Method and system for dynamic ad placement

• US 20020097235A1
• Filed: 10/15/2001
• Published: 07/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Scott A., Self, Matthew H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,571,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/032 on tapes G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 : involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 : with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 : the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

A system and method for placing ads on a client-side video replay system. The described embodiments of the present invention allow a client to make a determination of ad placement priority separately from the function of serving ads to a requesting application. A described dynamic ad placement engine reorders ads when the context of the system is changed to yield a next ad to be placed. Thus, at a later time, when an application sends an ad request, the dynamic ad placement engine can quickly respond with the ad to be placed. The ads also are preferably reordered after an ad is placed. Placement of ads is controlled in the described embodiment by interpreted rules for each ad.

Claims

1. A method of placing ads on a client, comprising:

receiving notification of a context change in the client;

re-evaluating an order of a plurality of potential display ads in response to the context change notification, to yield a next ad to be placed;

receiving an ad request; and

sending the previously determined next ad to be placed in response to the received ad request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context change reflects a change in a video stream being viewed by a user of the client.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the context change includes a channel change.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of ads is performed asynchronously with a change in the collection of ads.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of the ordering of the plurality of ads includes re-ordering a heap data structure containing pointers to ones of the plurality of ads.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of the ordering of the plurality of ads includes a re-ordering of a heap data structure containing pointers to ones of the plurality of ads.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of the ordering of the plurality of ads includes evaluation of an interpreted placement rule for at least some of the ads.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is a video replay system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of the ordering of the plurality of ads includes evaluation of a placement value for at least one ad when a trigger parameter of the ad is changed.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-evaluation of the plurality of ads includes evaluation of a weight value for at least one of the plurality of ads when a trigger parameter of the ad is changed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the next ad to be placed is the ad at the top of a heap data structure after re-evaluation of the ordering of the plurality of ads.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an ad request includes receiving an ad request asynchronously to the notification of context change.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the previously determined next ad to be placed includes sending an ad on the top of a heap data structure.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the previously determined next ad to be placed includes sending a next ad having a highest weighted placement value in accordance with the ads placement rule and weight rule.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-evaluating the ordering of the plurality of ads after an ad is returned in response to the ad request.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the client is a video replay system.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the next ad to be displayed is a full-page ad.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the next ad to be displayed is a banner ad.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the nest ad to be displayed is to be placed in a predetermined location on a display device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of ads has an associated rule set containing a placement rule and at least one local parameter value.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ads has an associated placement rule.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ads has an associated weight rule.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ads has an associated expiration rule.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ads has an associated trigger rule.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of ads has associated local parameters defined in a rule set of the rule.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule set for each rule is transmitted to the client machine in XML format.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one global time parameter of the system is updated at a predetermined interval.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the global time parameters is a trigger parameter that causes re-evaluation of an associated ad'"'"'s placement value when the value of the global time parameter is updated.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein a global context parameter of the client is updated when the client context changes.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the global context parameter is a trigger parameter that causes re-evaluation of an associated ad'"'"'s placement value when the value of the global context parameter is changed.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the previously determined next ad includes sending the previously determined next ad when the client enters a pause mode.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the previously determined next ad includes sending the previously determined next ad when the client displays a program guide having an area reserved for an ad.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the previously determined next ad includes sending the previously determined next ad when the client displays a zone program guide having an area reserved for an ad.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein a specific rule for an ad is evaluated following selection of that ad that permits the ad to modify at least one of:

its local parameters;

its weight; and

its location on the heap.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a context change, re-evaluating, receiving an ad request, and sending the next ad to be placed are performed by the client.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the server side system further provides content, including at least one of a history, video, or sound file.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a pause ad.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a programming guide.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a zone programming guide.

43. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the client is a video replay system.

45. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a pause ad.

46. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a programming guide.

47. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a zone programming guide.

48. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the video replay unit is a client-side machine.

36. A system, comprising:

a server side system providing a rule set for each ad that can be displayed;

a client side system that receives the rule sets and determines a next ad to place in accordance with parameters in the rule set denoting at least one of program context, history of the client side system, a user profile, and a frequency of ad display in the past.

38. A method of displaying an ad on a client-side machine, comprising:

storing a plurality of ads on the client-side machine;

evaluating the stored ads whenever a system context change occurs to determine a next ad to be displayed;

displaying the next ad to be displayed when the client-side machine encounters an ad display opportunity.

42. An apparatus to place ads on a client, comprising:

means for receiving notification of a context change in the client;

means for re-evaluating an order of a plurality of potential display ads in response to the context change notification, to yield a next ad to be placed;

means for receiving an ad request; and

means for sending the previously determined next ad to be placed in response to the received ad request.

44. An apparatus for displaying an ad on a video replay machine, comprising:

means for storing a plurality of ads on the video replay machine;

means for evaluating the stored ads whenever a system context change occurs to determine a next ad to be displayed;

means for displaying the next ad to be displayed when the video replay machine encounters an ad display opportunity.

50. The computer program product of claim 48, wherein the computer readable medium is within a video replay system.

52. The computer program product of claim 50, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a pause ad.

53. The computer program product of claim 50, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a programming guide.

54. The computer program product of claim 50, wherein the ad display opportunity is display of a zone programming guide.

49. A computer program product, comprising instructions stored on a computer readable medium, to effect a method comprising:

receiving notification of a context change in the client;

re-evaluating an order of a plurality of potential display ads in response to the context change notification, to yield a next ad to be placed;

receiving an ad request; and

sending the previously determined next ad to be placed in response to the received ad request.

51. A computer program product, comprising instructions stored on a computer readable medium, to effect a method comprising:

storing a plurality of ads on a video replay unit;

evaluating the stored ads whenever a system context change occurs to determine a next ad to be displayed;

displaying the next ad to be displayed when the video replay unit encounters an ad display opportunity.