Patent ID: 8185435

Claim:
A method of delivering media content to a customer of a service provider, comprising: receiving, at a data processing apparatus, a request for the media content from the customer; determining, via the data processing apparatus, a position of the requested content on a content demand curve, wherein the content demand curve is representative of demand for the type of content requested based on sales data to previous customers, wherein the content demand curve comprises a head of tail portion, where the head of tail portion represents content that is most in demand, and a plurality of discrete long tail portions where the long tail portions represent content that is less in demand, and wherein a business model is associated with the head of tail portion and wherein multiple business models are associated with each discrete long tail portion, wherein the business models define how the requested content is to be delivered to the customer and how the customer is to be billed for the requested content; selecting, via the data processing apparatus, a business model associated with a portion of the content demand curve that the requested content belongs to, wherein selecting a business model to be associated with the requested content comprises selecting a model based on customer information, wherein customer information comprises at least one of: customer likes and dislikes, habits, personal characteristics, age, sex, marital status, political affiliation, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, culture, location, residence, previous content order history, previous content payment history, business model preferences and/or history; and delivering, via the data processing apparatus, the requested content to the customer according to the selected business model.