JP2948752B2 - Distribution system using interactive media - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a distribution system using an interactive media network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For companies dealing with products and services (hereinafter simply referred to as "products" in the present specification), commercials are extremely important as means of advertising and promoting their products.

[0003] Conventional commercials are provided to viewers or listeners by a commercial requesting company sponsoring a particular program and broadcasting it before, after and during the program through media such as television and radio. I have.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional commercial system, a viewer or a listener only passively views a commercial unilaterally provided from a company through media.

[0005] In general, when a viewer or a listener selects and enjoys a desired program, a commercial that is played before, after, or during the program from a company as a sponsor of the program due to one-sided circumstances, There is a tendency not to welcome. In recent years, many video recorders have a function of cutting and recording a commercial part.

[0006] From a corporate point of view, commercials are a means of stimulating demand for their products, and as a sponsor, they offer not-so-low-cost funds to television stations and the like in hopes of achieving this purpose. Given these corporate needs, the tendency of commercials in conventional systems to be cut off when recorded on video is not generally watched by viewers and others who want to enjoy a specific program, etc. Is extremely counter-objective.

[0007] In some cases, a viewer or the like is actively watching a commercial of a specific product being broadcast from a television or the like as a potential consumer of the product. Although this type of viewing meets the needs of the company described above, the company cannot grasp the potential demand level, and it is not possible to build orders, orders, and production plans based on demand forecasts. Have difficulty. Although it is possible to grasp the audience rating / listening rate of a specific program, it is not clear how much this has a potential demand for commercial products broadcasted in connection with the program.

[0008] On the other hand, although viewers and the like sometimes watch commercials with potential demand, their active viewing is not evaluated by the commercial providing company, and therefore, there is no benefit in purchasing the product. It is not possible to expect benefits such as being obtained.

A so-called TV shopping system that allows a viewer to call a desired product on a TV monitor and purchase the product using a two-way cable TV network has been studied for practical use. The system configuration linked with commercials is unknown.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new distribution system using a two-way media network in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

That is, the distribution system according to the present invention comprises:
In response to a request from a commercial client,
Two-way communicators providing commercial broadcasts on products
Stage and a commercial supplied via the two-way communication means
TV monitor for receiving broadcasts, and the TV monitor
Owned by each viewer who views the commercial broadcast via
And a recording medium connected to the television monitor.
And a decoder that performs recording and reading for
This recording medium is used for viewing commercial broadcasts viewed by viewers.
Data is cumulatively recorded for each product of the commercial requesting company
To have a commercial viewing data recording unit
Features.

A more preferred system of the present invention is provided in a form linked with a so-called television shopping system. That is, a commercial requesting company that requests a commercial broadcast as an advertising means, a broadcasting company that broadcasts a commercial in response to a request from the commercial requesting company and provides information on products related to the commercial, A television monitor for receiving the broadcast and the product information, a recording medium owned by each viewer who watches the broadcast via the television monitor, and a decoder connected to the television monitor and recording and reading the recording medium The recording medium has a commercial viewing data recording unit that cumulatively records the viewing data of the commercial viewed by the viewer for each product of the commercial requesting company, and the viewer accumulates in his / her own recording medium. The product is displayed on the TV monitor with a benefit corresponding to the recorded commercial viewing data. In addition to being able to select and purchase via TV, the TV shopping order from each viewer is tabulated for each product and sent to the commercial requesting company of the product, so that the commercial requesting company can view or view the commercial broadcast This is a distribution system characterized by being constructed so that the correlation between performance and demand can be grasped.

In the preferred system of the present invention, the broadcasting company is a cable television station, and a cable television network is formed between the cable television station and the home of the viewer.

[0014] In the recording medium, personal information concerning the age, sex, occupation, address, etc. of the owner can be recorded in advance. As a result, the commercial requesting company can set the arbitrary conditions based on the personal information and analyze the correlation between the commercial broadcasting results or viewing results and the demands, and refer to the results when composing commercial programs in the future. .

Further, a server for recording commercials in a centralized manner can be provided. This allows viewers to:
Video-on-demand makes it possible to call a commercial of a product of interest to a monitor and place a purchase order at any time.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A distribution system according to the present invention comprises a center for managing and operating the system, a company requesting commercials as advertising means, and a cable television company broadcasting commercials in response to requests from companies. And a plurality of terminal members having a television monitor connected by cable to receive a broadcast from a cable television company.

A commercial (CM) requesting company requests a center to create a CM for advertising its products.

[0018] The center distributes a CM created in response to a request from a CM requesting company to each terminal member (home) through a cable television (CATV) network.
Request distribution to the company. It is preferable that the system be constructed by a plurality of CATV companies.

The CATV company that has received the distribution request creates allocation data in which the CM is allocated to the broadcast program of its own station and transmits it to the center, and the center transmits this to the CM requesting company for confirmation.

Each CM requesting company, center and each CAT
Each of the V companies is provided with a computer, which enables bidirectional transmission and reception between each CM company and the center and between the center and each CATV company through a telephone line or an optical fiber. Also, bidirectional transmission and reception between the center and the viewer via the CATV company is possible.

The CM determined in this manner is distributed to each home via a cable from a CATV company together with related programs, and is broadcast on a television monitor provided in each home.

A point card decoder (PCD) is connected to each television monitor. Each viewer has an ID
When the user has an IC card having a function and a credit payment function, and always watches a CM broadcast from a television monitor, the IC card is always inserted into a PCD connected to the television monitor to be viewed.

The IC card is provided with a CM viewing data recording unit for adding and recording the CM viewing data for each product (or each product of the CM requesting company). PCD is
Each time each viewer views the commercial CM, new data is additionally recorded in the CM viewing data recording section for the commercial product of the IC card inserted in the PCD.

The CM viewing data recorded in the CM viewing data recording section of the IC card includes the number of times the CM has been viewed, the viewing time, the viewing time, the program or channel code, and the like.

In the IC card, personal information (age, gender, address, etc.) of the viewer is owned in advance. The IC card further incorporates a credit function for order payment settlement by television shopping, which will be described later.

Also, in this system, the personal information such as the CM viewing total data for each product recorded on the inserted IC card is displayed on the television monitor by inputting personal identification data by the viewer. You can check it.

Further, each CATV company can grasp in real time the viewing record of the CM broadcasted at the request of the CM requesting company by using two-way communication by a cable television network. Therefore, the center that receives the information can analyze the viewing record for each CM and each viewer, and provide the CM requesting company as personal information to be referred to for marketing and the like.

The system of the present invention is preferably constructed in combination with a television shopping system.
One example is shown in FIG. The arrows shown in FIG. 1 indicate the flow of operations when television shopping is performed in this system.

The CATV company provides merchandise information necessary for television shopping to each viewer through the CATV network. Each viewer can call out information on the product desired to be purchased at any time and display it on the television monitor, and can purchase the product by referring to the information. In general, the above-described commercial product is a commercial product targeted for television shopping, but the commercial product can be expanded to a product of the same type or a product of the same company.

A viewer who purchases a specific product by television shopping places an order for purchase with his / her IC card inserted in the PCD, so that a viewer can view a commercial recorded on the commercial product. Discounts are automatically applied according to the accumulated data recorded. That is, until the maximum point of the privilege set as necessary is reached, the product can be purchased at a lower price as the conditions determined by the CM requesting company such as the number of times of CM viewing and time are satisfied more. Note that a certain upper limit can be set for the privilege based on the CM viewing data. In addition, without limiting the privilege at the time of purchase to the product concerned, it is also possible to arbitrarily perform the application by expanding to a certain range such as a product of the same kind or a product of the same company by a decision of the CM requesting company.

Since the IC card has a built-in credit function, it is possible to purchase products with credit. The credit settlement operation is the same as the case where a conventionally known credit card is used, and thus the description is omitted.

Product orders by viewers are tabulated in a CATV company at regular intervals for each product, and the tabulated data is sent to the center. The center requests the credit company to confirm the credit of each viewer (confirm the balance), and after receiving the confirmation, sends the aggregate data of the product to the CM requesting company. The CM requesting company that has received the product total data checks the stock of the product as necessary, and then reports the confirmation of order reception to the viewer through the center and the CATV company. This allows the viewer to confirm his order.
The ordered product is delivered to the viewer from the distribution center that has received the request from the CM requesting company that has received the order.

In addition to the ordering and delivery of goods through television shopping, in addition to participating in the CATV network, in a shop equipped with a PCD, or in a shop directly managed by a CM requesting company equipped with a PCD, the merchandise at the store is actually used. It is also possible to purchase after watching. In this case as well, by inserting its own IC card into the PCD, a discount according to the CM viewing data accumulated and recorded for the product is applied.

The CM audience rating (viewing frequency) from the CATV company is tabulated for each viewer (home) and each product, and is supplied as data from the center to the CM requesting company of the product. Similarly, the CM requesting company obtains total data of orders for each product. By analyzing these data for each specific object as needed (for a certain age group, gender, occupation, region, etc.), the CM requesting company knows the correlation between CM and demand for each product, Marketing, ordering, demand, production, distribution, etc. of the product can be planned and executed accurately and promptly.

The system configuration shown in FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the functions performed by the center
May be responsible.

In addition, CM broadcasted from each CATV company
Is recorded on a server provided in the CATV company or the center, and a so-called video-on-demand system is adopted so that each viewer can call a commercial of a product of interest on a monitor at any time as desired and view it. Is also possible. In the future, it is conceivable that a CATV company will provide a channel for broadcasting only commercials.

Furthermore, the CM requesting company broadcasts not only commercials of its own products but also questions and questionnaires concerning the products, and records the responses, instructions, inquiries, etc. to the IC cards owned by the viewers. Can be. These items recorded on the IC card are tabulated and analyzed by a CATV company or center together with CM viewing data and personal information data and sent to each CM requesting company, so that they can be used as reference data in marketing of the product. it can.

[0038]

According to the present invention, a new distribution system is constructed by using a two-way media network, and for a CM requesting company, the effect of enlightening or demand-raising products by CM is enhanced, while at the same time viewing and viewing CMs and products. The advantage that the efficiency of marketing, ordering and receiving orders can be achieved by clearly grasping the correlation with demand (sales performance), and for viewers (consumers), it is accumulated when purchasing products by watching CM. The advantage that a special privilege can be received is acquired.

The recording material owned by each viewer has an age,
Personal information such as gender and address can be recorded.
The M requesting company can use the system of the present invention more effectively by referring to the personal information.

For example, specific conditions (combinations are possible)
It is possible to freely give a privilege at the time of product purchase only to a user who satisfies the condition or change a privilege for each condition as a privilege of the CM requesting company. For special contents (conditions), play a telop through the monitor,
The demand stimulating effect of the product can be exerted intensively.

The above-mentioned effects are not possible at all with the current running-off commercial, and can be achieved for the first time by the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a preferred example of a system of the present invention.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] [1] In response to a request from a commercial requesting company
Supply commercial broadcasts on products of the client company
Two-way communication means, and supplied through the two-way communication means
A television monitor for receiving commercial broadcasts;
To watch the commercial broadcast via the Levi Monitor
Recorded media owned by the viewer and connected to the television monitor
To perform recording and reading on the recording medium
And the recording medium is a commercial which the viewer views.
Broadcast viewing data for each product of commercial requesting company
Has a commercial viewing data recording unit that records cumulatively
And a distribution system.