Marker-Based Content Management for Distributed Blackout Compliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Human and network errors can cause operators and content providers to incorrectly apply a content blackout, leading to potential violations of agreements due to incorrect content distribution or unavailability, and auditing such errors is difficult across numerous individual devices.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for content management that involves inserting markers into content, allowing devices to send output notifications based on identifiers, and using a rights management device to determine compliance with blackout policies, enabling termination of incorrect content output and providing alternative content when violations occur.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If content is distributed to a large number of individual devices, then content availability to audiences is improved, but the difficulty of auditing content blackout compliance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by requiring receiving devices to send output notifications back to the rights management device. These notifications confirm whether content was received and output, allowing the rights management device to audit compliance with blackout policies across distributed devices without manual intervention
Solution Approach 2:
The rights management device acts as an intermediary between content providers and receiving devices. It manages blackout policies, receives output notifications from devices, and determines compliance, thereby simplifying the auditing process despite content being distributed to numerous devices
2Adaptability or versatility
If manual content blackout application is used, then flexibility in policy application is improved, but the risk of human error causing incorrect content distribution increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by automatically determining compliance with blackout policies based on received output notifications. The rights management device autonomously compares device identifiers and content identifiers against stored policies and automatically terminates non-compliant output, eliminating human error while maintaining policy flexibility
Solution Approach 2:
Blackout policies are pre-configured and stored in the rights management device before content distribution. This preliminary setup includes defining which devices should not receive specific content, allowing automatic enforcement without manual intervention during distribution
3Measurement precision
If content output is monitored across all devices, then compliance detection capability is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring function is extracted from individual receiving devices and centralized in the rights management device. Devices only need to send simple output notifications, while the rights management device performs the complex compliance determination by comparing notifications against stored policies
Solution Approach 2:
The rights management device serves multiple functions: it manages blackout policies, receives content from content providers, receives output notifications from multiple devices, determines compliance, and terminates non-compliant output. This multi-functionality consolidates complexity into a single device rather than distributing it across the system
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for content management are described. If programming content is distributed to viewers, markers are transmitted with the programming content. If a user device receives the marker, the user device may send an output indication to a rights management device. The rights management device may determine whether or not the user device outputting the content violates or adheres to a content policy and may take an action based on that determination.