This book explains how companies bill for IPTV video, telephone, data, and information services. Billing and customer care for IPTV systems convert the measured amounts of services (bytes of digital information transmitted or information services provided) within an Internet Protocol (IP) data network into the money that will be received by the service provider. The billing systems used in IPTV systems can vary from modified television billing systems to custom integrated systems that allow real-time (near instant) activation and prepayment of services. The authors have interviewed and worked with hundreds of service provider companies and billing system developers to discover the ways IPTV billing systems operate. You will learn the language and terms used in the setup and operation IPTV billing system systems along with the format and important information parts of event detail billing records. The popular billing industry standards used to track IPTV services include IPDR, AMA, CIBER, TAP and XML. Covered are the basic processes used to assign costs (rate) to the usage of transmission and information services. Discussed are the ways that charges can be settled between service providers who allow visitors to use their systems. Included is a basic introduction to how services can be instantly provided and how billing is performed for access to information services. You will learn how mediation systems adapt usage events into billing records that can be gathered and managed by billing systems How IPTV systems identify specific users and how to guide billing records the appropriate customer account. The rating processes used for different services provided by IPTV are explained. You willdiscover that a typical usage transaction look like, what elements are needed to create a usage record, how to deal with un-ratable records and rating usage from service partners. The process of invoicing is covered including billing cycles, invoice creation and posting to customer accounts. You will learn how it is possible to manage multiple user accounts on the same IPTV set top box (STB). Taxation issues are discussed including jurisdiction and other regulations along with universal service funds. Service rates and discounts are described including volume discounting, multi-tier discounting, bundled rate plans and service adjustments. You will learn how IPTV systems permit customers to self provision services and the common payment options that may be available to the customer. Some of the most important topics featured are: 7How IPTV billing systems operate 7The common terms used in IPTV billing systems 7Types of services rates and bundled plans 7Popular billing industry standards IPDR, AMA, CIBER, TAP and XML 7Event mediation formats of event billing records 7How to handle multiple accounts on the same IPTV STB 7Billing and rating for the usage of media content 7Tracking and paying program content royalties 7Payment options including credit card, Paypal, and electronic checks 7Web based bill review and settlement