US Patent 7975003 Method for tracking payable media content transactions

A method to facilitate determination of an extent to which payment should be exchanged between the access provider and the content provider for delivery of content items to the client stations. Each client station will be provisioned with a list of available content items, including for each a flag and/or other data specifying whether the content item is payable or non-payable. When the client station sends a content request seeking a particular one of the content items, the client station includes the flag or other data. As the content request passes through the access provider's system on the way to the content provider, the access provider then reads the flag or other data to determine whether the content item is payable and perhaps an applicable payment amount. The access provider may thereby maintain a count of payable content transactions and/or other data to facilitate proper payment.