VIDEO-ON-DEMAND CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING VIDEO-ON-DEMAND SERVICES TO TV SERVICES SUBSCRIBERS

摘要

A video-on-demand (VOD) content delivery system has a VOD Application Server which manages a database of templates for presentation of video content elements of different selected types categorized in hierarchical order. A web-based Content Management System receives content uploaded online in file formats with metadata for title and topical area, and automatically converts it into video data format compatible with the VOD content delivery system indexed by title and topical area. A User Interface for the system delivers listings data to the viewer's TV indexed by title and topical area specified by the uploaded metadata.

主权项

1. A set-top box, providing video-on-demand services and operatively connected to TV equipment of a TV service subscriber, programmed to perform the steps of:
(a) receiving, at the set-top box, via a closed system from a video-on-demand content delivery system comprising one or more computers and computer-readable memory operatively connected to the one or more computers, respective video-on-demand application-readable metadata that is associated with respective video content and is usable to generate a video-on-demand content menu; wherein the respective video content was uploaded to a Web-based content management system by a respective content provider device associated with a respective video content provider via the Internet in a digital video format along with respective specified metadata including respective title information, category information, and subcategory information designated by the respective video content provider to specify a respective hierarchical location of a respective title of the respective video content within the video-on-demand content menu displayed on the TV equipment, wherein the respective video-on-demand application-readable metadata is generated according to the respective specified metadata; (b) providing, to the TV subscriber at the set-top box, the video-on-demand content menu for navigating through titles, including the respective titles of the respective video content, in a drill-down manner by category information and subcategory information in order to locate a particular one of the titles whose associated video content is desired for viewing on the TV equipment, wherein the video-on-demand content menu lists the titles using the same hierarchical structure of respective category information and subcategory information as was designated by the respective video content provider in the respective specified metadata for the respective video content, wherein a plurality of different video display templates are accessible to the set-top box, and wherein the video-on-demand content menu is generated using at least one of the plurality of different video display templates and based at least upon the respective specified metadata; and (c) in response to the TV service subscriber selecting, via a control unit in communication with the set-top box, a first respective title associated with a first video content from the hierarchical structure of respective category information and subcategory information of the video-on-demand content menu using drill-down navigation, transmitting the selection to the set-top box for display on the TV equipment; and (d) receiving, at the set-top box, the first video content for display on the TV equipment of the TV service subscriber, wherein in response to the selection the first video content was retrieved from a video server associated with the video-on-demand content delivery system.