program content for download, etc.). Content provider 416 may include a cable source, a satellite provider, an on-demand provider, an Internet provider, an over-the-top content provider, or other content provider. Content provider 416 may also include a remote media server used to store different types of content (including video content selected by a user) at a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remotely storing content and for providing remotely stored content to user equipment are discussed in further detail in connection with U.S. Patent No. 7,761,892, issued July 20, 2010 to Ellis et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0087] Content aggregator 430 may collect media guidance data from content providers 416 and 418 and provide such data, as described above. Media guidance data may be provided to user equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or a trickle feed). Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to user equipment on a sideband of a television channel, using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 implemented on content aggregator 430 may transmit requests for media guidance data from content providers 416 and 418 via paths 426 and 424.

[0088] The content aggregator 430 may communicate with the equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via a client installed on each of the equipment devices. For example, when a user initially subscribes to a content aggregator subscription, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator 430 may facilitate the transfer of a client application to the equipment device. The control circuitry 304 implemented on each of the equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 may then download, install, and reconfigure the client application from the content aggregator 430. The client application may then facilitate the delivery of media and media guidance data from the content aggregator 430 to the equipment device. The client application may further include a user interface that the control circuitry 304 implemented on the equipment device 300 generates for display on the display 312 to allow the user to interact with the media listings using the user input interface 310, code for handling digital rights management (DRM) data, and the codecs and players needed to generate the media for display on the display 312. In some embodiments, the clients may be configured to communicate directly with the content providers 416 and 418. The content aggregator 430 may include a corresponding communication interface so that the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator may receive input from the clients implemented on each equipment device. The control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator 430 may then use the communication interface to send and receive data from each client and from each content provider 416 and 418. The content aggregator 430 may additionally include one or more databases that store subscriber information and media content listings from the content providers 416 and 418.

[0089] In some embodiments, the content aggregator 430 may communicate with the equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via Internet browsers available on the equipment devices. For example, the user computer equipment 404 may include an implementation of Internet Explorer. When a user desires to access the media offerings of a content aggregator subscription (e.g., the user may want to access Netftix listings available as part of a content aggregator subscription to which the user subscribes), the control circuitry 304 implemented on the equipment device 404 may output a browser window containing the video mosaic display 200 on the display 312. The control circuitry 304 implemented on the equipment device 404 may then receive a selection from the user input interface 310 indicating that the user desires to access content from a subscription service that is part of the content aggregator subscription. For example, the user may direct a mouse pointer to highlight and select the text portion 216 (e.g., Netflix). The control circuitry 304 implemented on the equipment device 404 may then transmit the input corresponding to the text portion 216 to a process that launches an Internet browser, enabling the browser to retrieve and display an Internet website (e.g., www.netflix.com) associated with the selected subscription service.

[0090] In some embodiments, guidance data from content aggregator 430 may be provided to user equipment using a client-server approach. For example, user equipment devices may pull media guidance data from a server, or the server may push media guidance data to the user equipment devices. In some embodiments, a guidance application client resident on the user's equipment may initiate a session with content aggregator 430 and obtain guidance data as needed, for example, when the guidance data is out of date or when the user equipment device receives a request from the user to receive the data. Media guidance may be provided to user equipment at any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, at a user-specified period, at a system-specified period, upon request from the user equipment, etc.). Content aggregator 430 may provide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 with the media guidance application itself or software updates for the media guidance application.

[0091] In some embodiments, media guidance data may include viewer data. For example, viewer data may include current and / or historical user activity information (e.g., what content a user typically watches, what time of day the user watches content, whether the user interacts with social networks, what time the user interacts with social networks and posts information, what type of content the user typically watches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). Media guidance data may also include subscription data. For example, subscription data may identify sources or services to which a given user subscribes and / or sources or services to which a given user previously subscribed but later discontinued access (e.g., whether the user subscribes to a pay channel, whether the user added a paid level of service, whether the user increased their internet speed). In some embodiments, viewer data and / or subscription data may identify a given user's patterns for a period of more than one year. Media guidance data may include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used to generate a score indicative of the likelihood that a given user will discontinue access to a service / source. For example, the media guidance application may process the viewer data along with the subscription data using a model to generate a value or score that indicates the likelihood that a given user will terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score may indicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminate access to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the media guidance application may generate promotions and advertisements that encourage the user to maintain the particular service or source indicated by the score as one that the user will likely terminate access to.

[0092] The media guidance application may be, for example, a stand-alone application implemented on the user equipment device. For example, the media guidance application may be implemented as software or a set of executable instructions that may be stored in storage 308 and executed by control circuitry 304 of the equipment device 300. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be a client-server application, in which only the client application resides on the user equipment device and the server application resides on a remote server. For example, the media guidance application may be implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry 304 of the equipment device 300 and partially on a remote server as a server application running on the remote server's control circuitry (e.g., content aggregator 430). When executed by the remote server's control circuitry (such as content aggregator 430), the media guidance application may instruct the control circuitry to generate a guidance application display and transmit the generated display to the user equipment device. The server application may instruct the content aggregator's 430's control circuitry to transmit data for storage on the user equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry in the receiving user equipment to generate a guidance application display.

[0093] The content and / or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT content delivery allows internet-enabled user devices, including any of the user equipment devices described above, to receive content transmitted over the internet, including any of the content described above, in addition to content received via cable or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered over an internet connection provided by an internet service provider (ISP), although third parties also distribute content. ISPs may not be involved in the viewing capabilities, copyright, or redistribution of the content and may only transmit IP packets provided by the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers include YOUTUBE®, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video over IP packets. YOUTUBE is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is ​​a trademark owned by Netflix, Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu, LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively provide the media guidance data described above. In addition to the content and / or media guidance data, the provider of the OTT content may distribute a media guidance application (e.g., a web-based application or a cloud-based application), or the content may be displayed by a media guidance application stored on the user equipment device.

[0094] Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate several approaches or network configurations by which user equipment devices and sources of content and guidance data may communicate with one another for the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in any one or subset of these approaches, or in systems employing other approaches for delivering content and providing media guidance. The following four approaches provide specific illustrations of the general example of FIG. 4:

[0095] In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each other within a home network. The user equipment devices can communicate with each other directly via the short-range point-to-point communication scheme described above, via an indirect path through a hub or other similar device provided on the home network, or via communications network 414. Multiple individuals within a household may each operate different user equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media guidance information or settings to be communicated between different user equipment devices. For example, as described in further detail in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005 / 0251827 to Ellis et al., filed July 11, 2005, it may be desirable for a user to maintain consistent media guidance application settings on different user equipment devices within a home network. Different types of user equipment devices within a home network may also communicate with each other and transfer content. For example, a user may transfer content from a user computer device to a portable video player or portable music player.

[0096] In the second approach, a user may have multiple types of user equipment through which they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may have a home network accessed by in-home and mobile devices. The user may control their in-home devices through a media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For example, the user may access an online media guidance application on a website through their office personal computer or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled cell phone. The user may set various settings (e.g., recording, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidance application to control the user's in-home devices. The online guide may control the user's devices directly or by communicating with the media guidance application on the user's in-home devices. Various systems and methods for communication between user equipment devices, where the user equipment devices are located remotely from one another, are discussed, for example, in U.S. Patent No. 8,046,801, issued October 25, 2011 to Ellis et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0097] In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outside the home can use their media guidance application to communicate directly with content providers 416 and access content. Specifically, within the home, users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404 may access the media guidance application and navigate among and locate desired content. Users may also use wireless user communications devices 406 to access the media guidance application outside the home and navigate among and locate desired content.

[0098] In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate within a cloud computing environment and access cloud services. In a cloud computing environment, various types of computing services for content sharing, storage, or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networking sites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing and storage resources referred to as the "cloud." For example, a cloud may include a collection of server computing devices, which may be located in central or distributed locations, that provide cloud-based services to various types of users and devices connected via a network, e.g., the Internet via communications network 414. These cloud resources may include one or more content providers 416 and one or more content aggregators 430. Additionally or alternatively, the remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications devices 406. For example, the other user equipment devices may provide access to stored copies of videos or streamed videos. In such an embodiment, the user equipment devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

[0099] The cloud provides access for user equipment devices to services such as content storage, content sharing, or social networking services, among other examples, and to any of the content described above. Services can be provided in the cloud through a cloud computing service provider or through other providers of online services. For example, cloud-based services can include content storage services, content sharing sites, social networking sites, or other services through which user-supplied content is distributed for viewing by others on connected devices. These cloud-based services may enable user equipment devices to store content in and receive content from the cloud, rather than storing content locally and accessing the locally stored content.

[0100] Users may record content using a variety of content capture devices, such as camcorders, digital cameras with video modes, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing devices. Users can upload content to a content storage service on the cloud directly, for example, from user computing equipment 404 or from a wireless user communication device 406 with content capture features. Alternatively, users can first transfer content to a user equipment device, such as user computing equipment 404. The user equipment device that stores the content uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmission service on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipment devices can access the content directly from the user equipment device on which the user stored the content.

[0101] Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, for example, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktop application, a mobile application, and / or any combination of these access applications. The user equipment device may be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or the user equipment device may have some functionality without accessing cloud resources. For example, some applications running on the user equipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while other applications may be stored and launched on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user device may stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content from a second cloud resource. Or, a user device may download content from multiple cloud resources for more efficient downloads. In some embodiments, a user equipment device can use cloud resources for processing operations, such as those performed by the processing circuitry described in connection with FIG. 3.

[0102] Services that offer content subscriptions often allocate a finite number of streams to each subscription to allow users to stream media simultaneously. However, the number of streams allocated to each subscription is limited based on the type of subscription. When virtually all available streams of a subscription are in use, a user of a content subscription who wants to stream media may be forced to either wait until a stream becomes available or choose to control a stream used by another user. This can be particularly frustrating for users when, for example, all users of a content subscription are interested in watching new episodes of a television program as soon as the episode becomes available, and the number of users exceeds the number of available streams. Furthermore, users may not be aware of the option to purchase additional streams, nor may they realize how often other users of a content subscription find themselves unable to watch the content due to unavailable streams.

[0103] Thus, described herein are methods and systems for media guidance applications that free users from having to manage multiple accounts for multiple subscription services. For example, by monitoring user activity and managing user accounts on behalf of the user, control circuitry 304 may recommend subscription services and / or subscription service terms tailored to the user's individual needs.

[0104] Additionally, control circuitry 304 may act on behalf of the user and retrieve and process large amounts of data from multiple content providers to determine the subscription service and / or the particular plan from a particular subscription service that best meets the user's needs. As discussed in more detail below, media guidance applications may process large amounts of data (often accessible only by computer-readable code) by comparing separate and disparate data sets to identify trends and statistical optimizations for the user's benefit.

[0105] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may be configured to associate the number of available streams available to a user from a subscription service with a subscription associated with the user. The control circuitry 304 may be implemented in a server, such as within the media content provider 416 or within the content aggregator 430. The control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator 430 may communicate using the communications network 414 with various devices used by users to access subscriptions. These devices may include user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications devices 406. For example, the control circuitry 304 receives a request to stream media content (e.g., an episode of the television program "The Simpsons") from the media content provider 416 to the computer equipment 404. If the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator 430 then determines that the number of requests does not exceed the number of available streams, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator 430 streams the media content to the user computer equipment 404 using the communications network 414.

[0106] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may record data associated with each request in a log stored in storage device 308. For example, in response to a request to stream media content, control circuitry 304 records a timestamp associated with the request, a reference to the requested media content (e.g., a reference to an episode of the television program "The Simpsons"), an identifier of the user requesting the content, an identifier of the device the user is using to request the content, and the number of streams available at the time of the request. In addition, control circuitry 304 may store an indication of whether the request was fulfilled. To provide this indication, control circuitry 304 may compare the number of available streams to the total number of requests to stream media at the time of the request. Control circuitry 304 may then store an indication of whether the request was fulfilled.

[0107] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may record in a log stored in the storage device 308 a start timestamp and an end timestamp associated with each request to stream media data. The control circuitry 304 may use the timestamps to effectively record these instances in which a user was unable to stream content due to an insufficient number of available streams by correlating the timestamps with each instance. For example, the start timestamp corresponds to or near the time that the control circuitry 304 received a request to stream media to a user device. The end timestamp may indicate or near the time that the control circuitry 304 stopped sending the stream to the user device (e.g., when media playback completed or when the user requested that media playback end). When the control circuitry 304 receives a request to stream media to a device and the number of total requests at the time the requests are received exceeds the number of streams available to the user, the control circuitry 304 may record only the start timestamp without recording the end timestamp to indicate that the request to stream media was not fulfilled.

[0108] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may associate a finite number of streams with a subscription. For example, control circuitry 304 may associate nine streams with user Robert's subscription. In other words, nine streams are available for Robert to use to stream content. Thus, if any other users request to stream media using Robert's subscription, their requests will be fulfilled as long as the number of requests does not exceed the number of available streams at the time the requests are made.

[0109] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may detect multiple instances where the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 reads records stored in a log in the storage device 308 to identify records that include an identifier indicating that a given request associated with the record was not fulfilled. In another example, the control circuitry 304 reads start timestamps associated with the requests from the log stored in the storage device 308. For each start timestamp read, the control circuitry 304 may determine the number of overlaps with a timestamp range defined by a pair of start and end timestamps. For example, the timestamp range corresponds to the duration between a start timestamp (i.e., corresponding to a time associated with or near the time the control circuitry 304 received a request to stream media to the user device) and an end timestamp (i.e., corresponding to or near the time the control circuitry 304 stopped sending streams to the user device). The control circuitry 304 may then determine whether the number of overlaps exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. In cases where the number of duplicates exceeds the number of available streams, the control circuitry 304 may associate the duplicates with an instance. The control circuitry 304 may further analyze all or a subset of the timestamps stored in the log to determine the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to users from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 may detect 12 instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to users from the subscription service. In other words, on 12 occasions, at least one user was unable to access a stream from the subscription service.

[0110] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may generate multiple timestamps, each corresponding to one of the multiple instances. For example, based on detecting a number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, the control circuitry 304 stores a timestamp associated with each instance in a list in the storage device 308. Continuing with the above example of analyzing start and end timestamps, after the control circuitry 304 detects multiple instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, the control circuitry 304 associates each instance with a corresponding start timestamp. For example, if the control circuitry 304 detects 12 instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, the control circuitry 304 generates and stores in the storage device 308 a list of timestamps, each corresponding to one of the 12 instances.

[0111] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may compare each of the multiple timestamps with a timestamp range corresponding to a subscription period for the subscription service to determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period. For example, if the control circuitry 304 generates 12 timestamps, the control circuitry 304 may compare each of the 12 timestamps with the subscription period for the subscription service and determine (based on their corresponding timestamps) the number of instances that fall within the subscription period. As previously discussed, the subscription period may be defined by a start timestamp and an end timestamp. The control circuitry 304 then compares each of the 12 timestamps and determines whether each timestamp falls within the time range defined by the start and end timestamps of the subscription period. Based on the number of timestamps that fall within the range, the control circuitry 304 may determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry 304 may determine that 9 of the 12 generated timestamps fall within the time range defined by the start and end timestamps of the subscription period.

[0112] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may compare the number of instances occurring during the subscription period at the server with a threshold number for the subscription period. For example, the threshold number may indicate the number of instances after which a user may become frustrated with a lack of available streams. By determining whether the threshold number has been exceeded, the control circuitry may determine whether the user is likely to desire to obtain additional streams. As will become more apparent below, the control circuitry 304 may utilize different approaches to determine the threshold number for the subscription period. Thus, instead of relying on a single static threshold, the control circuitry may apply a threshold derived from the user's viewing habits, since individual users have different abilities to tolerate unavailable streams. For example, the control circuitry 304 may base the threshold number on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 may target users who consistently experience unavailable streams. To that end, if control circuitry 304 determines that the number of streams available to a user from a subscription service (e.g., nine streams) is greater than the average number of streams available to an average user of the subscription service (e.g., the average user may be associated with only two streams), control circuitry 304 sets the threshold number to a lower number (e.g., four). Because users in subscriptions associated with multiple streams may have previously added extra streams to minimize streaming conflicts, such users may already be susceptible to experiencing additional streaming conflicts. Thus, control circuitry 304 may target users in such systems when the number of streaming conflicts exceeds a lower threshold.

[0113] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may transmit a message from the server to one of the different devices via the communications network 414 in response to determining that the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the subscription period. By transmitting the message, the control circuitry 304 may address the user's frustration with being unable to stream content and may provide an opportunity to address the issue of an insufficient number of streams available to the user. The control circuitry 304 may determine whether an alternative subscription service / plan could improve the number of streams available to the user when compared to data stream input and output metrics, while controlling for other variables (e.g., price). If applicable, the control circuitry may transmit a message recommending the alternative subscription service / plan (e.g., indicating that additional streams are available for purchase). For example, in response to determining that the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period (e.g., 12) exceeds a threshold number (e.g., 8), the control circuitry 304 transmits a message from the server to the device indicating that a user associated with the device can purchase additional streams. The control circuitry 304 may generate a message to indicate that a user can purchase additional streams due to frequent streaming conflicts. Control circuitry 304 may transmit messages for display on display 312 of user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless communication device 406. For example, control circuitry 304 generates messages for display within program listings display 100, which is displayed on display 312 of user television equipment 402.

[0114] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may select a threshold number for a subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on the length of time of the subscription period. The control circuitry 304 may determine the length of time associated with the subscription period by accessing data associated with the subscription stored in the storage device 308. For example, the control circuitry 304 determines the length of the subscription period based on a start timestamp and an end timestamp for the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry 304 determines a one-month subscription period. In this example, setting a low threshold may be undesirable because the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service is unlikely to be high, and the user may not be interested in acting on a message if they do not perceive a need to increase the number of streams or modify their viewing habits. To that end, the control circuitry 304 selects a low threshold number (e.g., 10) to account for the fact that, on average, there may be fewer instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service during a one-month period compared to, for example, a six-month period. Thus, control circuitry 304 sets a larger threshold value if the length of time is determined to be longer (eg, one year).

[0115] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may store multiple thresholds associated with subscription periods in the storage device 308. For example, the control circuitry 304 may analyze how frequently streaming conflicts (e.g., the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from a subscription service exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service) occur during a subscription period of a given length. The control circuitry 304 further correlates instances in which conflicts occurred during a subscription period with instances in which the user took action related to their subscription. For example, the control circuitry 304 may determine that a user added new streams to their subscription around the time that some conflicts occurred (e.g., a situation in which the user became dissatisfied with streaming conflicts and therefore acted to avoid future streaming conflicts by increasing the number of available streams). In another example, the control circuitry 304 may determine that a user canceled their subscription around the time that a certain number of conflicts occurred (e.g., a situation in which the user became dissatisfied with streaming conflicts and therefore acted to cancel their subscription). The control circuitry 304 may perform statistical analysis on these instances in which actions taken on a subscription are correlated with a certain number of streaming conflicts to determine an effective threshold number to associate with the subscription period length. In this manner, control circuitry 304 determines a threshold number that will allow it to effectively target users frustrated by streaming conflicts by transmitting useful messages while at the same time avoiding disrupting other users who may be less likely to experience frustration with streaming conflicts. Control circuitry 304 may store the threshold number in a record associated with a given subscription period in storage device 308.

[0116] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select the threshold number for a subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, a user of a subscription characterized by a small number of streams available to the user from the subscription service is more likely to be interested in understanding how frequently the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service because streaming conflicts are more likely to occur when only one or two streams are available. On the other hand, a user of a subscription characterized by a large number of streams available to the user from the subscription service is less likely to be interested in understanding how frequently the number of requests to simultaneously stream media exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service because there are more likely to already be enough streams in the user's subscription to avoid most streaming conflicts.

[0117] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may store in the storage device 308 multiple thresholds associated with the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 analyzes how frequently conflicts (e.g., the number of instances when the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service) occur for each number of streams that could potentially be made available to the user. For example, the control circuitry 304 determines the average number of conflicts that occur when only one stream is available to the user, when two streams are available, etc. The control circuitry 304 may further correlate the average number of conflicts that occur for each number of available streams with instances in which the user took an action related to their subscription. For example, the control circuitry 304 determines that the user frequently added new streams to their subscription when there was only one available stream (e.g., a situation in which the user could stream media to only one device, and thus the user acted to avoid future streaming conflicts by increasing the number of available streams). In another embodiment, the control circuitry 304 determines that a user canceled their subscription around the time a certain number of conflicts occurred (e.g., a situation in which a user became frustrated with streaming conflicts and therefore acted to cancel their subscription). The control circuitry 304 may perform statistical analysis on these instances in which actions taken on a subscription are correlated with the number of available streams to determine a threshold number to associate with the subscription length. The control circuitry 304 may then store the threshold number in a record associated with the subscription in storage 308.

[0118] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may compare each of the multiple timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of a subscription period for the subscription service to determine the number of multiple instances that occurred during the portion of the subscription period. For example, control circuitry 304 may compare each of the timestamps to a range of timestamps corresponding to a portion of the subscription period during which a popular program airs (e.g., all portions of the subscription period that may correspond to the 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM time slot on Wednesdays, corresponding to the airing of new episodes of the program "The Simpsons"), and determine the occurrence of 10 timestamps within the range of timestamps corresponding to the portion of the subscription period.

[0119] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may determine the portion of the subscription period by identifying times during a day, week, or month during which the user frequently streams media. For example, control circuitry 304 may identify the portion of the subscription period based on identifying times during a week that correspond to a certain percentage (e.g., 75%) of total stream consumption by analyzing data stored in a log in storage device 308. For example, control circuitry 304 may determine that 75% of all media streaming during the subscription period occurred between 6:00 PM and 12:00 PM (e.g., after the user returns from work or school). Control circuitry 304 may then define the portion of the subscription period to include only the time range defined by 6:00 PM to 12:00 PM every day.

[0120] Additionally, control circuitry 304 may compare the number of multiple instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period to a threshold number of portions of the subscription period at the server. For example, control circuitry 304 may compare the number of multiple instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period (e.g., 8) to a threshold number (e.g., 6).

[0121] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may modify a message transmitted from the server to one of the different devices in response to determining that the number of multiple instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry 304 determines that the number of multiple instances occurring during the portion of the subscription period (e.g., 8) exceeds a threshold number (e.g., 6). In response, the control circuitry 304 modifies a message transmitted from the server to one of the devices by, for example, indicating that the number of requests to simultaneously stream media will often exceed the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service during the corresponding portion of the subscription period (e.g., during a time slot between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM on Wednesdays, which may correspond to the broadcast of new episodes of the show "The Simpsons"). For example, the control circuitry 304 generates a message such as, "Consider watching the program before 7:00 PM today, as other users associated with your subscription will likely be watching new The Simpsons episodes." Alternatively, control circuitry 304 may generate a message indicating that additional streams may be purchased in response to determining that the number of multiple instances (e.g., 8) that occurred during a portion of the subscription period exceeds a threshold number (e.g., 6). For example, control circuitry 304 may generate a message such as, "It appears your subscription does not support your viewing habits. Would you like to know how to increase the number of streams in your subscription?"

[0122] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select a threshold number for a portion of a subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the length of time of the subscription period. For example, as described above in connection with selecting a threshold number for a subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on the length of time of the subscription period, control circuitry 304 may apply similar principles to select a threshold number for a portion of a subscription period.

[0123] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may select a threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. For example, the control circuitry 304 may determine that the season premiere of a popular television program (e.g., "The Simpsons") falls within the portion of the subscription period by sending a query to the content aggregator 430 via the communications network 414. In response, the control circuitry 304 may select a lower threshold number for the portion of the subscription period to account for the fact that a majority of users of the subscription are interested in watching episodes of the season of the popular television program (e.g., "The Simpsons"). In this way, users may be more likely to be informed of streaming conflicts at a time when they are more likely to be concerned about streaming conflicts. In another example, the control circuitry 304 determines that dates corresponding to summer months (e.g., June, July, and August) occur within the portion of the subscription period. Summer months are typically associated with fewer new television programs being broadcast. Additionally, users with children are more likely to spend less time streaming media, and thus, users may instead spend more time on vacation and outdoors compared to months in other seasons. Thus, during summer months, users may be less frustrated by streaming conflicts, and streaming conflicts may also be less likely to occur. Thus, control circuitry 304 may set a higher threshold for a portion of the subscription period from a plurality of potential threshold numbers based on a date corresponding to a portion of the subscription period that falls in the months of June, July, or August. In this way, users may receive fewer messages, if any, during months when the user may stream media less frequently.

[0124] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may select a threshold number for a portion of a subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on a time of day corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. For example, control circuitry 304 monitors a user's viewing history by accessing a profile associated with the subscription. In one example, control circuitry 304 queries a user history stored in subscription data on user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless user communications device 406. In a different example, control circuitry 304 queries a user history on storage 308 of a media guidance data source. By analyzing the user history, control circuitry 304 determines the times during which a user is most likely to stream media. In one example, control circuitry 304 determines that most users stream media at night (e.g., after returning from work or school). Control circuitry 304 may select a lower threshold number for the times during which a user is most likely to stream media to help users understand their viewing habits and streaming needs. For example, in response to determining that a portion of the subscription period (e.g., a time slot between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM during a given day) corresponds to a time when users of the subscription are most likely to stream media, control circuitry 304 selects a low threshold number (e.g., to take into account the fact that streaming conflicts are more likely to occur after users return from work and school).

[0125] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may select the threshold number for the portion of the subscription period from multiple potential threshold numbers based on the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period. For example, some subscription services improve their content offerings by periodically adding new media assets. If this occurs, users may be interested in streaming more media than they had before the new media assets became available. Thus, more streaming conflicts are likely to occur. The control circuitry 304 may determine the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period based on the number of media assets added to the subscription service media offering during the portion of the subscription period. The control circuitry 304 may determine the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during the portion of the subscription period by sending a query to the content aggregator 430 via the communications network 404. Such a query may request the number of media assets added to the subscription service offering during a time period corresponding to the portion of the subscription period. For example, if the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during part of the subscription period is large compared to the number of media assets made available from the subscription service during other parts of the subscription period, the control circuitry 304 may set a low threshold number to take into account the fact that users of the subscription may be more likely to stream media assets that have not been streamed before (e.g., because they were recently added) and therefore more likely to want to understand how often the number of requests exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service.

[0126] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may transmit a message including a recommendation to reduce the frequency of the multiple instances. For example, in response to determining that the number of multiple instances occurring during the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the subscription period, the control circuitry 304 transmits a message from the server to one of the different devices. The message may include a recommendation to reduce the frequency of the multiple instances. For example, the control circuitry 304 informs the user that the user will be more likely to successfully stream media outside of certain times (e.g., outside of the 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM time slot on Wednesdays, which may correspond to the broadcast of new episodes of the show "The Simpsons," which the user is interested in streaming). The message may include information that may be useful when informing the user about a streaming conflict. For example, such information may include the name of the media asset, the user's name, the number of streaming conflicts occurring during the subscription period, instructions for increasing or decreasing the number of streams in the subscription, and recommendations on how to minimize the number of future streaming conflicts.

[0127] 5 and 6 present an algorithm for detecting the number of instances in which a control circuit (e.g., control circuit 304) simultaneously streams media from a subscription service to different devices and for transmitting a message to one of the devices when the number of instances exceeds a certain number, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the algorithm may be encoded on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) as a set of instructions that are decoded and executed by a processing circuit (e.g., processing circuit 306). The processing circuit may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuit 304, such as tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, encryption, decryption, scaling, analog-to-digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

[0128] The flowchart of FIG. 5 illustrates an algorithm by which control circuitry (eg, control circuitry 304) determines the number of instances that occurred within a subscription period, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0129] In step 502, an algorithm will be initiated that detects the number of instances that occurred within the subscription period when the number of requests to stream media simultaneously from the subscription service to different devices exceeded the number of available streams, based on the requests to stream media. In some embodiments, this may occur either directly or indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., from a signal received by the control circuitry 304 or the user input interface 310). For example, the algorithm may be initiated directly in response to the control circuitry 304 receiving a signal from the user input interface 310, or the control circuitry 304 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., by generating a prompt to be displayed on the display 312) prior to invoking the algorithm.

[0130] In step 504, control circuitry 304 then reads the next instance of the timestamp from the stored memory. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive a single basic data structure representing the value of the timestamp. In some embodiments, the value may be stored as part of a larger data structure, and control circuitry 304 may read the value by executing an appropriate accessor method to read the value from the larger data structure.

[0131] In step 506, the control circuitry 304 proceeds to compare the value of the read timestamp with the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription period. In some embodiments, the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription period may be stored (e.g., on the storage device 308) prior to initiating the algorithm. In some embodiments, the values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription may also be read for each and every instance of the read timestamp, and the values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription may change with each iteration. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may directly compare the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription with the value of the read timestamp by accessing the values ​​from memory and performing a value comparison, respectively. In some instances, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a comparison function (e.g., for an object-to-object comparison) to compare the read timestamp and the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the subscription.

[0132] In step 508, the control circuit 304 compares the value of the read timestamp and the stored value of the end timestamp associated with the subscription to determine whether the value of the read timestamp is greater than the value of the end timestamp associated with the subscription. If the condition is met, the algorithm may proceed to step 510. If the condition is not met, the algorithm may instead proceed to step 512.

[0133] In step 510, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to ignore the instance associated with the read timestamp based on the condition being met in step 508. After the subroutine is executed, the algorithm may proceed to step 516, where all instances of the read timestamp have been considered and it is determined whether further iterations are required.

[0134] In step 512, the control circuit 304 compares the values ​​of the read timestamp and the start timestamp to determine whether the value of the read timestamp is greater than the value of the start timestamp. If the condition is met, the algorithm may proceed to step 514. If the condition is not met, the algorithm may instead proceed to step 516.

[0135] In step 514, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to add the instance associated with the identified timestamp to the count of instances that are within the subscription period based on the condition of step 512 being met. After the subroutine is executed, the algorithm may proceed to step 516, where all instances of the timestamp have been considered and it is determined whether further iterations are required.

[0136] In step 516, control circuitry 304 will check whether all instances of the timestamp have been considered. If all of the instances have been evaluated, control circuitry 304 may proceed to step 518. For example, control circuitry 304 may call a function to check whether there is a next element of the timestamp. If the function returns true (i.e., there are still instances that need to be processed), control circuitry 304 may proceed to step 504.

[0137] In step 518, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to compare the total number of identified instances to a threshold number.

[0138] It is contemplated that the description of FIG. 5 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the descriptions provided with respect to the algorithm of FIG. 5 may be performed in alternate orders or in parallel, so as to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, conditional statements and logical evaluations such as those in 508 and 512 may be performed in any order, in parallel, or simultaneously, to reduce delay or increase the speed of a system or method. As a further example, in some embodiments, several timestamp instances may be evaluated in parallel using multiple logical processor threads, or the algorithm may be extended by incorporating branch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the algorithm of FIG. 5 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and any of the devices or apparatus discussed with respect to FIGS. 3-4 may be used to implement one or more portions of the algorithm.

[0139] The pseudocode in Figure 6 describes an algorithm that would begin based on a request to stream media, and that would detect the number of instances that occurred within a subscription period in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from a subscription service to different devices exceeded the number of available streams, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the process described by the pseudocode in Figure 6 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and in a variety of different hardware, and that the style and format should not be construed as limiting, but rather as a general template of steps and procedures that would be consistent with code used to implement some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0140] At line 601, the algorithm may launch a subroutine to initialize variables and prepare to determine the number of instances that occurred within the subscription period, beginning on line 605. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may copy instructions from a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) into RAM or into a cache for the processing circuitry 306 during the initialization phase. Additionally, in some embodiments, the values ​​of the stored subscription period start timestamp and the stored subscription period end time that are being used in the comparison may be read, set, and stored at 601.

[0141] At line 605, the control circuitry 304 may receive instances of timestamps. In some embodiments, these instances may be read from stored memory. The control circuitry 304 receives the instances of timestamps, for example, by receiving a pointer to an array of timestamp values. In another example, the control circuitry 304 receives an object of a class, such as an iterator object, that contains elements of the timestamps.

[0142] At line 606, the control circuit 304 may iterate through various instances of the timestamp; if only a single instance is available, the loop will execute only once. This loop may be implemented in several ways, depending on the hardware and software language choices used to implement the algorithm of Figure 6; for example, it may be implemented as part of a "for" or "while" loop.

[0143] At line 607, the control circuitry 304 will store the value of the timestamp in a temporary variable "A." In some embodiments, the timestamp value is stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the timestamp value may be obtained through an appropriate accessor method. In some embodiments, the timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may call a function that performs a comparison of the read timestamp to the subscription period start time. In some embodiments, the timestamp may be encoded as a basic data structure, and rather than using a temporary variable, the read timestamp may be used directly in the comparison at lines 610 and 612.

[0144] At line 608, the control circuit 304 will store the value of the subscription period start timestamp in the temporary variable "B." Similar to a timestamp, in some embodiments, the value of the subscription period start timestamp may be stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the value of the subscription period start timestamp may be obtained through an accessor method. In some embodiments, the subscription period start timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm, or the subscription period start timestamp may be a basic data structure and used directly in the comparison at line 612.

[0145] At line 609, the control circuit 304 will store the value of the subscription period end time in the temporary variable "C." Like the start timestamp, in some embodiments, the value of the subscription period end timestamp may be stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the value of the subscription period end timestamp may be obtained through an accessor method. In some embodiments, the subscription period end timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm, or the subscription period end timestamp may be a basic data structure and used directly in the comparison at line 610.

[0146] At line 610, the control circuit 304 will compare the values ​​of A and C to determine if A is greater than C.

[0147] At line 611, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to ignore the instance associated with the read timestamp control circuit if the condition at line 610 is met.

[0148] At line 612, the control circuit 304 will compare the values ​​of A and B to determine if A is greater than B.

[0149] At line 613, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to add the instance associated with the identified timestamp to the count of instances that are within the subscription period if the condition at line 612 is met.

[0150] At line 615, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to determine whether all instances associated with the timestamp have been considered using the control circuit 304 if none of the conditions at lines 610 or 612 are met.

[0151] At line 617, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a termination subroutine after the algorithm has performed its function. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may destroy variables, perform garbage collection, free memory, or flush the cache of the processing circuitry 306.

[0152] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in FIG. 6 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and with a variety of different hardware, and that the particular choices and locations of the primitives, logical evaluations, and functional evaluations are not intended to be limiting. It will also be apparent that the code can be refactored or rewritten to manipulate the order of various logical evaluations, perform several iterations in parallel rather than a single iterative loop, or otherwise manipulate and optimize execution time and performance metrics without fundamentally changing the input or final output. For example, in some embodiments, a break condition may be imposed after lines 610 and 612 to accelerate operation, or a conditional statement may be replaced with a case switch. In some embodiments, rather than iterating over all instances of the timestamp in step 606, in some embodiments the code may be rewritten so that control circuitry 304 is instructed to evaluate multiple instances of the timestamp simultaneously on multiple processors or processor threads, reducing the number of iterations required and potentially accelerating computation time.

[0153] 7 and 8 present an algorithm for detecting instances in which a control circuit (e.g., control circuit 304) simultaneously streams media from a subscription service to different devices and transmits a message to one of the devices when the number of instances exceeds a certain number, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the algorithm may be encoded on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) as a set of instructions that are decoded and executed by a processing circuit (e.g., processing circuit 306). The processing circuit may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuit 304, such as tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, encryption, decryption, scaling, analog-to-digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

[0154] The flowchart of FIG. 7 illustrates an algorithm by which control circuitry (eg, control circuitry 304) determines the number of instances that occurred during a portion of a subscription period, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0155] In step 702, an algorithm will be initiated that, based on the requests to stream media, detects the number of instances that occurred within a portion of the subscription period in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeded the number of available streams. In some embodiments, this may occur either directly or indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., from a signal received by the control circuitry 304 or the user input interface 310). For example, the algorithm may be initiated directly in response to the control circuitry 304 receiving a signal from the user input interface 310, or the control circuitry 304 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., by generating a prompt to be displayed on the display 312) prior to invoking the algorithm.

[0156] In step 704, control circuitry 304 then reads the next instance of the timestamp from the stored memory. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive a single basic data structure representing the value of the timestamp. In some embodiments, the value may be stored as part of a larger data structure, and control circuitry 304 may read the value by executing an appropriate accessor method to read the value from the larger data structure.

[0157] In step 706, the control circuitry 304 proceeds to compare the value of the read timestamp with the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription period. In some embodiments, the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription period may be stored (e.g., on the storage device 308) prior to initiating the algorithm. In some embodiments, the values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription may also be read for each and every instance of the read timestamp, and the values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription period may change with each iteration. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may directly compare the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription with the value of the read timestamp by accessing the values ​​from memory and performing a value comparison, respectively. In some instances, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a comparison function (e.g., for an object-to-object comparison) to compare the read timestamp and the stored values ​​of the start timestamp and the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription period.

[0158] In step 708, the control circuitry 304 compares the value of the read timestamp and the value of the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription period to determine whether the value of the read timestamp is greater than the value of the end timestamp associated with the portion of the subscription. If the condition is met, the algorithm may proceed to step 710. If the condition is not met, the algorithm may instead proceed to step 712.

[0159] In step 710, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to ignore the instance associated with the read timestamp based on the condition being met in step 708. After the subroutine is executed, the algorithm may proceed to step 716, where all instances of the read timestamp are considered and it is determined whether further iterations are required.

[0160] In step 712, the control circuit 304 compares the values ​​of the read timestamp and the start timestamp to determine whether the value of the read timestamp is greater than the value of the start timestamp. If the condition is met, the algorithm may proceed to step 714. If the condition is not met, the algorithm may instead proceed to step 716.

[0161] In step 714, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to add the instance associated with the identified timestamp to the count of instances that are within the portion of the subscription period based on the condition of step 712 being satisfied. After the subroutine is executed, the algorithm may proceed to step 716, where all instances of the timestamp have been considered and it is determined whether further iterations are required.

[0162] In step 716, control circuitry 304 will check whether all instances of the timestamp have been considered. If all of the instances have been evaluated, control circuitry 304 may proceed to step 718. For example, control circuitry 304 may call a function to check whether there is a next element of the timestamp. If the function returns true (i.e., there are still instances that need to be processed), control circuitry 304 may proceed to step 704.

[0163] In step 718, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to compare the total number of identified instances to a threshold number.

[0164] It is contemplated that the description of FIG. 7 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the descriptions provided with respect to the algorithm of FIG. 7 may be performed in alternate orders or in parallel, so as to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, conditional statements and logical evaluations such as those in 708 and 712 may be performed in any order, in parallel, or simultaneously, to reduce delay or increase the speed of a system or method. As a further example, in some embodiments, several timestamp instances may be evaluated in parallel using multiple logical processor threads, or the algorithm may be extended by incorporating branch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the algorithm of FIG. 7 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and any of the devices or apparatus discussed with respect to FIGS. 3-4 may be used to implement one or more portions of the algorithm.

[0165] The pseudocode in Figure 8 describes an algorithm, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, that would begin based on a request to stream media and that would detect the number of instances that occurred within a portion of a subscription period in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from a subscription service to different devices exceeded the number of available streams. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in Figure 8 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and in a variety of different hardware, and that the style and format should not be construed as limiting, but rather as a general template of steps and procedures that would be consistent with code used to implement some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0166] At line 801, the algorithm may launch a subroutine to initialize variables and prepare to determine the number of instances that occurred within the portion of the subscription period, beginning on line 805. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may copy instructions from a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) into RAM or into a cache for the processing circuitry 306 during the initialization phase. Additionally, in some embodiments, a stored start-time value for the portion of the subscription period and a stored end-time value for the portion of the subscription period that are being used in the comparison may be read, set, and stored at 801.

[0167] At line 805, the control circuitry 304 may receive instances of timestamps. In some embodiments, these instances may be read from stored memory. The control circuitry 304 may receive instances of timestamps, for example, by receiving a pointer to an array of timestamp values. In another example, the control circuitry 304 may receive an object of a class such as an iterator object that contains elements of the timestamps.

[0168] At line 806, the control circuit 304 may iterate through various instances of the timestamp; if only a single instance is available, the loop will execute only once. This loop may be implemented in several ways, depending on the hardware and software language choices used to implement the algorithm of Figure 8; for example, it may be implemented as part of a "for" or "while" loop.

[0169] At line 807, the control circuitry 304 will store the value of the timestamp in a temporary variable "A." In some embodiments, the timestamp value is stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the timestamp value may be obtained through an appropriate accessor method. In some embodiments, the timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may call a function that compares the read timestamp to the start time of a portion of the subscription period. In some embodiments, the timestamp may be encoded as a basic data structure, and rather than using a temporary variable, the read timestamp may be used directly in the comparison at lines 810 and 812.

[0170] At line 808, the control circuitry 304 will store the value of the subscription portion start time in temporary variable "B." Similar to the timestamp, in some embodiments, the subscription portion start timestamp value may be stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the subscription portion start timestamp value may be obtained through an accessor method. In some embodiments, the subscription portion start timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm, or the subscription portion start timestamp may be a base data structure and used directly in the comparison at line 812.

[0171] At line 809, the control circuitry 304 will store the value of the subscription portion end timestamp in the temporary variable "C." Like the start timestamp, in some embodiments, the subscription portion end timestamp value may be stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the subscription portion end timestamp value may be obtained through an accessor method. In some embodiments, the subscription portion end timestamp may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm, or the subscription portion end timestamp may be a basic data structure and used directly in the comparison at line 810.

[0172] At line 810, the control circuit 304 will compare the values ​​of A and C to determine whether A is greater than C.

[0173] At line 811, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to ignore the instance associated with the read timestamp control circuit if the condition at line 810 is met.

[0174] At line 812, the control circuit 304 will compare the values ​​of A and B to determine whether A is greater than B.

[0175] At line 813, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to add the instance associated with the identified timestamp to the count of instances that are within the subscription period portion if the condition at line 812 is met.

[0176] At line 814, control circuitry 304 will determine whether either condition at lines 810 or 812 is met. If neither condition is met, the instruction at line 815 may be evaluated and executed.

[0177] At line 817, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a termination subroutine after the algorithm has performed its function. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may destroy variables, perform garbage collection, free memory, or flush the cache of the processing circuitry 306.

[0178] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in FIG. 8 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and with a variety of different hardware, and that the particular choices and locations of the primitives, logical evaluations, and function evaluations are not intended to be limiting. It will also be apparent that the code can be refactored or rewritten to manipulate the order of various logical evaluations, perform several iterations in parallel rather than a single iterative loop, or otherwise manipulate and optimize execution time and performance metrics without fundamentally changing the input or final output. For example, in some embodiments, a break condition may be imposed after lines 810 and 812 to accelerate operation, or a conditional statement may be replaced with a case switch. In some embodiments, rather than iterating over all instances of the timestamp in step 806, in some embodiments the code may be rewritten so that control circuitry 304 is instructed to evaluate multiple instances of the timestamp simultaneously on multiple processors or processor threads, reducing the number of iterations required and potentially accelerating computation time.

[0179] 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in transmitting a message to a device when the number of instances exceeds a certain number. Note that process 900, or any step thereof, may occur on or be provided by any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 900 may be performed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and / or 406 (FIG. 4) to detect when the number of instances exceeds a certain number and to transmit a message to the device. Additionally, one or more steps of process 900 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

[0180] Process 900 begins at step 902, where control circuitry 304 detects multiple instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to users from the subscription service. Control circuitry 304 receives requests from various devices used by users to access the subscription service. These devices may include user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications devices 406. In one embodiment, control circuitry 304 detects that in 12 instances, the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to users from the subscription service. In other words, on 12 occasions, at least one subscribing user was unable to stream content from the content subscription service.

[0181] In step 904, control circuitry 304 generates a plurality of timestamps corresponding to each of the plurality of instances. For example, based on detecting the number of instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, control circuitry 304 stores a timestamp associated with each instance in a list in storage device 308. For example, if control circuitry 304 detects 12 instances in which the number of requests to simultaneously stream media from the subscription service to different devices exceeds the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service, control circuitry 304 generates and stores in storage device 308 a list of timestamps, each timestamp corresponding to one of the 12 instances.

[0182] In step 906, control circuitry 304 determines the number of instances that occurred within the subscription period based on the timestamps by comparing each of the multiple timestamps with a timestamp range corresponding to the subscription period for the subscription service and determining the number of multiple instances that occurred within the subscription period. For example, if control circuitry 304 generates 12 timestamps, control circuitry 304 compares each of the 12 timestamps with the subscription period for the subscription service. Control circuitry 304 then compares each of the 12 timestamps to determine whether each timestamp falls within a time range defined by the start and end timestamps of the subscription period. Based on the number of timestamps that fall within the range, control circuitry 304 determines the number of multiple instances that occurred within the subscription period. For example, control circuitry 304 determines that 9 of the 12 generated timestamps fall within the time range defined by the start and end timestamps of the subscription period.

[0183] In step 908, control circuitry 304 compares the number of multiple instances that occurred during the subscription period with a threshold number for the subscription period. Control circuitry 304 may use different approaches to determine the threshold number for the subscription period. For example, control circuitry 304 may base the threshold number on the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service. For example, control circuitry 304 may target users who are consistently experiencing unavailable streams. To that end, if control circuitry 304 determines that the number of streams available to the user from the subscription service (e.g., nine streams) is greater than the average number of streams available to the average user of the subscription service (e.g., the average user may be associated with only two streams), control circuitry 304 may set the threshold number to a larger number (e.g., 12).

[0184] In step 910, control circuitry 304 transmits a message to the device if the number of instances occurring within the subscription period exceeds a threshold number. For example, control circuitry 304 transmits a message over the network from the server to one of the different devices via communications network 414 in response to determining that the number of instances occurring within the subscription period exceeds a threshold number for the subscription period. For example, in response to determining that the number of instances occurring within the subscription period (e.g., 12) exceeds a threshold number (e.g., 8), control circuitry 304 transmits a message from the server to the device indicating that a user associated with the device can purchase additional streams. In one embodiment, control circuitry 304 generates a message to indicate that a user can purchase additional streams due to frequent streaming conflicts. Control circuitry 304 transmits the message for display on display 312 of user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless communication device 406. For example, control circuitry 304 generates a message for display within program listings display 100, which is displayed on display 312 of user television equipment 402.

[0185] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of Figure 9 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the steps and descriptions described with respect to Figure 9 may be performed in alternate orders or in parallel to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in any order, in parallel, or substantially simultaneously to reduce delays or increase the speed of the system or method.

[0186] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the methods involved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer program product, including a computer-usable and / or readable medium. For example, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memory device, such as a CD-ROM disk or a conventional ROM device, or a random-access memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette, having computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should also be understood that the methods, techniques, and processes involved in the present invention may be performed using processing circuitry. For example, detection of social media interactions associated with a user may be performed by a processing circuit, such as the processing circuit 306 of FIG. 3. The processing circuit may be, for example, a general-purpose processor, a customized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within the equipment device 300, the media content provider 416, or the content aggregator 430. For example, media asset metadata as described herein may be stored in and retrieved from the storage device 308 of FIG. 3 or the content aggregator 430 of FIG. 4. Additionally, the processing circuitry or computer program may update settings associated with the user, such as user profile attributes, and update information stored in storage device 308 of FIG. 3 or content aggregator 430 of FIG.

[0187] The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Those skilled in the art will understand that steps of the processes discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and / or rearranged, and that any additional steps may be performed without departing from the scope of the present invention. More generally, the above disclosure is intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Only the following claims are intended to set boundaries as to what the present invention encompasses. Furthermore, it should be noted that features and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and that flowcharts or examples related to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, performed in a different order, or performed in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and / or methods described above may be applied to or used in accordance with other systems and / or methods.

[0188] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may automatically receive authentication information from a content aggregator service. For example, a media guidance application implemented on control circuitry 304 may receive the authentication information and associate the authentication information with a user account before control circuitry 304 receives a request to subscribe the user to a subscription service. Control circuitry 304 may then receive the request to subscribe the user to the subscription service, thus validating the account and granting the user access to the subscription service offerings.

[0189] In some aspects, the control circuitry 304 may receive a first authentication key at a content provider server (e.g., Hulu) associated with the subscription service from a content aggregator server (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) associated with a second subscription service, where the first authentication key is received before the user subscribes to the first subscription service. For example, the user may subscribe to the content aggregator service (i.e., the second subscription service). Once the user completes their registration with the second subscription service, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server associated with the second subscription service may generate authentication keys to associate the user with some or all of the subscription services available as part of the content aggregator subscription and transfer the generated authentication keys to servers associated with each subscription service, including the first subscription service. Each authentication key may be encoded to ensure that information stored in the key is securely transmitted to the servers associated with each subscription service. Additionally, each authentication key may include information identifying the user and the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator). The control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server associated with the first subscription service may then receive the generated authentication key from the content aggregator server. In some instances, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may decrypt the authentication key and extract the information stored in the key. The control circuitry 304 may additionally store the authentication key on the content provider server. In that way, the control circuitry 304 may transmit authentication information associated with the first user to the first subscription service without burdening the user with manually creating an account.

[0190] In some cases, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a first authentication key from the content aggregator server after the user has registered for the second subscription service, but before the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server detects that the user wishes to subscribe to the first subscription service. For example, an entity providing the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) may reach an agreement with an entity providing the first subscription service (e.g., Hulu) to provide subscriptions to the first subscription service to users of the second subscription service at a discounted rate. Before the user subscribes to the first subscription service, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may transmit the first authentication key to the content aggregator server.

[0191] In some cases, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server associated with the second subscription service may generate authentication keys to associate the user with some or all of the subscription services available as part of the content aggregator subscription and forward the generated authentication keys to servers associated with each subscription service, including the first subscription service. Each authentication key may be encrypted to ensure that the information stored in the key is securely transmitted to the servers associated with each subscription service. For example, the authentication key may be encrypted via a public key that may be accessible to both the content provider server and the content aggregator server. Additionally, each authentication key may include information identifying the user and the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator). In one embodiment, the authentication key may comprise a username and password associated with the user on the second subscription service. The control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server associated with the first subscription service may then receive the generated authentication key from the content aggregator server. In some cases, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may decrypt the authentication key and extract the information stored in the key. Control circuitry 304 may additionally store the authentication key on the content provider server. In that way, control circuitry 304 may transmit authentication information associated with the first user to the first subscription service without burdening the user with manually creating an account.

[0192] In some cases, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may compare the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys and determine whether to create a first user account for the first subscription service based on the first authentication key. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may extract information stored in the first authentication key and determine the name of the subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) listed in the portion of the key associated with the identifier of the second subscription service. The control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may then retrieve a list of subscription services previously identified to enable the control circuitry 304 to create accounts on the first subscription service and compare the names of the subscription services with each subscription service in the retrieved list. In effect, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server can securely receive information about new users from the content aggregator (i.e., the second subscription service) while maintaining control over the accounts that are created. For example, the first subscription service may enter into an agreement with the second subscription service to provide a subscription to the first subscription service at a discounted price. Additionally, by encapsulating information about the second provider in the authentication key, the first subscription service ensures that only accounts are created for users associated with trusted content aggregators.

[0193] In some cases, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may extract information stored in the first authentication key to determine the user's username. Control circuitry 304 may then retrieve a list of usernames previously identified to enable control circuitry 304 to create accounts on the first subscription service and compare the extracted username with each identified username.

[0194] In some aspects, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may generate a first user account on the content provider server in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys. For example, the control circuitry 304 may extract information contained in the authentication key, such as a username, password, and subscription service name, to create the information necessary to generate an account on the content provider server. In some instances, the control circuitry 304 may store an indication associated with the first account that specifies that the account has not been validated. If the user or the control circuitry 304 implemented on the second subscription service decides to validate the account in the future, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may efficiently validate the account with little or no required input from the user, as will be described in further detail below.

[0195] In some aspects, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may store the first user account in a database entry indicating that the first user account corresponds to the first authentication key. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may store information related to the created user account in an entry stored in a database. The control circuitry 304 may also associate the user account with the authentication key, for example, by storing a pointer to the location of the authentication key in the database entry associated with the user account. By associating the stored user account with the first authentication key, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may ensure that the account is quickly validated if a second subscription or user decides to validate the account on the first subscription service. In some instances, the control circuitry 304 may store the first authentication key in a location in the storage device 308, the location identified by a directory or file path. The control circuitry 304 may then store the path to the location in the database entry corresponding to the first user account.

[0196] In some aspects, following the step of storing the first user account, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a request from the content aggregator server at the content provider server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service, the request including the second authentication key. The control circuitry 304 may receive the second authentication key in response to the user request to subscribe to the first subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may detect that a user of the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) desires to subscribe to the first subscription service (e.g., Hulu). In a different embodiment, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the second service may automatically send a request to the first service when the cost of subscribing to the first service meets a cost criterion. The control circuitry 304 on the first subscription service may decrypt the information stored in the second key, retrieve the information stored in the second key, and store the authentication key on the content provider server. By providing a framework for receiving the second authentication key, control circuitry implemented on the content provider server may securely validate the account for the user.

[0197] In some aspects, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may compare the first authentication key with the second authentication key. For example, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may read information from the second key associated with the name of the user associated with the key and then query a database to determine whether an account associated with the identified user exists. Optionally, control circuitry 304 may then read (i.e., from storage device 308 or from a database) the first authentication key associated with the identified user's account. Control circuitry 304 may further compare the second authentication key with the first authentication key, with or without decrypting the data stored in the key.

[0198] In some aspects, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may validate the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key. For example, based on a comparison of the first authentication key with the second authentication key, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may then identify a user account associated with either key. The control circuitry 304 may then query a database to identify the account and store an indication that the account has been validated. In one embodiment, the control circuitry 304 may identify a database record associated with the identified account and set a field associated with whether the account has been validated (e.g., a field IS_VALIDATED) to a value indicating that the account has been validated (e.g., TRUE). By validating the account, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may enable a user authenticated by the content provider server to access media content provided by the first subscription service without the user having to create an account.

[0199] In some embodiments, in response to verifying the authenticity of the first user account, control circuitry 304 implemented on the first account may allow access to the first subscription service through the first user account. For example, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may generate and transmit a message to the content aggregator server indicating that the account is available for use. Thus, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may notify the user that a second subscription service offering may be accessed by the user.

[0200] In some aspects, the first authentication key is an encryption key based on a username and password for the user assigned by the second subscription service. For example, the authentication key may include a username and password corresponding to the user's account on the content aggregator server. In another embodiment, the control circuitry 304 on the content aggregator server may generate a password that complies with the password requirements of the first subscription service. The control circuitry 304 on the content aggregator server may utilize a password generation module, which may be designed to generate randomized strings that are difficult to decipher, ensuring that the credentials needed to access the content provider server are stronger than an average user would typically choose. For example, to easily remember their password, if the password requirements for creating an account on the content provider server allow the password to consist only of letters and numbers, an average user may select a short keyword and numbers for their password (e.g., "mypetsname1"). On the other hand, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may utilize a password generator module to create longer strings of a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters. The control circuitry 304 may be pre-configured with password rules for each subscription service. For example, the password rules may indicate that a first subscription service (e.g., Hulu) allows a maximum password length of 15 characters and that the ampersand symbol is not allowed as part of the password. Based on the password rules for the first subscription service (e.g., Hulu), the control circuitry 304 may generate a secure password (e.g., "y#E%f4v3Tt$80u") that conforms to the requirements of the first subscription service. In this way, the user's account on the content provider server is less susceptible to password hacking attempts. The user's username may be similarly generated to further increase the security of the user's credentials on the content provider server.

[0201] In some embodiments, the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys is received at the content provider server from the content aggregator server. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a list of authentication keys from the second subscription service at regular intervals. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may routinely transmit an authentication key associated with every new user who creates an account with the second subscription service. In some cases, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may store the received list of authentication keys in a database for comparing the first authentication key with the plurality of acceptable authentication keys, as previously described.

[0202] In some aspects, a database entry stored on a content provider server includes a first database field containing a pointer to a first user account and a second database field containing a first authentication key. As used herein, the term "pointer" refers to data whose value contains the address of another value located in a storage device. For example, a database entry on a content provider server may include a pointer stored in a first database field that points to a second database entry containing information about the user's account, such as the user's username, password, and subscription level. The database entry may include a second database field that may contain the first authentication key. For example, the first authentication key may be stored as a value in the second database field, or alternatively, the second database field may contain a pointer to the location of the first authentication key.

[0203] In some embodiments, a database entry stored on a content provider server includes a third database field containing subscription terms for a first subscription service. The subscription terms may comprise a date range during which a user may access content made available to the user from the subscription service. For example, a user may subscribe to a first subscription service (e.g., Hulu) from January 1 to March 31. Further, the subscription terms may include information related to how a user may access content and what content is made available based on the selected subscription. For example, the subscription terms may specify that a maximum number of four streams may be accessed through the user's subscription. In another example, the subscription terms may indicate that a user may have access to all content as part of a "premium" subscription but must pay a fee to access the latest movies under a "basic" subscription. The subscription terms may determine a price for the subscription, and the price the user pays to subscribe may also be stored in the third database field.

[0204] In some embodiments, a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe a user to a first subscription service is transmitted from the content aggregator server without further user input in response to the user selecting a subscription level for a second subscription service at the content aggregator server. For example, when a user enters information as part of registration for a second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator), the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may generate two subscription levels: a “standard” level, which may include subscription to one subscription service, and a “deluxe” level, which may include subscription to two subscription services. If the first subscription is offered only as part of a “deluxe” level subscription, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may transmit a request from the user to the second subscription service only in response to determining that the user selected the “deluxe” level subscription. In a different example, the user may already have subscribed to the “standard” level of the subscription. In response to learning that the first subscription is offered only as part of a “Deluxe” level subscription, the user may decide to upgrade their subscription to the “Deluxe” level. By transmitting a request from the content aggregator server to the first subscription without further user input, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may quickly provide the user with access to content offered by the first subscription service with minimal input on the part of the user.

[0205] In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may transmit a confirmation from the content provider server to the content aggregator server in response to validating the first user account. For example, once the control circuitry 304 validates the user account, the control circuitry 304 may transmit a message comprising the confirmation to the content aggregator server. By transmitting the confirmation, the user of the second service may be informed that the user can access media associated with the first subscription service. In a different example, if the control circuitry 304 implemented on the second subscription service is configured to access media content of the first subscription service via a connection between the first and second subscription services, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the second subscription service may be configured to enumerate the media of the first subscription service in response to receiving the confirmation.

[0206] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a second request from a content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account. Users of content aggregation services may become frustrated with the task of manually logging into each content subscription service to access content. A direct connection created between the subscription service and user television equipment 402 may facilitate a streamlined viewing experience for the user. For example, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a user request to access media content (e.g., an episode of the television program “The Simpsons”) passed from the content aggregator server. In response to receiving a request from the content aggregator server to access media content of the first subscription service through the first user account, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server or content provider server may create a direct connection between the content provider server and user television equipment 402 via communications network 414. A direct connection may reserve a certain amount of bandwidth between the content provider and user television equipment 402 so that user requests to stream media from the content provider server to user television equipment 402 are always handled regardless of network conditions between the content provider and user television equipment 402. Control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may use the direct connection to transfer media content to user television equipment 402 without further authentication. Furthermore, by creating a direct connection and transferring media from the content provider server to the content aggregator server, the media content may be displayed within a user interface used to access a second subscription service, streamlining the viewing experience for the user.

[0207] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may retrieve a user interface skin associated with a first subscription service in response to creating a direct connection between the content provider server and user television equipment 402. For example, the user interface skin associated with the first subscription service may define the appearance of user interface elements, such as background color, font, and menu location, of the user interface associated with the first subscription service. In addition, the interface skin may include a logo associated with the first subscription service, which may be displayed at a defined location on the screen, and a color palette associated with the first subscription service, which may define the background color of the screen elements. Control circuitry 304 may extract parameters associated with the user interface skin and apply the parameters to a user interface skin associated with a second subscription service. Control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may generate for display a media content listing user interface skin associated with the second subscription service. In this manner, the first subscription service may be able to control the feel of content presented using the second subscription service.

[0208] In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may receive a user selection of a media content listing from a content aggregator server through a first user account. For example, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may utilize a connection created between the content provider server and the content aggregator server to retrieve a media content listing of content available on the content provider server. Control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may then detect a selection of the media content listing created by a user, the user being associated with an account on the content aggregator server. Once control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server receives the selection, control circuitry 304 may generate for display media assets corresponding to the media content listing selected by the user. For example, control circuitry 304 implemented on user television equipment 402 may retrieve the media assets using a direct connection created between the content provider and user television equipment 402. In one case, control circuitry 304 implemented on a content provider server may receive a request for media content (e.g., an episode of the television program "The Simpsons"). Control circuitry 304 may begin streaming the media by transferring the portion of the media from the content provider server to user television equipment 402 using a direct connection. In a different embodiment, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may provide a path to the media asset to control circuitry 304 implemented on a content aggregator server. In response, control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may access the file referenced in the path and download the media file to the content aggregator server, or alternatively, to user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or wireless user communications device 406.

[0209] 10 and 11 present an algorithm for a control circuit (e.g., control circuit 304) to generate a user account on a content provider server associated with a first subscription service before a user subscribes to the first service, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the algorithm may be encoded on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) as a set of instructions that are decoded and executed by a processing circuit (e.g., processing circuit 306). The processing circuit may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuit 304, such as tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, encryption, decryption, scaling, analog-to-digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

[0210] The flowchart of FIG. 10 describes an algorithm for a control circuit (e.g., control circuit 304) to generate an account on a content provider server based on receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0211] In step 1002, an algorithm for generating an account on the content provider server will be initiated based on receiving a first authentication key from the content aggregator server. In some embodiments, this may occur either directly or indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., from a signal received by the control circuitry 304 or the user input interface 310). For example, the algorithm may be initiated directly in response to the control circuitry 304 receiving a signal from the user input interface 310, or the control circuitry 304 may prompt the user to confirm their input using a display (e.g., by generating a prompt displayed on the display 312) prior to initiating the algorithm.

[0212] In step 1004, control circuitry 304 then reads the next instance of the acceptable authentication key from stored memory. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive a single basic data structure representing the value of the acceptable authentication key. In some embodiments, the value may be stored as part of a larger data structure, and control circuitry 304 may read the value by executing an appropriate accessor method to read the value from the larger data structure.

[0213] In step 1006, the control circuitry 304 continues by comparing the retrieved acceptable authentication key value with the stored value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server. In some embodiments, the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server may be stored (e.g., on the storage device 308) prior to initiating the algorithm. In some embodiments, the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server may also be retrieved for each and every instance of the acceptable authentication key, and the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server may change with each iteration. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may directly compare the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server with the value of the acceptable authentication key by accessing the values ​​from memory and performing a value comparison, respectively. In some cases, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a comparison function (e.g., for object-to-object comparison) to compare the acceptable authentication key and the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server.

[0214] In step 1008, the control circuit 304 compares the value of the acceptable authentication key and the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server to determine whether the value of the acceptable authentication key is equal to the value of the first authentication key received from the content aggregator server. If the condition is met, the algorithm may proceed to step 1010. If the condition is not met, the algorithm may instead proceed to step 1012.

[0215] In step 1010, control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to create a first user account based on the conditions in step 1008 being met. After the subroutine is executed, the algorithm may proceed to step 1012, where all instances of acceptable authentication keys are considered and it is determined whether further iterations are required.

[0216] In step 1014, if control circuitry 304 previously created a user account in step 1010, control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to store the user account.

[0217] It is contemplated that the description of FIG. 10 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the descriptions provided with respect to the algorithm of FIG. 10 may be performed in alternate orders or in parallel, so as to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, conditional statements and logical evaluations such as those at 1008 may be performed in any order, in parallel, or simultaneously, so as to reduce delay or increase the speed of a system or method. As a further example, in some embodiments, several instances of acceptable authentication keys may be evaluated in parallel using multiple logical processor threads, or the algorithm may be extended by incorporating branch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the algorithm of FIG. 10 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and any of the devices or apparatus discussed with respect to FIGS. 3-4 may be used to implement one or more portions of the algorithm.

[0218] The pseudocode in Figure 11 describes an algorithm for generating an account on a content provider server based on receiving a first authentication key from a content aggregator server, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in Figure 11 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and in a variety of different hardware, and that the style and format should not be construed as limiting, but rather as a general template of steps and procedures that would be consistent with code used to implement some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0219] At line 1101, the algorithm may initiate subroutines, beginning on line 1105, to initialize variables and prepare to create an account on the content provider server based on receiving a first authentication key from the content aggregator server. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may copy instructions from a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) into RAM or into a cache for the processing circuitry 306 during the initialization phase. Additionally, in some embodiments, the value of the first authentication key being used in the comparison, or a tolerance level for determining whether the two values ​​are essentially equivalent, may be read, set, and stored at 1101.

[0220] At line 1105, the control circuitry 304 may receive instances of acceptable authentication keys. In some embodiments, these instances may be read from stored memory. The control circuitry 304 may receive the instances of acceptable authentication keys, for example, by receiving a pointer to an array of acceptable authentication key values. In another example, the control circuitry 304 may receive an object of a class such as an iterator object that contains elements of the acceptable authentication keys.

[0221] At line 1106, the control circuit 304 may iterate through various instances of acceptable authentication keys; if only a single instance is available, the loop will execute only once. This loop may be implemented in several ways, depending on the hardware and software language choices used to implement the algorithm of Figure 11; for example, it may be implemented as part of a "for" or "while" loop.

[0222] At line 1107, the control circuitry 304 will store the value of the acceptable authentication key in a temporary variable "A." In some embodiments, the value of the acceptable authentication key is stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the value of the acceptable authentication key may be obtained through an appropriate accessor method. In some embodiments, the acceptable authentication key may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may call a function that performs the comparison of the acceptable authentication key to the first authentication key. In some embodiments, the acceptable authentication key may be encoded as a basic data structure, and rather than using a temporary variable, the acceptable authentication key may be used directly in the comparison at line 1109.

[0223] At line 1108, the control circuit 304 will store the value of the first authentication key in the temporary variable "B." Similar to the acceptable authentication keys, in some embodiments, the value of the first authentication key is stored as part of a larger data structure or class, and the value of the first authentication key may be obtained through an accessor method. In some embodiments, the first authentication key may be converted from a string or other non-numeric data type to a numeric data type using an appropriate hashing algorithm, or the first authentication key may be a basic data structure and used directly in the comparison at line 1109.

[0224] At line 1109, control circuit 304 compares the value of A with the value of B to see if they are equal.

[0225] At line 1110, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to create a first user account if the condition at line 1109 is met.

[0226] At line 1112, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to read the next acceptable authentication key if the condition at line 1109 is not met.

[0227] At line 1113, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to store the created user account if the control circuitry 304 previously created the account at line 1110. The control circuitry 304 may store the account in storage device 308.

[0228] At line 1115, the control circuitry 304 may invoke a termination subroutine after the algorithm has performed its function. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may destroy variables, perform garbage collection, free memory, or flush the cache of the processing circuitry 306.

[0229] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in FIG. 11 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and with a variety of different hardware, and that the particular choices and locations of the primitives, logical evaluations, and functional evaluations are not intended to be limiting. It will also be apparent that the code can be refactored or rewritten to manipulate the order of various logical evaluations, perform several iterations in parallel rather than a single iterative loop, or otherwise manipulate and optimize execution time and performance metrics without fundamentally changing the input or final output. For example, in some embodiments, a break condition may be imposed after lines 1110 and 1112 to accelerate operation, or a conditional statement may be replaced with a case switch. In some embodiments, rather than iterating over all instances of acceptable authentication keys in step 1006, in some embodiments the code may be rewritten so that control circuitry 304 is instructed to evaluate multiple instances of acceptable authentication keys simultaneously on multiple processors or processor threads, reducing the number of iterations required and potentially accelerating computation time.

[0230] 12 and 13 present an algorithm for a control circuit (e.g., control circuit 304) to validate a first user account based on a request using a database containing possible values ​​of an authentication key, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Similar to the algorithm described by FIGS. 10 and 11, in some embodiments, the algorithm may be encoded on a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) as a set of instructions that are decoded and executed by a processing circuit (e.g., processing circuit 306). The processing circuit may in turn provide instructions to other sub-circuits contained within control circuit 304, such as tuning, video generation, encoding, decoding, encryption, decryption, scaling, analog-to-digital conversion circuitry, and the like.

[0231] The flowchart of FIG. 12 describes an algorithm by which control circuitry (eg, control circuitry 304) searches a database based on a request to validate a first user account, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0232] In step 1202, an algorithm will be initiated to search the database and validate the first user account based on the request. In some embodiments, this may occur in response to a user action or input, either directly or indirectly (e.g., from a signal received by control circuitry 304 or user input interface 310).

[0233] In step 1204, control circuitry 304 then reads the next instance of the next authentication key from stored memory. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may read a single basic data structure representing the value of the authentication key. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may read values ​​from a larger class or data structure.

[0234] In step 1206, control circuitry 304 accesses a database containing possible values ​​for authentication key types. In some embodiments, this database may be stored locally (e.g., on storage device 308) prior to initiating the algorithm. In some embodiments, the database may also be accessed by using communications circuitry to transmit information across a communications network (e.g., communications network 414) to a database implemented on a remote storage device (e.g., content aggregator 430).

[0235] In step 1208, control circuitry 304 searches the database table for entries matching the authentication key. In some embodiments, this may be done by comparing an identifier, e.g., a string or integer representing the authentication key, that matches the type of identifier used inside the database. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may submit a general query to the database for table entries matching the authentication key, or control circuitry 304 may receive a list of indexes or a data structure containing a portion of the database contents. In some embodiments, the database may implement an intersection table that in turn cross-references entries from other databases. In this case, control circuitry 304 may retrieve an index from a first database that can in turn be used to retrieve information from a second database. For clarity, control circuitry 304 may be described as interacting with a single database, but it will be understood that the algorithm of FIG. 12 may be implemented using multiple independent or cross-referenced databases.

[0236] In step 1210, control circuitry 304 may determine whether there is a database entry that matches the authentication key. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive a signal from the database indicating that there is no matching entry. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may instead receive a list or data structure of indexes with NULL or dummy values. If control circuitry 304 identifies that there is a database entry that matches the authentication key, the algorithm proceeds to step 1212; otherwise, the algorithm proceeds to step 1214.

[0237] In step 1212, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to validate the user account. The algorithm may then proceed to step 1214, where it is determined whether there are any further instances of the authentication key that need to be considered.

[0238] In step 1214, control circuitry 304 will determine whether all instances of the authentication key have been considered and whether further iterations are required. If further iterations are required, the algorithm will return to step 1204 and control circuitry 304 will read the next instance of the authentication key. If further iterations are not required, the algorithm will proceed to step 1216.

[0239] In step 1216, the control circuitry 304 will execute a subroutine to allow access to the first subscription.

[0240] It is contemplated that the description of FIG. 12 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the descriptions provided with respect to the algorithm of FIG. 12 may be performed in an alternate order or in parallel, so as to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, the control circuit 304 may submit multiple queries to a database in parallel, or may submit multiple queries to multiple similar databases to reduce or accelerate the delay in execution of the algorithm. Furthermore, it should be noted that the algorithm of FIG. 12 may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured software and hardware, and any of the devices or apparatus discussed with respect to FIGS. 3-4 may be used to implement one or more portions of the algorithm.

[0241] The pseudocode in Figure 13 describes an algorithm for validating a first user account based on a request, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in Figure 13 may be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and in a variety of different hardware, and that the style and format should not be construed as limiting, but rather as a general template of steps and procedures that would be consistent with code used to implement some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0242] At line 1301, the algorithm may launch subroutines to initialize variables and prepare to validate the first user account upon request, beginning on line 1305. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may copy instructions from a non-transitory storage medium (e.g., storage device 308) into RAM or into a cache for the processing circuitry 306 during the initialization phase.

[0243] On line 1305, the control circuitry 304 may receive instances of acceptable authentication keys. In some embodiments, these instances may be read from stored memory.

[0244] At line 1306, the control circuit 304 may iterate through various instances of acceptable authentication keys; if only a single instance is available, the loop will execute only once. This loop may be implemented in a number of ways, depending on the hardware and software language choices used to implement the algorithm of Figure 13; for example, it may be implemented as part of a "for" or "while" loop in some programming languages. In some embodiments, it may be convenient to store the instances of acceptable authentication keys in a single class or encapsulated data structure that will implement the loop as part of an internal method.

[0245] At line 1307, control circuitry 304 may query the database for entries that match the acceptable authentication key. Depending on how the database is implemented and how the acceptable authentication key is stored, intermittent steps may be required to convert the acceptable authentication key into a form that is consistent with the database. For example, the acceptable authentication key may be encoded into a string or integer using an appropriate hashing algorithm prior to being transmitted by control circuitry 304 to the database as part of the query. In some embodiments, the acceptable authentication key may be encoded as a basic data structure, and control circuitry 304 may submit the acceptable authentication key directly to the database as a query. After querying the database, control circuitry 304 may receive a set of database entries that match the acceptable authentication key. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may receive these entries in the form of a data structure, a list of indexes to a database, or a list of a set of indexes to another cross-referenced database.

[0246] At line 1309, control circuitry 304 will determine whether there are any database entries that match the acceptable authentication key. In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 may determine this by checking whether the database returned an empty data structure or a NULL value in response to the query at line 1309. If there are matching database entries, the algorithm may proceed to line 1309. If there are no matching database entries, the algorithm may instead proceed to line 1312.

[0247] At line 1309, the control circuitry 304 may retrieve one or more values ​​of the first authentication key from a database entry that matches an acceptable authentication key. For example, if the control circuitry 304 retrieves a list of indexes after querying the database at line 1307, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may retrieve the database entry for the first authentication key located at the received index. In some embodiments, the index may point to a larger data structure contained within the database, and the control circuitry 304 may retrieve the first authentication key value from within the data structure using an appropriate accessor method. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may retrieve the first authentication key values ​​and store them locally (e.g., in storage device 308) in a separate data structure before proceeding further. After retrieving the first authentication key value, the algorithm will proceed to line 1310.

[0248] At line 1310, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to use the first authentication key value to validate the first user account using the control circuit. The algorithm may then proceed to line 1313.

[0249] At line 1312, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to retrieve the next authorized authentication key using the control circuit 304 if the condition at line 1309 is not met.

[0250] At line 1313, the control circuit 304 will execute a subroutine to allow access to the first user account. The algorithm may then proceed to an end subroutine at line 1315.

[0251] At line 1315, the control circuitry 304 may execute a termination subroutine after the algorithm has performed its function and all instances of acceptable authentication keys have been processed and checked against the database. For example, in some embodiments, the control circuitry 304 may destroy variables, perform garbage collection, free memory, or flush the cache of the processing circuitry 306.

[0252] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in FIG. 13 can be implemented in any number of programming languages ​​and in a variety of different hardware, and that the particular selection and location of primitive functions, logical evaluations, and functional evaluations are not intended to be limiting. It will also be apparent that the code can be refactored or rewritten to manipulate the order of various logical evaluations, perform several iterations in parallel rather than a single iterative loop, or otherwise manipulate and optimize execution time and performance metrics without fundamentally changing the input or final output. For example, in some embodiments, the code may be rewritten so that the control circuitry 304 is instructed to evaluate multiple instances of acceptable authentication keys using multiple processors or processor threads and submit multiple database queries simultaneously. Also, while the control circuitry 304 may be described as interacting with a single database, it will be understood that this is merely a single embodiment described for illustrative purposes, and that the algorithm of FIG. 13 may be implemented using multiple independent or cross-referenced databases. For example, a database stored locally (e.g., on storage device 308) may index or cross-reference a remotely stored database (e.g., content aggregator 430), which may be accessible over any number of communications channels (e.g., communications network 414). In some embodiments, this may enable control circuitry 304 to utilize lookup tables or database front ends stored efficiently on a small local drive to access larger databases stored on remote servers on demand.

[0253] 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in creating and validating a first user account on a first subscription service. Note that process 1400, or any steps thereof, may occur on or be provided by any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 1400 may be performed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and / or 406 (FIG. 4) to detect when the number of instances exceeds a certain number and to transmit a message to the device. Additionally, one or more steps of process 1400 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

[0254] Process 1400 begins at step 1402, where the control circuitry 304 receives a first authentication key from a content aggregator server. For example, an entity providing a second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) may reach an agreement with an entity providing a first subscription service (e.g., Hulu) to provide subscriptions to the first subscription service to users of the second subscription service at a discounted rate. Before a user subscribes to the first subscription service, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server transmits the first authentication key to the content aggregator server.

[0255] In step 1404, the control circuitry 304 compares the first authentication key to a first plurality of acceptable authentication keys. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may extract information stored in the first authentication key and determine the name of the subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) listed in the portion of the key associated with the identifier of the second subscription service. The control circuitry 304 may then retrieve a list of subscription services previously identified to enable the control circuitry 304 to create accounts on the first subscription service and compare the names of the subscription services with each subscription service in the retrieved list. In effect, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server can securely receive information about new users from the content aggregator (i.e., the second subscription service) while maintaining control over the accounts created. For example, the first subscription service may enter into an agreement with the second subscription service to provide subscriptions on the first subscription service at a discounted price. By encapsulating information about the second provider in the authentication key, the first subscription service ensures that only accounts are created for users associated with trusted content aggregators.

[0256] In step 1406, control circuitry 304 generates a first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches one of the first plurality of acceptable authentication keys. For example, control circuitry 304 may extract information contained in the authentication key, such as a username, password, and subscription service name, to create the information necessary to create an account on the content provider server. In some instances, control circuitry 304 may store an indication associated with the first account that specifies that the account is not authenticated.

[0257] In step 1408, the control circuit 304 stores the first user account in a database entry; for example, the control circuit 304 implemented on the content provider server may store information related to the created user account in a database entry stored in a database. The control circuit 304 may also associate the user account with an authentication key, for example, by storing a pointer to the location of the authentication key in the database entry associated with the user account. By associating the stored user account with the first authentication key, the control circuit 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may ensure that the account is quickly validated if a second subscription or user decides to validate the account on the first subscription service. In some cases, the control circuit 304 may store the first authentication key in a location in the storage device 308, the location identified by a path. The control circuit 304 may then store the path to the location in the database entry corresponding to the first user account.

[0258] In step 1410, following the step of storing the first user account, the control circuitry 304 receives a request from the content aggregator server to subscribe the user to the first subscription service. The control circuitry 304 may receive a second authentication key in response to the user request to subscribe to the first subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content aggregator server may detect that a user of the second subscription service (e.g., Rovi Super Aggregator) wishes to subscribe to the first subscription service (e.g., Hulu). In a different embodiment, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the second service may automatically send a request to the first service when the cost of subscribing to the first service meets a cost criterion. The control circuitry 304 on the first subscription service may decrypt the information stored in the second key, retrieve the information stored in the second key, and store the authentication key on the content provider server.

[0259] In step 1412, the control circuitry 304 compares the first authentication key with the second authentication key. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may read information from the second key associated with the name of the user associated with the key and then query a database to determine whether an account associated with the identified user exists. Optionally, the control circuitry 304 may then read (i.e., from the storage device 308 or from a database) the first authentication key associated with the identified user's account. The control circuitry 304 may further compare the second authentication key with the first authentication key, with or without decrypting the data stored in the key.

[0260] In step 1414, the control circuitry 304 validates the first user account in response to determining that the first authentication key matches the second authentication key. For example, based on a comparison of the first authentication key with the second authentication key, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may then identify a user account associated with either key. The control circuitry 304 may then query a database to identify the account and store an indication that the account has been validated. In one embodiment, the control circuitry 304 may identify a database record associated with the identified account and set a field associated with whether the account has been validated (e.g., field IS_VALIDATED) to a value indicating that the account has been validated.

[0261] In step 1416, the control circuitry 304, in response to validating the first user account, grants access to the first subscription service. For example, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may generate and transmit a message to the content aggregator server indicating that the account is available for use. Thus, the control circuitry 304 implemented on the content provider server may notify the user that a second subscription service offering may be accessed by the user.

[0262] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of Figure 14 may be used with any other embodiment of the present disclosure. Additionally, the steps and descriptions described with respect to Figure 14 may be performed in alternate orders or in parallel to further the objectives of the present disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in any order, in parallel, or substantially simultaneously to reduce delays or increase the speed of the system or method.

[0263] The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Those skilled in the art will understand that steps of the processes discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and / or rearranged, and that any additional steps may be performed without departing from the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure is intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Only the following claims are intended to set boundaries as to what the invention encompasses.

Claims

1. the control circuitry determining, over a specified time period, a number of requests for simultaneous streams from the media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account using authentication information associated with the same user account; the control circuitry identifies, based on user account data, a threshold number of instances of simultaneous streams from the media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account using the authentication information associated with the same user account, the identified threshold being further based on the specific time period, the specific time period comprising a subscription period for the same user account to the media streaming service; In response to determining that a number of requests for simultaneous streams from the media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account exceeds the identified threshold, the control circuitry causing a message to be displayed via a graphical user interface of a user device associated with the same user account, the message including a user-selectable option to increase the identified threshold; and In response to receiving a user selection of the user-selectable option, the control circuitry increases the identified threshold value. To carry out A method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the different devices requesting simultaneously streamed streams from the media streaming service are associated with different user profiles.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user account data includes the number of streams available to the user from the media streaming service.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribes to the media streaming service.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user has subscribed to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a length of time for the subscription period.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes dates corresponding to portions of the subscription period.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribes to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a time corresponding to a portion of the subscription period.

8. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular time period includes a subscription period for which a user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a number of media assets made available from the subscription service during a portion of the subscription period.

9. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified time period includes a subscription period to which the user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the message further includes the name of a media asset, the user's name, the number of streaming conflicts that occurred during the subscription period, instructions for increasing or decreasing the number of streams in the subscription, and recommendations on how to minimize the number of future streaming conflicts.

10. Memory and An input circuit; Control circuit and A system comprising: The control circuit the control circuitry determining, in the memory, a number of requests for simultaneous streams from a media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account using authentication information associated with the same user account over a specified time period; the control circuitry identifies, based on user account data, a threshold number of instances of simultaneous streams from the media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account using the authentication information associated with the same user account, the identified threshold being further based on the specific time period, the specific time period comprising a subscription period for the same user account to the media streaming service; In response to determining that a number of requests for simultaneous streams from the media streaming service by different devices logged into the same user account exceeds the identified threshold, the control circuitry causing a message to be displayed via a graphical user interface of a user device associated with the same user account, the message including a user-selectable option to increase the identified threshold; and In response to receiving a user selection of the user-selectable option, the control circuitry increases the identified threshold value. To carry out A system configured to:

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the different devices requesting simultaneously streamed streams from the media streaming service are associated with different user profiles.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user account data includes the number of streams available to the user from the media streaming service.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribes to the media streaming service.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribes to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a length of time for the subscription period.

15. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the specified time period comprises a subscription period for which a user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes dates corresponding to portions of the subscription period.

16. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the particular time period comprises a subscription period to which a user subscribes to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a time corresponding to a portion of the subscription period.

17. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the particular time period includes a subscription period for which the user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the user account data includes a number of media assets made available from the subscription service during a portion of the subscription period.

18. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the specified time period includes a subscription period to which the user subscribed to the media streaming service, and the message further includes the name of a media asset, the user's name, the number of streaming conflicts that occurred during the subscription period, instructions for increasing or decreasing the number of streams in the subscription, and recommendations on how to minimize the number of future streaming conflicts.

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