Systems and methods of facilitating installment-by-installment consumption of discrete installments of a unitary media program

1. A method comprising:

dividing, by a computer-implemented media service system, a unitary media program into a plurality of contiguous segments;

forming, by the computer-implemented media service system from the plurality of contiguous segments, a plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program, each discrete installment in the plurality of discrete installments configured to be processed as a standalone unit in a media access operation, the forming of the plurality of discrete installments comprising selecting and appending, by the computer-implemented media service system based on one or more predefined selection factors, supplemental content to at least one of a beginning and an end of a contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments to form a discrete installment included in the plurality of discrete installments, the supplemental content comprising at least one of

a recap of a sequentially previous contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments, and

a preview of a sequentially subsequent contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments; and

providing, by the computer-implemented media service system, an end user of a media service with installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program;

wherein the selecting of the supplemental content based on the one or more predefined selection factors comprises selecting the supplemental content based on community-favored scenes in at least one of the sequentially previous contiguous segment and the sequentially subsequent contiguous segment of the unitary media program.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dividing of the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments comprises:

identifying at least one division point within the unitary media program based on at least one division factor specified by an installment generation heuristic; and

splitting the unitary media program at the identified at least one division point to divide the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one division factor indicates that the identifying of the at least one division point within the unitary media program is based on at least one of:

one or more community-favored scenes in the unitary media program;

a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program;

one or more natural breaks in scenes in the unitary media program;

one or more camera view switches in the unitary media program; and

one or more predefined chapters in the unitary media program.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing of the end user with the installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program is configured to facilitate an installment-by-installment consumption of the unitary media program in multiple, discrete playback sessions of the plurality of discrete installments.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising providing, by the computer-implemented media service system, an option for selection by the end user to access the unitary media program by way of a normal-access mode or a serialized-access mode;

the normal-access mode configured to facilitate a start-to-finish consumption of the unitary media program in a single playback session of the unitary media program, and

the serialized-access mode configured to facilitate the installment-by-installment consumption of the unitary media program in the multiple, discrete playback sessions of the plurality of discrete installments.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the providing of the end user with the installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program is performed in response to a selection by the end user to access the unitary media program by way of the serialized-access mode.

7. The method of claim 1 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the supplemental content based on the one or more predefined selection factors further comprises selecting the supplemental content based on a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dividing of the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments comprises identifying the plurality of contiguous segments based on a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dividing of the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments comprises identifying the plurality of contiguous segments based on at least one division factor other than predefined chapters in the unitary media program.

11. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a computer-implemented media service system, data representative of a unitary media program;

generating, by the computer-implemented media service system, a plurality of discrete installments from the unitary media program by dividing the unitary media program into a plurality of different contiguous segments and forming, from the plurality of the different contiguous segments, the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program, the forming of the plurality of discrete installments comprising selecting and appending supplemental content to a beginning of a contiguous segment included in the plurality of the different contiguous segments to form a discrete installment included in the plurality of discrete installments, the supplemental content comprising a recap of a sequentially previous contiguous segment included in the plurality of the different contiguous segments, the selecting of the supplemental content based on community-favored scenes in the sequentially previous contiguous segment included in the plurality of the different contiguous segments;

maintaining, by the computer-implemented media service system, data representative of the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program, each discrete installment in the plurality of discrete installments

configured to be processed as a standalone unit in a media access operation; and

providing, by the computer-implemented media service system, a user selectable option to access the unitary media program by way of a normal-access mode or a serialized-access mode,

the normal-access mode configured to facilitate a start-to-finish consumption of the unitary media program in a single playback session of the unitary media program, and

the serialized-installment-access mode configured to facilitate an installment-by-installment consumption of the unitary media program in multiple discrete playback sessions of the plurality of discrete installments.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the forming of the plurality of discrete installments further comprises appending additional supplemental content to an end of the contiguous segment included in the plurality of the different contiguous segments to form the discrete installment included in the plurality of discrete installments, the additional supplemental content comprising

a preview of a sequentially subsequent contiguous segment included in the plurality of the different contiguous segments.

13. The method of claim 11 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

14. A system comprising:

at least one physical computing device that:

divides a unitary media program into a plurality of contiguous segments;

forms, from the plurality of contiguous segments, a plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program, each discrete installment in the plurality of discrete installments configured to be processed as a standalone unit in a media access operation, wherein the at least one physical computing device forms the plurality of discrete installments by selecting and appending, based on one or more predefined selection factors, supplemental content to at least one of a beginning and an end of a contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments to form a discrete installment included in the plurality of discrete installments, the supplemental content comprising at least one of

a recap of a sequentially previous contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments, and

a preview of a sequentially subsequent contiguous segment included in the plurality of contiguous segments; and

provides an end user of a media service with installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program;

wherein the selecting of the supplemental content based on the one or more predefined selection factors comprises selecting the supplemental content based on community-favored scenes in at least one of the sequentially previous contiguous segment and the sequentially subsequent contiguous segment of the unitary media program.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one physical computing device divides the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments by:

identifying at least one division point within the unitary media program based on at least one division factor specified by an installment generation heuristic; and

splitting the unitary media program at the identified at least one division point to divide the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one division factor indicates that the identifying of the at least one division point within the unitary media program is based on at least one of:

one or more community-favored scenes in the unitary media program;

a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program;

one or more natural breaks in scenes in the unitary media program;

one or more camera view switches in the unitary media program; and

one or more predefined chapters in the unitary media program.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one physical computing device provides the end user with the installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program by providing sequential installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments for playback in multiple, discrete playback sessions of the plurality of discrete installments.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the at least one physical computing device provides an option for selection by the end user to access the unitary media program by way of a normal-access mode or a serialized-access mode;

the normal-access mode configured to facilitate a start-to-finish consumption of the unitary media program in a single playback session of the unitary media program, and

the serialized-access mode configured to facilitate sequential installment-by-installment access to the plurality of discrete installments of the unitary media program for playback in multiple, discrete playback sessions of the plurality of discrete installments.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one physical computing device selects the supplemental content based on the one or more predefined selection factors at least in part by selecting the supplemental content based on a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program.

20. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one physical computing device divides the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments at least in part by identifying the plurality of contiguous segments based on a user-defined preferred length of the discrete installments of the unitary media program.

21. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one physical computing device divides the unitary media program into the plurality of contiguous segments by identifying the plurality of contiguous segments based on at least one division factor other than predefined chapters in the unitary media program.