Patent ID: 9571876
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: H04N

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a virtual set-top box (“STB”) device system, a registration request to register a mobile computing device to operate as a virtual STB device; verifying, by the virtual STB device system after the receiving of the registration request, that the mobile computing device is within a predefined vicinity of a dedicated STB device that is located at a user premises and that is configured to leverage access rights of an end-user account of a media content distribution service to access media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service; providing, by the virtual STB device system to the mobile computing device after the verifying, a virtual STB key for use by the mobile computing device to operate as the virtual STB device, while the virtual STB key is active, by leveraging the access rights of the end-user account of the media content distribution service to access the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service; and facilitating, by the virtual STB device system, sharing of the virtual STB key with a media content processing device that is located at a geographical location that is remote from the user premises for use by the media content processing device to access, while the virtual STB key is active and directly from a server of the media content distribution service that is located remotely from the user premises, the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service, wherein the media content is accessible by the media content processing device at the geographical location that is remote from the user premises only while the virtual STB key is active and the media content processing device is communicatively connected to the mobile computing device by a local area network at the geographical location that is remote from the user premises.