Silly Internet Patent #16: I want my WebTV!

Microsoft appears to be on a tear. In addition the infamous double-click and CVS To-Do List patents, our friends from Redmond appear now to claim a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs . Great. Just what we need. More TV watchers.

Claim One is so silly, I don't even know what to say about it. Here's the gist:

A method for offering reward incentives for the one or more viewers to watch the television programming, the method comprising:

a) broadcasting a television program to one or more television viewers via one or more television receivers;

b) using a reward notice to alert the one or more viewers of a possibility of receiving a reward for viewing at least a portion of the program, the reward notice being associated with reward notice triggers having time stamps that are repeatedly transmitted with the broadcast of the program and that can be used to determine a time in which the one or more viewers tune into the program and select the reward notice;

c) soliciting an email response from the one or more the viewers;

d) identifying a group of the one or more viewers who viewed the program and that will be rewarded for viewing the program, wherein a determination that the one or more viewers in the identified group viewed the program is at least partially based upon whether the one or more viewers submitted the solicited email response; and

e) providing a reward to each viewer in the identified group of viewers.

Comments

[Chris Weiss]

Odd, I wonder why they specified television as the medium. They're already using a similar sounding system on their web site with online video content.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/atthemovies/
MS is using this system on their site to entice people to view instructional/promotional videos for their new Visual Basic development software. If you watch 5 of the movies, you'll get a free copy of the software.
I suppose item C above is what keeps Pat McCormick (of Dialing for Dollars fame) from being prior art.