Importance

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Abstract

A pay-per-view system for a cable television network that gives the subscribers a greatly enhanced variety of viewing choices. The system uses an interactive set top box for the subscribers to forward their choices for viewing. Since the pay-per-view viewing choices are made interactively from a wide variety of selections, the chances of a subscriber finding something he or she wants to pay to watch are considerably improved. The interactive choices are forwarded to an intelligent video switch. This switch takes the first N programs requested and assigns N programmable selectors to select N programs from a much greater number (M) of possible programs and switches these N programs onto N frequency multiplexed channels on a standard television cable. If the M possible programs are delivered to the video switch in ATM packets, the programmable selectors are ATM packet demultiplexers, and if the M possible programs are delivered to the video switch as frequency multiplexed channels, the programmable selectors are programmable radio frequency tuners. This system will make the subscribers happier because it gives them more choices for viewing, and will make the pay-per-view operators happier because it should lead to increased revenue from an increase in the number of pay-per-view programs watched.

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First Claim