Patent ID: 8904423

Claim:
A system for authenticating an end user and associating their set-top box with a third party web based application to stream a third party video to the set-top box, the system comprising: a third party video provider with a third party web based application, wherein the third party video provider has a plurality of videos which can be streamed to the set-top box; a client device which has the third party web based application downloaded therein by the end user, wherein the end user uses the third party web based application which lists the plurality of videos that can be streamed to the set-top box to select a video to be streamed to the set-top box; the third party video provider checks if the client device contains an authentication cookie and if there is no authentication cookie then an authentication-login dialog is presented in the downloaded third party web based application which prompts the end user to enter video provider information; an authentication engine receives the video provider information and uses a provider access directory located therein to determine a video provider and a video head-end that services the set-top box; the authentication engine sends an end user verification message to the video head-end; the video head-end is associated with a billing system and a video-on-demand application, wherein the video-on-demand application contains the selected video which was downloaded therein by the third party video provider, and wherein the billing system receives the end user verification message and if the end user is associated with the video provider then sends an end user verification acknowledgment message to the authentication engine; the authentication engine receives the end user verification acknowledgement message and then interacts with the billing system to map the set-top box to the end user; the authentication engine after the set-top box is mapped to the end user requests the video head-end to stream the selected video from the video-on-demand application to the set-top box; and the authentication engine stores the video provider information and corresponding information related to the video provider and the video head-end for subsequent use to stream another video to the set-top box without requiring the end user to enter all of the video provider information into the authentication-login dialog, wherein the another video is associated with either the third party video provider or another third party video provider.