Delivery of multiple third-party services to networked devices

摘要

Systems and methods for authenticating a media device or other information handling system so as to be able to receive content from one or more media content providers. Authenticating the device includes determining what authentication information the media content providers require for access and then to generating and providing to the media device an authentication token that includes the required information. In some embodiments this may be accomplished by a service center, which removes the need for additional authentication steps to be performed by the media device or the media content providers. In addition, the service center may also determine when changes are made to the authentication information and may then ensure that the authentication token is changed or updated to reflect these changes. This ensures that the media device is at least partially immune to changes to authentication.

主权项

1. In a system including a media device that receives content or services from one or more media content providers, a method performed by a service center for providing authentication information to the media device, without the media device having first communicated with a media content provider, to enable the media device to authenticate with the media content provider to receive content or services from the media content provider, the method comprising:
receiving, at a service center, a request from a media device, the request requesting authentication information for enabling the media device to authenticate with a media content provider that is separate from the service center, the request from the media device being sent from the media device to the service center before the media device has communicated any request to the media content provider; generating, at the service center, authentication information and providing the authentication information to the media device for allowing the media device to authenticate to the media content provider without having communicated previously any request to the media content provider; and wherein the authentication information is configured to allow the media device to authenticate directly to the media content provider without having previously communicated any request to the media content provider and without further communication with the service center and by sending the authentication information to the media content provider to authenticate the media device to receive media content or services directly from the media content provider.