METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INCREASING VIEWERSHIP OF BROADCAST PROGRAMMING

摘要

A system and method for generating or increasing viewership of a broadcast of an episode of a series by an affiliate to a plurality of receiver stations is disclosed. A live prefacing media program is transmitted to users within an affiliates market in such a way that does not conflict with the affiliate's exclusive right to transmit a media program within that market. The live prefacing media program includes media program clips from previous episodes of a series, and users can vote on their favorite media program clips. Such votes alter the content presented in the live prefacing media program. Transmission of the live prefacing media program terminates when the affiliates broadcast of the next episode of the series begins, thus encouraging or “throwing” viewers to view that episode.

主权项

1. A method of generating viewership of a broadcast of an episode of a series by an affiliate to a plurality of receiver stations, each receiver station associated with at least one user, the broadcast commencing at a broadcast commencement time, the episode provided by a media program provider to the affiliate serving a market for the broadcast of the episode by the affiliate on a first communication channel, the broadcast subject to an affiliate license exclusive to the market, the method comprising:
(a) commencing transmission of a live prefacing media program from the media program provider to the market via at least one of a plurality of second communication channels independent from the first communication channel before the broadcast commencement time, wherein:
the live prefacing media program comprises user-identifiable content related to the broadcast of the episode;the live prefacing media program is for transmission via the at least one of the plurality of second communication channels; andthe transmission of the live prefacing media program is not subject to the affiliate license in the market and is formatted for transmission on any of the plurality of second communication channels without modification; (b) accepting identifiers of the user-identifiable content via at least one of a third plurality of communication channels independent from the first communication channel; (c) automatically altering the live prefacing media program during transmission of the prefacing media program according to an aggregate of the accepted user identifiers according to an objective popularity measure; (d) further transmitting the altered live prefacing media program from the media program provider via the second communication channel; (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) until the broadcast commencement time; and (f) terminating transmission of the live prefacing media program from the media program provider to the market via the second communication channel immediately before the broadcast commencement time.