Method and system for customizing television content

Abstract

An intelligent television is provided that can collect viewer information for use by a rating service.

1 - 9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . A method, comprising:
 determining that a viewer has failed to comply with at least one contractual restriction and/or requirement previously agreed to by the viewer, the agreement being in exchange for a discounted price on an intelligent television and/or software to be executed by the intelligent television; and   at least partially disabling the intelligent television and/or software until the viewer complies with the at least one contractual restriction and/or requirement.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the determining step is performed during provisioning of the intelligent television and/or software installation. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the determining step is based on records of a database, the records indicating one or more of a serial number associated with the intelligent television and an identification of the viewer purchaser, and wherein the at least one contractual restriction and/or requirement requires the viewer to provide a credential associated with one or more computational devices networked to the intelligent television and/or permission to collect viewer information from one or more of the intelligent television and one or more computational devices. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the viewer has failed to comply with at least one contractual restriction and/or requirement previously agreed to by the viewer and wherein a feature and/or operation of the intelligent television and/or software is disabled while at least one other feature and/or operation is enabled. 
     
     
         14 . An intelligent television for performing the steps of  claim 10 . 
     
     
         15 . A tangible and non-transient computer readable medium comprising microprocessor instructions that, when executed by the microprocessor, perform the steps of  claim 10 . 
     
     
         16 . A method, comprising:
 determining, by a microprocessor executable configuration module associated with an intelligent television, an identity of a viewer; and   determining, by a microprocessor executable configuration module, automatically based on the identity of the viewer one or more of a displayed configuration of one or more graphical identifiers presented to the viewer, which buttons and/or icons are presented to the viewer, which buttons and/or icons are not presented to the viewer, and a configuration of an on-screen directory containing programming and/or other content selectable by the viewer.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the configuration module determines the viewer identity based on one or more of receipt of identification information from the viewer, from an image of the viewer, from a voice of the viewer, from a retina of the viewer, from a finger print of the viewer, and an identity of a computational device used to control one or more intelligent television features and/or operations. 
     
     
         18 . An intelligent television for performing the steps of  claim 10 . 
     
     
         19 . A tangible and non-transient computer readable medium comprising microprocessor instructions that, when executed by the microprocessor, perform the steps of  claim 10 . 
     
     
         20 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, at an input, plural sets of collected viewer information from multiple different households, the collected viewer information comprising tags and associated viewer information;   based on the tags, organizing, by a microprocessor, the associated viewer information; and   applying, by the microprocessor to the organized viewer information, one or more audience measurement algorithms, to determine a popularity of selected content, wherein the viewer information from a selected household is time stamped information relating to a plurality of television programming viewed by the viewer, media and/or multimedia content accessed from a content distributor by a viewer in the selected household other than a television network service, internet browsing history of the viewer, a Web site visited by the viewer, an application accessed and/or loaded by the viewer, a frequency of application usage, a number and/or type of one or more computational devices in the selected household, name of the viewer in the selected household, a characteristic of the viewer, an interest of the viewer, and a socioeconomic status of the viewer.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the one or more computational devices comprises one or more of a cellular phone, tablet computer, laptop, personal computer, personal digital assistant, another television, and e-reader and further comprising:
 removing, by the microprocessor, duplicated viewer information, the duplicated viewer information being associated with a common household.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the popularity is a rating and wherein the organizing step comprises identifying and grouping, for common content, different modalities of viewing the content. 
     
     
         23 . A computational system for performing the steps of  claim 20 . 
     
     
         24 . A tangible and non-transient computer readable medium comprising microprocessor executable instructions that, when executed, perform the steps of  claim 20 .