On-Demand Media Channel Mapping to Linear Schedule
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional video services lack features that allow for user-driven customization and efficient discovery of on-demand media content, leading to a suboptimal user experience and limited engagement.
Innovation Solution
A media-on-demand-based programming channel system that generates and maps on-demand media content to a linear playback schedule, allowing users to access curated content that appears 'always on' through a user interface mimicking traditional linear channels, with features for user-defined channels and incidental interaction-based content selection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional video services provide traditional linear programming channels, then users can access content in a simple linear format, but users cannot personalize or customize their viewing experience
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual copy of traditional linear programming channels by mapping on-demand media content to a linear playback schedule. This virtual programming channel replica allows users to access curated content in a familiar linear format while the underlying system uses on-demand technology, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and customization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments on-demand media content into discrete programs and maps them to specific time slots in a linear schedule. By dividing the on-demand library into segmented programming blocks that follow a traditional linear format, the system enables user customization without requiring complex direct access interfaces.
2Quantity of substance
If video services provide extensive on-demand media content, then users have more content options, but network resources are consumed continuously even when content is not being viewed
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously streaming on-demand content to maintain availability, the system uses periodic action by only loading and streaming content when users access it through the virtual programming channel. The linear schedule provides periodic updates of content availability, reducing network resource consumption while maintaining content options.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual programming channel acts as an intermediary between the on-demand content library and the user interface. It mediates resource consumption by curating and scheduling content access patterns, allowing users to access extensive content libraries without continuously consuming network resources for content that isn't being viewed.
3Ease of operation
If users access on-demand content directly, then content availability is flexible, but users struggle to discover and navigate through extensive content options
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-curating and pre-scheduling content in a linear programming schedule before users access it. This pre-organization of content in a structured temporal sequence makes discovery easier, as users can browse through a predetermined schedule rather than navigating through an unstructured large library.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting the extensive on-demand content library into discrete programming slots organized in a linear schedule, the system reduces navigation complexity. Users interact with segmented time-based slots rather than facing the full complexity of the entire content library at once.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary method includes a computer-implemented media service system 1) establishing a set of one or more conditions for a media-on-demand-based programming channel, 2) selecting, from a repository of on-demand media content and based on the set of one or more conditions, a set of on-demand media programs for inclusion in the media-on-demand-based programming channel, and 3) mapping the selected set of on-demand media programs to the media-on-demand-based programming channel to represent a scheduled, linear playback of the set of on-demand media programs on the media-on-demand-based programming channel in accordance with a linear playback schedule.