Multiple VOD Vendor Support on Client

Abstract

A content distribution system receives data describing media content available from one or more vendors. The content distribution system generates data that describes an offer and associates the media content data with the offer. The content distribution system provides data describing an offer to a client device. The client device receives a request for a media content offer. The media content offer may include one or more instances of media content. Each instance of media content is available from a media vendor. For each media content instance associated with the offer, the client determines a vendor able to provide the media content, and submits a request for the media content to the vendor.

1 . A method comprising: 
 receiving a request for an offer;    determining a first object associated with the offer;    determining a first vendor, from among a plurality of possible vendors, that is associated with the first object;    sending to the first vendor, a request for the first object; and    receiving from the first vendor, the first object.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the received request for the offer comprises a request to purchase the first object.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first object comprises media content.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first object comprises a movie.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the first vendor comprises using a data structure to identify, from among the plurality of possible vendors, a first vendor that is able to provide the first object.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one of an XML file or a relational database.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein sending to the first vendor, the request for the first object comprises: 
 generating a request for the first object, the format of the request being based on a request format specification associated with the first vendor; and    sending the request to the first vendor.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the offer comprises a plurality of objects, the method further comprising: 
 determining a second object associated with the offer;    determining a second vendor, from among the plurality of possible vendors, that is associated with the second object;    sending to the second vendor, a request for the second object; and    receiving from the second vendor, the second object.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the received request for the offer comprises a request to purchase the plurality of objects.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein determining the first and second objects comprises using a data structure to identify from a plurality of objects, first and second objects that are associated with the offer.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one of an XML file or a relational database.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the offer comprises a media package and the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of media content.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein determining the first and second vendors comprises using a data structure to identify, from among the plurality of possible vendors, a first vendor able to provide the first object and a second vendor able to provide the second object.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the data structure is implemented as at least one of an XML file or a relational database.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: 
 generating a request for the first object according to a request format associated with the first vendor; and    generating a request for the second object according to a request format associated with the second vendor.    
   
   
       16 . A system comprising: 
 a data structure configured to associate objects with vendors and to associate the objects with offers; and    an offer request module configured to: 
 receive a request for an offer;  
 determine one or more objects associated with the offer; and  
 for each object associated with the offer: 
 determine a vendor associated with the object; and  
 submit a request for the object to the vendor.  
 
   
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein: 
 each offer represents a collection of one or more objects; and    each object represents a particular media content.    
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the offer request module is further configured to: 
 for each object associated with the offer: 
 generate a request for the object according to a request format associated with the vendor that is associated with the object.  
   
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the offer request module is further configured to: 
 for each object associated with the offer: 
 receive the object from the vendor that is associated with the object.  
   
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the offer request module is further configured to: 
 for each object associated with the offer: 
 provide the object to an entity from which the request for the offer was received.