Patent ID: 8214853

Claim:
A system for providing a subscriber of a first video service provider with content to view over a video distribution network of a second video service provider comprising: a computer system adapted to: (a) receive a message comprising identification information for the subscriber that is received over a first communication channel from a system of the second video service provider; (b) send at least a portion of the identification information over a second communication channel to a system of the first video service provider so that the first video service provider can authenticate the identity of the subscriber based on the portion of identification information and can send an authenticating confirmation that the subscriber's identity has been authenticated; (c) receive the authenticating confirmation over the second communication channel from the system of the first video service provider; and (d) in response to the authenticating confirmation indicating that the first video service provider has authenticated the identity of the subscriber: (1) send an authentication notification over the first communication channel to the system of the second video service provider indicating the subscriber has been authenticated so that the subscriber can select a particular video content provided by the second video service provider to view for a fee over the second video provider's video distribution network; (2) receive a content indicator indicating a particular video content selected by the subscriber to view over the second video service provider's video distribution network; and (3) in response to receiving the content indicator, send a purchase notification over the second communication channel to the system of the first video service provider to record in a billing system, the purchase notification comprising information indicating the subscriber has selected the particular video content to view for the fee over the second video service provider's video distribution network.