JP3494812B2 - Data receiving device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission / reception system in which a data user receives and acquires data transmitted from a data provider by a reception device via an information transmission network.
The present invention also relates to a data receiving device used in this data transmitting / receiving system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a system for transmitting data provided by a data provider to a data user, the data provider sends data to a user device in accordance with access from the user, such as a network of computers such as personal computers. There is a system that provides data via a public telephone line or the like, and there is also a data broadcasting system that multiplexes data information into an ordinary program and transmits it by television broadcasting.

In data broadcasting in television broadcasting, the same hypermedia data as the data provided by the computer network is multiplexed and transmitted in the broadcasting data at the broadcasting station, and is equivalent to that obtained by network connection of computers over a wide area. A system has also been proposed in which a user obtains information by receiving broadcast waves from a television receiver.

Here, although the transmission by broadcasting has an advantage of being fast and inexpensive, it is not transmitted according to the request of each individual user, and all of a huge amount of data obtained over the entire computer network is used. There is a limit that you can not send. On the other hand, access to data by network connection has a problem that communication cost is high.

As a conventional broadcast providing system, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-32534, data provided by a plurality of data (information) providers are concentrated in one service providing center, and this service providing center provides the data. It is disclosed that the predetermined data can be efficiently provided to the data user at a low cost by allocating which of several kinds of information transmission networks is used to provide the data according to the type of data to be stored. . In this conventional example, when a large amount of data (information) is provided to a data user or when the data is data provided to an unspecified user,
Data is transmitted using a high-speed information transmission network (information transmission network using broadcasting satellites or communication satellites, terrestrial broadcasting, CATV), and when the data to be provided is relatively small or the data is transmitted to a specific user. When the data is provided, it is transmitted using a low speed information transmission network (public communication line network such as public telephone line).

[0006]

In the conventional system,
Depending on the type of data transmission, it is transmitted using a high-speed information transmission network (broadcast satellite or information transmission network using communication satellites, terrestrial broadcasting, CATV), or low-speed information transmission network (public telephone line). It is possible to efficiently provide the data to the user at a low cost by allocating whether the data is transmitted using a public communication network such as. However, in the information providing system according to this conventional example, certain data is transmitted by either the high-speed information transmission network or the low-speed information transmission network, depending on the type.
The data user can obtain the specific data through any one of a plurality of information transmission networks, but cannot know the whereabouts of the data provided via the broadcasting from the information from the computer network line, for example. Further, since it is not possible to know the location of the data provided via the computer network line from the information transmitted via broadcasting, there is a problem that it is inconvenient to obtain the desired data.

Further, in the above-mentioned document, there is no mention about the possibility that the same data can be obtained from both the high speed information transmission network and the low speed information transmission network under different conditions.
There has been a problem that there is currently no data receiving device that can efficiently acquire the same data when the same data is provided on both the computer network line and the television broadcast.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and it is possible to realize more efficient data transmission / reception by compositely utilizing a plurality of different types of transmission media. An object of the present invention is to provide a system and a data receiving device used in this data transmitting / receiving system.

[0009]

[0010]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To solve the above problems
The data receiving apparatus according to the present invention (Claim 1 ) provides the data provided by the data provider through the broadcasting in the data receiving apparatus capable of receiving the data through the circuit of the computer network and the broadcasting. Information about the data provided via the network of the computer network broadcast by the data provider, the arrangement of the data on the computer network associated with the identifier of the data, and the description indicating the data size of the data. Cost calculation means for receiving the communication cost required to receive the data via the circuit of the computer network based on the arrangement and data size of the data on the computer network, and the data via the broadcast. Provided by data providers, provided via broadcasting, the above computer The information indicating the broadcast channel and the broadcast time of the data associated with the identifier of the data, which is the additional information regarding the same data as the data provided via the network line, is received, and based on this additional information A time calculating means for obtaining a time required to acquire the data from the broadcast, a communication cost obtained by the cost calculating means, and the data based on the required time obtained by the time calculating means. And a data receiving path determining means for determining whether to acquire or to acquire from broadcasting.

Further, in the data receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 2 ), in the invention of claim 1 , the data receiving path determining means determines the data receiving path in an interactive form with a data user. is there.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a description regarding provision data transmitted from a data provider in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Also,
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of an information transmission network between the data provider and the terminal device of the data user, which is configured using the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment. The data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment has the same data provider as shown in FIG. 6 (b) even if the data provider (sender) is single as shown in FIG. 6 (a). It is applicable even when there are a plurality of broadcasting stations and communication service providers. A single data provider (sender) means, for example, that a broadcasting station (broadcast network) for digital television broadcasting also serves as a communication service provider (so-called provider) for a computer network. Is. In the following description, a data provider who provides data via a computer network line (public telephone line, etc.) is a communication data provider, and a data provider who provides data via digital television broadcasting is a broadcast data provider. As shown in FIG.
In the above form, the communication data provider and the broadcast data provider are the same person.

FIG. 1 (a) shows a description of a data arrangement transmitted from a communication data provider through a computer network line (public telephone line or the like) in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment. (a) i is a description of the arrangement of the data on the computer network of the data provided via the line of the computer network, and FIG. 1 (a) ii is the broadcasting of the data program provided via digital television broadcasting. It is a description of the above arrangement information (information on which channel of which broadcasting network is provided). Further, FIG. 1B shows an additional information description of data, which is multiplexed and transmitted from a broadcast data provider to a normal program or a data program in a digital television broadcast in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment. 1 (b) i is an additional information description (program description) of a data program provided via digital television broadcasting, and FIG. 1 (b) ii is a description of data provided via a line of a computer network. It is an additional information description including a description of the arrangement of data on the computer network.

The description of the arrangement of data on the network shown in FIG. 1 (a) i includes a telephone number indicating the address or access point on the network of the computer to be connected, and a directory indicating the hierarchy of the data in order from the highest level. , Id of data, Id of link, or data Id indicating a file name. Further, the additional information description regarding the data program shown in FIG. 1 (b) i includes a program Id of data (data program, also referred to as a program hereinafter), a program name of the data program, a program description, a keyword, a data type, and a data size. Etc., a parent node Id indicating where the data program belongs in the hierarchical structure, a broadcast channel of the data program, and data program arrangement information indicating time information. Here, as the time information, when the data program is broadcast in a fixed cycle, the start point of the cycle, the cycle, and the offset time indicating how much the actual broadcast time deviates from the start point are described.

Further, FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining additional information which is multiplexed and transmitted in a broadcast signal regarding data provided by broadcasting in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment. In data broadcasting by digital television broadcasting in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment, provided data is hierarchically organized based on its type, and information indicating the hierarchical structure and mutual relation is provided as additional information of the data program. It is multiplexed and broadcast as. FIG. 7 (a) shows this additional information, which is the contents of the position (node) in the middle of the hierarchical structure, the node description indicating the relationship between this node and other nodes, and the lowest node in the hierarchical structure. The contents of the actual data (program) to be placed in, and the program description showing the placement information of the data (program) on the broadcast. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the node description. As shown in the figure, the node description includes a node Id for identifying the node, a node name, a node description, a keyword, reference destination information, and the like. Described node description column, parent node I indicating a node one level above the node
d, the number of child nodes Id indicating the number of nodes immediately below the node, and a list of the child nodes Id. FIG. 7 (c) is a diagram showing a specific structure of the program description.
As shown in the figure, the program description includes a program Id for specifying data (program), a program name, a program description, a keyword, a data type, a data size, and the like, and a node immediately above the program. A parent node Id indicating
It includes the broadcast channel of the data (program) and the arrangement information of the data program showing the time information. As the time information, when the data program is broadcast in a fixed cycle, the start point of the cycle, the cycle, and the offset time indicating how much the actual broadcast time deviates from the start point are described. Therefore, from the "cycle" information of this time information, it is possible to know the expected value of how long to wait until the desired data can be acquired from the broadcast,
Further, it is possible to accurately know the time when the desired data can be acquired from the broadcast next time from the information of "cycle", the information of "starting point of cycle", and the information of "offset time". The additional information description indicated by i in FIG. 1B is this program description.

FIG. 8A is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of data provided by broadcasting in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 8A, n1 is a root node (top node), and n1
2, n3 and n4 are child nodes of the node n1. The node n2 has child nodes n5, n6, and n7, and the node n4 has child nodes n11, n12, and n13. These child nodes are the lowest nodes and data (program) is arranged. The node n3 has child nodes n8, n9, n10, and these child nodes n8, n9, n10 are 3 respectively.
Has two child nodes. Child nodes n14, n of the node n8
15, n16, child nodes n17, n18 of the node n9,
n19 and child nodes n20 and n2 of the node n10
1 and n22 are the lowest nodes, and data (program) is arranged in them. A description of additional information transmitted when data is provided in a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 8 (a) will be described. For example, as the node description of the node n3, Id for identifying the node n3 is described in the node Id field, and the node name of the node n3 is described in the node description field. In the node description field, node n3
In addition to the node name of, the node Id of a node other than the parent node and the child node such as the nodes n2 and n4 and related to the node n3 may be described as the reference destination information. Also, in the field of parent node Id, I for identifying the node n1 which is the parent node of the node n3
d is described. Since the number of child nodes of the node n3 is three, that is, the nodes n8, n9, and n10, this number is described in the child node Id number column. Then, the Id for identifying the nodes n8, n9, and n10 in the column of the child node Id list.
Are listed. Node n5 where data (program) is placed
.About.n7, n11 to n13, and n14 to n22 are given the program description of FIG. 7C instead of the node description. Each node is divided into segments according to the distance in the hierarchical structure, and the receiving device side acquires additional information in segment units, and creates and displays a menu for the data user to select and operate. The hierarchical structure shown in Fig. 8 (a) is divided into each segment surrounded by the broken line in the figure.
A segment Id for identifying the segment is attached to each of the segments, and a tag indicating which segment the node and the program belong to is added to the description of the node and the program, respectively. The additional information is collected for each segment, and as shown in FIG.
d, and the node description and program description belonging to the segment are transmitted in a collected form. On the receiving side, the required information can be obtained by acquiring only the necessary segments without receiving and analyzing the entire additional information. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a menu screen displayed on the screen of the receiving device.

In the search using the menu, the hierarchical structure is traced by the parent-child relationship and the cross-reference relationship. The segment division according to the distance has the effect of reducing the chance of re-acquiring additional information across segments. If the destination of the search is within the same segment, re-acquisition of additional information is not required, and only when the segment is moved,
Re-acquire the segment to which the destination node belongs.

In the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment, when the same data as the data provided via the line of the computer network is also provided by broadcasting or the data to be referred to is provided via broadcasting. In the case of data, the communication data provider, through the circuit of the computer network, information on the broadcast arrangement of the data program provided via digital television broadcasting, that is,
As information indicating which channel of which broadcasting station (broadcast network) the data program is provided in, FIG.
(a) Send the description as shown in ii. As shown in the figure,
Id of the broadcasting station (broadcasting network) in the address item,
Or in addition to this, the Id of the broadcast channel is described,
In the item of data Id, Id of data (program) of the data program provided via broadcasting is described. Also, when the same data as that provided via broadcasting is provided via a network line, or when the data to be referenced is data provided via a network line,
The broadcast data provider describes the Id (link Id) of the data provided via the network line via the broadcast, and the link information indicating the arrangement information of this data on the network. The data additional information description as shown in ii is transmitted. Here, an address and a directory are described as link information indicating information on the arrangement of data on the network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of a data receiving apparatus used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment. In the figure, 21 is a broadcast receiving unit for receiving digital television broadcasting, and 22 is a receiving unit 21. It is a demultiplexing unit that separates the received multiplexed signal into a normal program signal, a data program signal, and an additional information signal. Reference numeral 23 is a communication control unit for performing communication by connecting to a computer network via a public telephone line and the like, and 25 is a memory for storing an additional information signal output from the demultiplexing unit 22 and data from the communication control unit 23. Means, 27 displays the program based on the normal program signal output from the demultiplexing unit 22,
The presenting unit displays data based on the data program signal output from the demultiplexing unit 22 and also displays a menu of data created based on the stored contents of the storage unit. Reference numeral 24 is a control unit that controls the demultiplexing unit 22, the communication control unit 23, and the storage unit 25. The control unit 24 stores the additional information signal output from the demultiplexing unit 22 in the storage unit 25, and based on the stored additional information signal and the like,
Create a menu of data displayed by the presenting means 27,
In addition, the contents of the displayed menu are switched according to the input from the input means 26 by the data user.

3 to 5 are flowcharts showing an operation flow of the data receiving apparatus used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment. The operation of the data receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

First, a flow of acquiring data via broadcasting will be described with reference to FIG. The default receiving channel and the receiving channel determination standard are set by the designation of the Id of the root node (top node) or a specific node by the input from the input means 26, etc., and the initial setting (step S1) is performed, and then step S2. In, it is determined whether the default channel is broadcasting or network. If it is broadcasting, the designated channel is received (step S3) and additional information is acquired (step S).
4). If it is determined in step S2 that the initially set channel is the network, the operation shifts to network reception. It is determined whether the additional information obtained in step S5 is a data (program) description, a node description, or a link description, and when it is determined that the additional information is a data (program) description, the arrangement information is acquired (step S
6), the channel is set based on the arrangement information (step S7), and the data is acquired during the broadcasting (step S7).
8), the operation ends. When it is determined in step S5 that the additional information is a link description, this link information is stored in the storage means 25 (step S9), the receiving channel is set to the network (step S10), and the operation for network reception is started. To do. Also, step S5
When it is determined that the additional information is the node description in (1), the process proceeds to the next node selection process. In the next node selection processing, based on the node description, for example, a menu showing a list of child nodes Id as shown in FIG. 9 or information I
A menu showing a list of d data (data program list) is displayed on the presenting means 27 (step S11), and the selection input of the data user is accepted (step S12). When the data user's selection operation (step S13) is page switching, the process returns to step S11, and another menu including the list not displayed is displayed on the presenting means 27. When the selection operation by the data user in step S13 is a request for related information, the reference destination information described in the node description field is acquired (step S15), and the presenting means 2
The reference destination information is displayed on step 7 (step S16), and the selection input of the data user is accepted (step S17). The data user sees the reference destination information displayed on the presenting means 27, and when he / she wants to move to the reference destination node, selects any item of the displayed reference destination information, and selects it as the reference destination node. When it is not desired to shift, the display of the reference information is canceled (step S18). Step S
If the selection in 18 is to cancel the display, the process directly returns to step S11 and the original menu is displayed. When the item is selected in step S18, the reference destination node Id is selected and set (step S19), the process returns to step S11, and the menu created based on the node description corresponding to the reference destination node Id is presented. It is displayed on the means 27. If the selection operation by the data user in step S13 is selection of a node, that is, transition to an upper node or selection of an item in the list, step S2
When the selected node is a parent node, that is, when the selected node is a parent node (step S21), the process returns to step S3. When the selected node is a child node, that is, If the item in the list is selected, the selected child node is set (step S22), and the process returns to step S3. By repeating the above steps, the data user can trace the hierarchical structure to obtain desired data via broadcasting, and if the desired data is provided via a network line, It is possible to shift to the operation of network reception.

Next, a flow for acquiring data via the network line will be described with reference to FIG. In step S2, it is determined whether the initially set channel (step S1) is broadcasting or network. If it is broadcasting, the process proceeds to step S2 in FIG. 3 and it is determined that the initially set channel is network. Then, the network connection is made (step S3), and the search is performed based on the address and the directory (step S3).
4), information corresponding to the data Id is acquired (step S5). Then, it is determined whether the acquired information is data information or link information (step S6), and if it is data information, the data is acquired in step S7, and the operation ends. When it is determined that the information acquired in step S6 is link information, the selection process of the data user is accepted (step S8), and the data provided via the network line is based on the selected link destination address. Is determined to be data provided via broadcasting (step S9). When it is determined that the data is provided via a network line, the process returns to step S4, and based on the address and directory. Search. When it is determined in step S9 that the data is provided via broadcasting, the directory and the data Id are stored in the storage means 25 (step S10), and the reception channel is set to broadcasting (step S10).
11), and shifts to step S2 in FIG. By repeating the above steps, the data user can obtain the desired data via the network line, and if the desired data is provided via broadcasting, the operation for receiving the broadcast will be performed. Can be migrated.

Next, the operation of selecting the route through which the data is acquired when the specific information (data) is provided by both the broadcast and the network line is shown in FIG.
Follow along. When the selection processing operation is started in step S1, it is first determined whether or not the data desired to be acquired is data provided via broadcasting (step S).
2). Here, since the additional information regarding the data provided via the broadcast is broadcast at any time, the additional information is stored and the data desired to be acquired by searching the stored content is transmitted via the broadcast. It is possible to judge whether or not the data is provided by. Step S2
When it is determined that the data desired to be acquired does not exist during the broadcast, the network is received and the data is acquired (step S3), and the operation ends. Step S2
When it is determined that the data desired to be acquired is present in the broadcast, the arrangement information of the data is acquired (step S4), and the size of the data is acquired from the program description (step S5). Next, in step S6, the burden of data acquisition from broadcasting is calculated. This calculation is desired to be acquired based on the time-related information in the above-mentioned arrangement information, that is, the starting point of the data broadcasting cycle, the cycle, and the offset time indicating how much the actual broadcasting time deviates from the starting point. Since it is possible to obtain the time required for the data to be acquired from the broadcast,
This waiting time is taken as TB, and f (TB) obtained by multiplying this waiting time by a predetermined coefficient f is taken as the burden CB of data acquisition from broadcasting. Next, in step S7, the load of data acquisition from the network is calculated. In this calculation, the communication time can be obtained by dividing the above data size by the communication rate. Therefore, if this communication time is TN, the connection cost and communication cost are PN, and if these elements are accessed, wait Let g (TN, PN) multiplied by a predetermined gain coefficient g that data can be acquired in no time be the load CN for data acquisition from the network. And step S
In Fig. 8, the burden CB of data acquisition from broadcasting and the burden CN of data acquisition from the network are compared, and CB> CN
If it is, the broadcast is received and the data is acquired (step S9), and the operation is ended, and if CB <CN, the network is received and the data is acquired (step S10).
The operation ends. By the selection processing as described above, the data user can efficiently acquire data in consideration of the trade-off between the load of acquiring data from broadcasting and the load of acquiring data from the network.

In the first embodiment, the data acquisition route is selected by calculating and comparing the data acquisition load from the broadcast and the data acquisition load from the network based on preset criteria. However, the configuration may be such that the data user can freely set the priority of the communication cost and the waiting time, or the configuration in which the data acquisition route is selected in an interactive manner with the data user. Good.

Further, in the first embodiment, in data broadcasting by television broadcasting, data provided by television broadcasting is hierarchically organized according to its contents, and the hierarchical information is added to data (program). Although what has been applied to the case where the information is transmitted by broadcasting as information has been described, the data transmission / reception system of the present invention is such that the data broadcasting by television broadcasting is the additional information of the data provided by the television broadcasting. It can also be applied to a case where only the broadcast channel and time information of the data (program) is transmitted by broadcasting. in this case,
Step S5 of the flow of data reception by broadcasting in FIG.
Then, there is no case where the type of additional information is a node, and one of two types of operations, that is, data (program) or link information, is executed.

[0026]

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention (Claim 1 ), in a data receiving apparatus capable of receiving data provided by a data provider through a line of a computer network and broadcasting, the data is transmitted via broadcasting. The information about the data provided via the line of the computer network that is broadcast by the data provider that provides the data, the arrangement of the data on the computer network associated with the identifier of the data, and the data of the data. A cost calculation unit that receives a description indicating the size from the broadcast, calculates the communication cost required to acquire the data via the line of the computer network based on the arrangement of the data on the computer network and the data size, and the broadcast. Data provided via a data provider, provided via a broadcast, The information indicating the broadcast channel and the broadcast time of the data associated with the identifier of the data, which is the additional information related to the same data as the data provided through the line of the computer network, is received, and the additional information is added to the additional information. Based on the time calculating means for obtaining the time required to acquire the data from the broadcast based on the communication cost, and the communication cost obtained by the cost calculating means and the required time obtained by the time calculating means, the data is transmitted to the computer network line. Since the configuration is provided with the data reception route determining means for determining whether to acquire via the broadcast or from the broadcast, the data user can use a plurality of different types of transmission media in combination to more efficiently. You can get the data,
This has the effect of reducing the burden associated with data acquisition.

Further, according to the present invention (claim 2 ), in the invention of claim 1 , the data receiving route determining means determines the data receiving route in an interactive form with a data user. There is an effect that the data user can determine the time and cost required to acquire the data, can use a plurality of different types of transmission media in a composite manner, can acquire the data more efficiently, and can reduce the burden of acquiring the data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a description regarding provision data transmitted from a data provider in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a data receiving device used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of a data receiving device used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of a data receiving device used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of the data receiving device used in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a structure of an information transmission network between a data provider and a terminal device of a data user, which is configured using the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for describing additional information that is multiplexed and transmitted in a broadcast signal regarding data provided by broadcasting in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of data provided by broadcasting (FIG. 8 (a)) and a diagram showing an example of a segment table in the data transmission / reception system according to the first embodiment of the present invention (FIG. 8). (b)).

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a selection menu screen displayed on the display screen by the receiving device that has received the data broadcast in the data transmitting / receiving system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

21 Broadcast receiver 22 Demultiplexer 23 Communication control unit 24 Control means 25 storage means 26 Input means 27 means of presentation

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI H04N 7/10 H04L 11/18 (56) References JP-A-6-37934 (JP, A) JP-A-8-8856 (JP , A) JP-A-1-136426 (JP, A) JP-A-4-47749 (JP, A) JP-A-6-208500 (JP, A) JP-A-9-160852 (JP, A) JP-A-9-160852 (JP, A) 9-162818 (JP, A) Kenjiro Kai, Hiroshi Senoo, Tadashi Isobe, Navigation in Multimedia Information Broadcasting, Research Report of Information Processing Society of Japan, Japan, Information Processing Society of Japan, September 14, 1995, Volume 95 / No. 90, 9-16 Akio Yanagimachi, Advancement of broadcasting services by ISDB and multimedia, NHK STRL R & D, Japan, Japan Broadcast Publishing Association, September 15, 1994, Volume 33, 3-12 (58) Fields examined (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04H 1/00 H04H 1/02 H04L 12/18 H04L 12/44 H04N 7/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network of a computer network for broadcasting data provided by a data provider, in a data receiving device capable of receiving the data via a network network and broadcasting, wherein the data provider broadcasting the data broadcasts the data. The information about the data provided via the network, the arrangement of the data associated with the identifier of the data on the computer network, and the description indicating the data size of the data are received from the broadcast, and the computer network of the data is received. Cost calculation means for obtaining the communication cost required to acquire the data via the network of the computer network based on the above arrangement and the data size, and broadcast by the data provider who provides the data via broadcasting. Provided via the line of the above computer network. Receiving the information indicating the broadcast channel and the broadcast time of the data associated with the identifier of the data, which is the additional information related to the same data as the data to be obtained, and acquiring the data from the broadcast based on the additional information. Time calculation means for determining the time required for the above, and whether the above data is acquired via the line of the computer network or from the broadcast based on the communication cost calculated by the cost calculation means and the required time calculated by the time calculation means. And a data receiving path determining means for determining. 2. The data receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data receiving path determining means determines the data receiving path in an interactive form with a data user.