Claims
- 1. A method of allocating the costs of viewing programming on a personal video recorder (PVR) systems, said method comprising the steps of:
identifying one or more users of said PVR system; determining an amount of time utilized by each of said one or more users of said PVR system for viewing programming; allocating to each one or more users a percentage of the cost of viewing programming.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said Wuser is 0 if Timeuser is less than a zero cost time.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing basic service.
- 6. The method of claim 1 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing pay-per-view programming.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing special events.
- 8. A system for allocating the costs of viewing programming on a personal video recorder (PVR) systems, said system comprising:
means for identifying one or more users of said PVR system; means for determining an amount of time utilized by each of said one or more users of said PVR system for viewing programming; means for allocating to each one or more users a percentage of the cost of viewing programming.
- 9. The system of claim 8, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 10. The system of claim 8, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 11. The system of claim 10, wherein said Wuser is 0 if Timeuser is less than a zero cost time.
- 12. The system of claim 8 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing basic service.
- 13. The system of claim 8 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing pay-per-view programming.
- 14. The system of claim 8 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing special events.
- 15. A computer program product for allocating the costs of viewing programming on a personal video recorder (PVR) systems, said computer program product comprising:
programming instructions for identifying one or more users of said PVR system; programming instructions for determining an amount of time utilized by each of said one or more users of said PVR system for viewing programming; programming instructions for allocating to each one or more users a percentage of the cost of viewing programming.
- 16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said percentage of the cost of viewing said programming is determined by the equation
- 18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein said Wuser is 0 if Timeuser is less than a zero cost time.
- 19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing basic service.
- 20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing pay-per-view programming.
- 21. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said cost of viewing programming comprises the cost of viewing special events.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application shares specification text and figures with the following co-pending applications, which were filled concurrently with the present application: application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number AUS920020417US1) “PVR Credits by User;” and application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket Number AUS920020418US1) “User Specific Cable/Personal Video Recorder Preferences.” The content of the co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.