Patent ID: 8325744

Claim:
In a shared IPTV system including intermediate IPTV facilities controlled by a host operator and accessible to one or more hosted operators pursuant to a shared service arrangement, the intermediate IPTV facilities maintaining account information associated with a plurality of operators including the host operator and one or more hosted operators, a method comprising: logically partitioning the account information associated with each of the plurality of operators into a corresponding plurality of subscriber groups; and hosting operator transactions with the intermediate IPTV facilities in a manner that allows operator access to account information of its corresponding subscriber group while restricting access to account information of other subscriber groups; wherein the step of hosting operator transactions comprises: receiving an operator call intended to invoke an operator transaction with the intermediate IPTV facilities, the operator call including indicia of a sourcing operator, and wherein execution of the operator call nominally provides access to account information associated with the plurality of operators; identifying a subscriber group corresponding to the sourcing operator; modifying the operator call to include indicia of the subscriber group of the sourcing operator, yielding an adapted call; and forwarding the adapted call to the intermediate IPTV facilities to invoke the operator transaction as a proxy for the operator call, wherein execution of the adapted call provides the sourcing operator access to account information of its corresponding subscriber group while restricting access to account information of other subscriber groups.