U.S. patent application number 11/369660 was filed with the patent office on 2006-07-06 for method of processing rental requests and returns.
Invention is credited to John N. Gross.
Application Number | 20060149685 11/369660 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33544530 |
Filed Date | 2006-07-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060149685 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gross; John N. |
July 6, 2006 |
Method of processing rental requests and returns
Abstract
A delivery mechanism for distributing media items to subscribers
uses a timed based benchmark in lieu of or in addition to a
conventional capacity driven model. In this manner, titles are
delivered based on delays introduced intentionally and based on
title demand, subscriber behavior, etc.
Inventors: |
Gross; John N.; (San
Francisco, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
J. NICHOLAS GROSS, ATTORNEY
2030 ADDISON ST.
SUITE 610
BERKELEY
CA
94704
US
|
Family ID: |
33544530 |
Appl. No.: |
11/369660 |
Filed: |
March 6, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10874412 |
Jun 22, 2004 |
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11369660 |
Mar 6, 2006 |
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60482371 |
Jun 25, 2003 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/77 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0631 20130101;
G06Q 30/06 20130101; G06Q 20/1235 20130101; G06Q 10/0838 20130101;
G06Q 20/085 20130101; G07F 17/0042 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/077 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 99/00 20060101
G06Q099/00 |
Claims
1. A method of delivering machine readable media to subscribers of
a media: rental service comprising the steps of: (a) providing a
maximum number of machine readable media items (Nmax) which the
subscribers can have out at any moment in time from the media
rental service; (b) identifying if a first subscriber has capacity
available for delivery of a first machine readable media item
requested by such subscriber; (c) imposing a first delay on
delivery of said first machine readable media item to the first
subscriber even when said first subscriber has not reached
Nmax.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first delay is only imposed
for a group of subscribers determined by the computing system.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first delay is imposed for a
group of machine readable media items which are high demand items
determined by the computing system.
4. The method of claim 1 further including a step: delivering an
additional media item after a second delay so that said subscriber
has at least Nmax+1 titles out.
5. The method of claim 1 further including a step: (d) measuring a
number of titles out for said subscriber relative to Nmax over a
predetermined period.
6. The method of claim 5, further including a step: (e) adjusting
said first delay based on results of step (d).
7. The method of claim 1, further including a step: (d)
preemptively delivering a title to the first subscriber before it
is requested.
8. A method of delivering machine readable media to subscribers of
a media rental service comprising the steps of: (a) providing a
maximum number of machine readable media items (Nmax) which the
subscribers can have out at any moment in time from the media
rental service; (b) evaluating a demand characteristic with a
computing system for a first machine readable media item requested
by a first subscriber; (c) identifying if said first subscriber has
capacity available for delivery of said first machine readable
media item based on Nmax for such subscriber; (d) imposing a delay
on delivery of said first machine readable media item to the first
subscriber based on the results of steps (b) and (c); wherein
delivery of a first machine readable media item can be
intentionally delayed even when said first subscriber has not
reached Nmax.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein said delay is only imposed for a
group of subscribers determined by the computing system.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein said delay is imposed for a
group of machine readable media items which are high demand items
determined by the computing system.
11. The method of claim 8, wherein a cost and/or profit associated
with delivering the item is also considered during step (d).
12. The method of claim 8 further including a step (e) sending a
second machine readable media item to said first subscriber before
said first machine readable media item, which second machine
readable media item has a demand characteristic determined by the
computing system to be less than said first machine readable media
item.
13. The method of claim 8 further including a step (e) sending a
second machine readable media item to said first subscriber before
said first machine readable media item, which second machine
readable media item is determined automatically by a recommender
system to be appropriate for the first subscriber.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein said second machine readable
media item is delivered preemptively to the first subscriber before
it is requested.
15. A method of delivering machine readable media to subscribers of
a media rental service comprising the steps of: (a) providing a
maximum number of machine readable media items (Nmax) which the
subscribers can have out at any moment in time from the media
rental service; (b) identifying if a first subscriber has capacity
available for delivery of a first machine readable media item based
on Nmax for such subscriber; (c) measuring media useage behavior of
said first subscriber; (d) imposing a delay on delivery of said
first machine readable media item to the first subscriber based on
the results of steps (b) and (c); wherein delivery of a first
machine readable media item can be intentionally delayed even when
said first subscriber has not reached Nmax.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein during step (c) the system
measures a number of titles out for said subscriber relative to
Nmax over a predetermined period.
17. The method of claim 15 including a step: selecting between
delivering said first machine readable media item to said first
subscriber or a second subscriber based on comparing useage
behavior of said first subscriber and said second subscriber.
18. The method of claim 15, further including a step: (e) sending a
second machine readable media item to said first subscriber, which
second machine readable media item has a demand characteristic
determined by the computing system to be less than said first
machine readable media item.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein after step (e) the first
subscriber has a number of machine readable media items which
exceeds Nmax.
20. The method of claim 15, further including a step: (d)
preemptively delivering a title to the first subscriber before it
is requested.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
[0001] The present application claims priority to and is a
continuation of Ser. No. 10/874,412 filed Jun. 22, 2004 entitled
Method of Processing Rental Requests and Returns which in turn
claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of the priority date of
Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/482,371 filed Jun. 25, 2003,
and both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to electronic commerce systems
and methods of providing selections, shipments and exchanges of
rental items. The invention has particular applicability to
applications in which entertainment media are rented on a temporary
or short term basis by subscribers over the Internet.
BACKGROUND
[0003] The Internet is now being used for a number of commercial
purposes, including purchase and rental of movie films in different
media formats. One such popular website is maintained by
Netflix.RTM., where subscribers can search, review and select movie
titles (in DVD media format). If a particular title is available,
the subscriber's choice is then placed into a rental selection
"queue." During an interactive online session, a subscriber can
select a number of titles, and then prioritize them in a desired
order for shipment within the selection queue.
[0004] After the movie title selection session is over, the system
proceeds to ship the desired titles in the order requested by the
subscriber. The selections are mailed to the user in special
packaging, which include return mailers pre-printed and adapted for
such movie media. This minimizes the inconvenience to the
subscriber, but there is an indeterminate processing and mailing
delay therefore associated with each selection. In most instances,
a selection is mailed the same day, but even in such cases, there
is typically a three day transaction period associated between the
selection, processing, shipment, mail transit and receipt of a
particular title.
[0005] After shipment, these titles then appear in a list
identified essentially as items that are outstanding (i.e., movies
that have not yet been returned by the user) within a "titles out"
queue. Under one option of the Netflix terms of service, the system
places a limit on the number of outstanding titles that a
subscriber may have at any one time (typically, a function of the
level of service agreement, with more $$/month resulting in more
titles). Thus, if the user selects more movies than they can
acquire at one time, the remaining movie titles remain as
un-shipped items in the rental selection queue. Additional titles
in the rental selection queue are only shipped to the user after
the system logs a returned item from that same user. This happens
automatically, so the user does not need to return to the Netflix
website to request the shipment. At the same time, however, the
user is not consulted in the decision to ship the next item; it
happens without his/her approval or advance notice.
[0006] The aforementioned system is further described in U.S. Pat.
No. 6,584,450, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The '450
patent explains the above policy in terms of a "MAX" out approach
for servicing rental customers. Notably, the aforementioned
disclosure also mentions that the MAX out approach can only be
altered under certain exceptions, such as where the customer agrees
to pay a surcharge.
[0007] A limitation of the aforementioned system is that while the
system automatically ships the next items in the rental queue it
fails to consider whether the user may in fact want to "veto" the
next item in the queue, either because their tastes have changed,
or if they might have already seen the title. As users sometimes
fill up their request queues months in advance with dozens of
titles, and they typically only see 6-8 movies per month, there is
a strong possibility that one more of such titles will be stale
after several months.
[0008] A further limitation, of course, is that the user must
always return another title before the next title in their queue is
shipped to them. While this is somewhat useful for inventory
tracking purposes, the user is handicapped by the fact that after
they posit the returned title in the mail, they have little or no
control over how quickly or accurately such return will be
processed by the mail, or the rental service.
[0009] Finally, it is conceivable that on many occasions, from the
perspective of the service provider, it will be desirable to ship
another title to a customer, regardless of a status of their
delivery queue, and without applying a surcharge. In other words,
in order to promote certain titles, retain certain customers, or
balance supply/demand, a service provider may want to automatically
ship more than the "Max Out" figure to a particular customer, based
on some triggering event.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] An object of the present invention, therefore, is to
overcome the aforementioned limitations of the prior art.
[0011] Another object is to implement a method of delivering
rentals which allows users to be part of the process of determining
which titles they should receive;
[0012] A further object is to implement a method of delivering
rentals which is based on an automatic, time based delivery for
rental titles, and not on a returned/received status of other
rental titles in the customer's possession;
[0013] Yet another object is to implement a method of delivering
rentals which is based on automatically selecting titles of
interest for the customer using a recommendation system, and using
such criteria, rather than user specified criteria, for
automatically shipping items to a user.
[0014] A first aspect of the invention, therefore, concerns a
method of delivering rented media to a subscriber comprising the
steps of: providing a maximum number of media items (Nmax) which
the subscriber can have out at any moment in time; delivering a
media item to the subscriber in accordance with a priority
specified by the subscriber; incrementing a count of media items
out (Nout); determining if Nout>=Nmax; when Nout>=Nmax,
setting a timer to a predetermined delay; delivering another media
item to the subscriber after expiration of said predetermined
delay, even if Nout>=Nmax. In this fashion, a number of media
items in excess of Nmax can be in the subscriber's possession
and/or in transit to/from the subscriber.
[0015] Thus, in preferred embodiments, distributions of media items
to subscribers are provided at least partially on a time basis, and
not on a subscriber capacity basis. This allows for more
flexibility in reducing returns monitoring. When Nout=Nmax+1,
returns from the subscriber are then monitored to identify if Nout
should be decremented. Typically the media items are DVDs or other
entertainment content identified in a delivery queue by the
subscriber, ordered in a sequence of desired receipt by the
subscriber.
[0016] In some embodiments a delinquency period for the subscriber
is monitored, which delinquency period is a period of time in which
Nout>=Nmax for the subscriber. Depending on how tardy a
particular subscriber is, automatic timed deliveries can be
suspended. Further still, in some instances, the predetermined
delay can be function of how many titles are out, when a prior
title was delivered to the subscriber, or demand for the media
item.
[0017] Another aspect of the invention covers a method of
delivering rented media to a subscriber comprising the steps of:
providing a maximum number of media items (Nmax) which the
subscriber can have out at any moment in time; delivering a media
item to the subscriber in accordance with a priority specified by
the subscriber; incrementing a count of media items out (Nout);
determining if Nout>=Nmax; determining if an overcapacity
triggering event has occurred;
[0018] delivering another media item to the subscriber after
expiration of said predetermined delay, even if Nout>=Nmax.
Again, a number of media items in excess of Nmax can be in the
subscriber's possession and/or in transit to/from the
subscriber.
[0019] In typical environments, the overcapacity triggering event
can be one or more of the following: a promotion for the media
item, a demand associated for the media item, a timer associated
with the subscriber, a recommender system prediction given for the
subscriber, or a status of a delivery queue maintained for the
subscriber.
[0020] Still another aspect of the invention concerns a method of
delivering rented media to a subscriber comprising the steps of:
providing a maximum number of media items (Nmax) which the
subscriber can have out at any moment in time; delivering a first
media item to the subscriber; monitoring returns from the
subscriber and a delivery capacity for the subscriber to identify
if a second media item should be sent to the subscriber; selecting
at least two candidate media items by choosing a first title
identified by the subscriber and a second title automatically
selected for the subscriber based on preferences of the subscriber;
presenting said at least two candidate media items to the
subscriber to permit such subscriber to select which one should be
delivered next in sequence. Thus, the subscriber is consulted
before said second media item is sent.
[0021] In preferred embodiments, the media are rented over the
Internet, and the subscriber is consulted by email. To assist the
subscriber in identifying suitable candidate items, the subscriber
is directed to a website to select from additional candidate media
items. The second titles are preferably selected by a recommender
system operating at an Internet site.
[0022] It will be understood from the Detailed Description that the
inventions can be implemented in a multitude of different
embodiments. Furthermore, it will be readily appreciated by skilled
artisans that such different embodiments will likely include only
one or more of the aforementioned objects of the present
inventions. Thus, the absence of one or more of such
characteristics in any particular embodiment should not be
construed as limiting the scope of the present inventions. While
described in the context of a rental system, it will be apparent to
those skilled in the art that the present teachings could be used
in any Internet based rental or purchase system that employs a
queue of some form.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0023] FIG. 1 illustrates a first embodiment of a time based rental
title shipping/return process implemented in accordance with the
present invention;
[0024] FIG. 2 illustrates a second embodiment of a trigger-based
rental title shipping/return process implemented in accordance with
the present invention;
[0025] FIG. 3 illustrates a third embodiment of a subscriber
controlled rental title shipping/return process implemented in
accordance with the present invention;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0026] While the present preferred embodiment is directed to a
process to be used by a rental service for distributing DVD movie
titles, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, as
used herein, the term "media item" or "playable media item" is
intended to have its broadest meaning to include any machine
readable media readable (including software programs) by a
subscriber machine player (such as a DVD player, a computer, a
video recorder/receiver, an audio CD ROM Player, and the like). In
addition, electronic files which are downloaded and/or streamed
from the Internet or some other distribution point (Satellite,
Cable) are also encompassed in this definition. Furthermore, other
queable content/items that are not machine readable could be
distributed in this fashion as well, including human readable
materials such as printed matter in the form of books, magazines,
and other general purpose items. Other useful articles can be
rented and distributed in accordance with the present teachings as
well.
[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a rental shipping/return
process 100 employed in the present invention that is based
primarily on a time-based delivery approach. The process shown in
FIG. 1 can be implemented, for example, in a rental service of the
type operated online by Netflix and other companies as noted
above.
[0028] As seen in FIG. 1, a first step 110 of the process concerns
collecting customer selection criteria. This, again, can take the
form of the criteria gathered by the system noted in the
aforementioned US Pat. No. 6,584,450, and in the manner described
therein. For example, as noted in such disclosure, a rental
provider could collect data on a type of service agreement required
by the customer--including a desired maximum number of titles that
can be "out" in the customer's possession (Nmax), the names of
particular titles, a desired shipping order for such titles, etc.
Other examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Typically this data is collected through a web browser operating on
a client device used by the customer.
[0029] At step 120, the system begins shipping titles to the
customer, if a slot is available in his/her shipping queue. Assume
that K represents the net sum of titles that are out to the
customer, accounting for returns, that the user has a free slot in
their delivery queue, and that they have selected a title that is
otherwise available for shipping. If K<Nmax, the title is
shipped, and afterwards, the system increments the counter of
titles out to the customer, to reflect that K=K+1.
[0030] From there, at step 130, a determination is made if
K>=Nmax. According to the prior art above, no further titles
would be sent to the customer, unless the customer agrees to a
surcharge, or until he/she returns a title. In the present
invention, however, an additional title is automatically sent out
after a fixed time delay set at step 135, or in accordance with
other triggering events identified below. It will be noted, of
course, that this time delay can be designed in accordance with the
needs of an inventory management system, and in a manner that does
not result in an excessive number of titles being shipped
unnecessarily. For example, the delay could be set to 1 day, 2
days, or even hours.
[0031] The important distinction is that no monitoring need be done
for returns by the customer between steps 130 and 135. In other
words, the present invention automatically ships another title,
even past the "max out" limit, based on a time event, and not a
customer originated event (i.e., such as a return of a title, or a
receipt of a title).
[0032] After step 135, a check can be made, if desired for returns
made by the customer. If so, a slot is opened in the subscriber's
shipping queue, K is decremented accordingly, and the process
continues again at step 120.
[0033] At step 140, a check is made to see if in fact the number of
titles out the customer K=Nmax+1. If not, a second delay is again
introduced at step 145; it will be appreciated that this second
delay could be the same or different as the first delay above. The
process then proceeds to step 120 as noted earlier.
[0034] If at step 140 K is indeed=Nmax+1, the system then moves
into a monitoring mode at step 150, wherein the shipping queue is
examined for the customer's account to see if there is an available
slot. If a return is made, a slot is opened, so that once
K<Nmax, another title is shipped in response to an expiration of
a third timer delay at step 165.
[0035] It will be noted that the above approach, of course, varies
from the prior art, in that it is possible, of course, to ship an
additional title beyond that contractually requested to the
subscriber. It is possible, as well, that the subscriber may "sit"
on the titles. Nonetheless, given that the aforementioned rental
systems operate by incentivizing customers to exchange inventory,
it is unlikely that a subscriber will be motivated to simply sit on
an extra title that they did not bargain for. In other words,
customers are aware that they cannot get new titles without
exchanging older titles, so they are not going to handicap their
own potential monthly "turn" of titles by sitting on some set
number of titles that is in excess of their limit. It is also
perhaps more efficient to separate the returns and shipping
processes, so that the programming complexity and monitoring is
reduced.
[0036] Furthermore, in many cases, of course, it is possible that a
title will be shipped out in the morning, while a return is
processed from the user later that day. In this respect, the
increase in "turns" is rather minimal, since the exchange would
occur on that day anyway. Even in cases where the expected "turn"
is accelerated by a day or two, there may be other commercial
advantages in preemptively shipping a title in an automated fashion
according to a fixed schedule.
[0037] The primary point, as noted above, is to de-couple the
events of a rental return and a rental shipment, and to make the
deliveries/shipments of titles caused by a time based event, rather
than on monitoring and logging an additional event. The time based
event, as well as the amount of the delay can be tailored on an
application by application basis, depending on the characteristics
of the subscribers, the type of inventory, etc. If a subscriber
returns a title before the delay has expired (i.e., the slot opens
up, it is not necessary to account for the return anyway, and the
present invention presents no worse penalty than the prior art.
[0038] In another variation, an additional check can be made at
step 140, to see if the subscriber is someone who makes a habit of
retaining more than their allotted number of titles. If such person
has had more than their allotment during the past N days (where N
can be a billing cycle) the system may "veto" the extra shipment,
and simply fall through to step 150. Alternatively, the delay for
such person could be set longer.
[0039] In yet another variant, the time delay could be set to be a
function of the number of the title, so that there is only a small
delay in shipping the second title, and a larger delay in shipping
the last or extra title. Another approach, of course, is to tie the
delay for the Nmax+1 title to some fixed time after the shipment of
the earliest one shipped to the customer, again, on the expectation
that the user is very likely to return the earliest title within
such time frame.
[0040] In some cases, of course, it may be desirable to only send
low-demand titles, or promotional titles as the Nmax+1st title.
These may not have been specifically requested by the customer. The
advantage of such titles is that they can supplant a subscriber's
request for a potentially more valuable or popular title.
[0041] As noted herein, such return/shipping process is expected to
be embodied in a variety of software programs, routines, etc., that
run on one more servers coupled to the Internet. In other
embodiments these programs and routines will run directly on a
computing machine at the subscriber's premises, such as a digital
video recorder, receiver, etc.
[0042] FIG. 2 illustrates a second example of a rental
shipping/return process 100 employed in the present invention that
is based primarily on a trigger event based delivery approach. The
process shown in FIG. 2 can be implemented, for example, in a
rental service of the type operated online by Netflix and other
companies as noted above.
[0043] As with step 110 above, step 210 collects customer item
selection criteria.
[0044] As with step 120 above, step 220 ships a new title if a slot
is available.
[0045] At step 130, an additional title (beyond the customer's
maximum allotment Nmax) is shipped, based on a "triggering event."
The triggering event may be an expiration for a timer, a promotion
for a particular title, a prediction that the customer will desire
the title, and/or a determination made based on observing a status
of a customer's queue.
[0046] In the promotional case, the title may be a low demand
title, a promotional title, etc., which "costs" little to the
service provider, and helps to increase the subscriber
satisfaction.
[0047] In the last case, for example, the system may note that the
customer has selected a number of titles which have long waits.
Rather than the user seeing nothing for long periods of time
(because no titles will be delivered if they are unavailable), the
system can, using its own criteria (separate from the user
collected criteria) select a title and automatically ship it to the
customer.
[0048] Again, this is preferably done without a surcharge. The
user's shipping queue is thus expanded (albeit temporarily) at step
240.
[0049] While the Netflix system is known to "randomly" send
additional titles to customers, in excess of their maximum
allotment, the applicant does not believe that such system operates
based on a promotional event, or on monitoring the customer's
queue. The advantage of this approach, as well, is that the system
can "throttle" and control demand for new releases. That is, the
system can preemptively send titles to a subscriber that are not as
high in demand as the titles already in a subscriber's queue.
Again, the cost in sending another title may be less than the cost
of securing a very popular title, or not satisfying another
customer with such title.
[0050] Furthermore, an ancillary benefit to the service provider is
that they can determine, from available inventory, particular
titles which may be of interest to subscribers, and ship them as a
way of "filling" subscriber needs in advance. This can be done,
again, by auto-recommender systems, such as by the Cinematch system
employed by Netflix, or other comparable system. In other words,
every title preemptively shipped by the service provider acts to
supplant a subscriber choice that may be harder to satisfy (i.e.,
because the desired title is scarce). For example, if the service
determines that a customer is highly likely to enjoy title A, and
if the title is shipped to the subscriber, this fills an available
spot in the shipping queue and reduces the expectation/opportunity
by the subscriber of receiving another (potentially more popular)
title. This further frees up an opportunity for the service
provider to ship the more popular title to another subscriber, thus
giving more flexibility in responding to demand. Furthermore, a
service provider can determine which titles have a higher profit
margin (i.e., lower sharing expenses with distributors, studios,
etc.) and control the distribution of titles more closely using
cost/profit as an additional factor as well.
[0051] FIG. 3 illustrates a third example of a rental
shipping/return process 100 employed in the present invention that
is based primarily on a customer acceptance event based delivery
approach. The process shown in FIG. 3 can be implemented, for
example, in a rental service of the type operated online by Netflix
and other companies as noted above.
[0052] As with step 110 above, step 310 collects customer item
selection criteria.
[0053] At step 320 a determination is made to see if there is an
available shipping slot in the subscriber's queue. Assuming there
is, at step 330, the system then determines an appropriate title
that should be moved into the customer's shipping queue and send to
the subscriber.
[0054] Unlike the prior art, however, the title is not shipped
automatically, simply because the customer has returned another
title. Instead, at step 340, a notification is made to the
subscriber, by email or otherwise, alerting them to the selected
choice that will be sent to them next. In some cases, of course,
the selected choice may simply be the next item in the customer's
queue, in the order they presented it. In other instances, however,
the system can automatically select a new title, and present it to
the subscriber for acceptance. Thus, in the latter case, the
"selection criteria" are provided by the rental provider system,
and not by the subscriber. In some instances, both a user-specified
title and a rental provider specified title can be identified, so
that the user can make a choice between the two. The user can
elect, through the selection criteria entered at step 310, to what
extent they wish to have the system make such recommendations.
[0055] The notification/confirmation request provided at step 340
is then ratified at step 350. The ratification by the subscriber
can take a variety of forms, some of them explicit (i.e.,
responding "yes" to an email) or implicit (i.e., not providing an
objection to the choice within a designated time period). In some
cases, a subscriber may set up such notification controls in
advance, so that the system always makes a selection on their
behalf without further prompting. Other forms will be apparent to
those skilled in the art. The distinction, again, is that the
system incorporates the subscriber's desires in the shipping
process, and does not mechanically decide to ship the next title
without first consulting with the customer.
[0056] Thus, an acceptance at step 350 may be an actual or
"constructive" confirmation. An actual confirmation would require,
for example, that the subscriber either visit the site to remove a
tentative designation, or confirm the shipment in a later e-mail,
etc. A constructive confirmation can be based on time, for example,
so that the system will automatically ship the title unless the
subscriber objects to such selection within a predetermined
(controlled by the user) number of days/hours.
[0057] In another instance, the subscriber can be presented with a
set of alternatives, or be directed to the website to select
another option different from the default choice that would
otherwise be sent. This, again, can be used to increase traffic to
a provider site, by exposing the subscribers to new materials that
they may be unaware of since their last visit.
[0058] This approach also has an advantage in that the service
provider can also intervene, and automatically recommend a title to
be shipped to the subscriber, in lieu of the choice (i.e., the next
in the queue) made by the subscriber. A variety of artificial
intelligence, or preference determination systems are known in the
art for predicting preferences of individuals. These systems work
based on such simple factors as demographics, prior selections,
expressed preferences, questionnaires, etc.
[0059] In the present system, an auto-recommend feature can be
based, for example, on prior ratings given by a subscriber to
certain movies which he/she has seen, and/or just based on the
identity if all prior rentals. In this instance, the system uses
prior ratings by default, as these tend to more accurately reflect
a particular individual's tastes. However, the invention is by no
means limited to any particular mechanism, and it will be
understood that any suitable system can be employed for this
purpose. The only criterion, of course, is that recommender should
work in the background, seamlessly and without extensive burdensome
participation by the subscriber so that the queue is automatically
replenished.
[0060] The above process, notification and acceptance procedures,
etc., can all be easily implemented by skilled artisans in a
hardware/software form suitable for execution on an online service
provider system.
[0061] Again, using the present invention, the system is allowed to
use a customer acceptance, and/or its own selection criteria,
rather than a receiving event, to control shipping of titles. This
provides additional advantages, including the fact that titles
selected and shipped by the service provider in this fashion act to
supplant a subscriber choice that may be harder to satisfy (i.e.,
because the desired title is scarce). For example, if the service
determines that a customer is highly likely to enjoy title A, if
the subscriber agrees to select title A, and if the title is
shipped to the subscriber, this fills an available spot in the
shipping queue and reduces the expectation/opportunity by the
subscriber of receiving another (potentially more popular) title.
This further frees up an opportunity for the service provider to
ship the more popular title to another subscriber, thus giving more
flexibility in responding to demand. Furthermore, a service
provider can determine which titles have a higher profit margin
(i.e., lower sharing expenses with distributors, studios, etc.) and
control the distribution of titles more closely using cost/profit
as an additional factor as well.
[0062] Finally, it should be noted that this type of proactive
inventory management helps to expand the reach and desirability of
the system to other types of would-be renters, including persons
who are too busy, lazy, or unable to determine appropriate choices
on their own. Moreover, since some renters are impulsive, they can
be presented automatically with title choices to increase their
participation rates as well.
[0063] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the
above are merely examples of processes for a media distribution
system, and that countless variations on the above can be
implemented in accordance with the present teachings. A number of
other conventional steps that would be included in a commercial
application have been omitted, as well, to better emphasize the
present teachings.
[0064] Furthermore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art
that the processes of the present invention, including those
illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 can be implemented using any one of many
known programming languages suitable for creating applications that
can run on large scale computing systems, including servers
connected to a network (such as the Internet). The details of the
specific implementation of the present invention will vary
depending on the programming language(s) used to embody the above
principles, and are not material to an understanding of the present
invention.
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