Content/service handling and delivery

• US 20050108776A1
• Filed: 06/07/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Branko J. Gerovac, Brian E. Kahn, David Carver, Kelso R. James, Mark Sanders, Yvette Marie Gordon
• Original Assignee: Branko J. Gerovac, Brian E. Kahn, David Carver, Kelso R. James, Mark Sanders, Yvette Marie Gordon
• Inventors: Sanders, Mark, Kahn, Brian E., Gerovac, Branko J., Kelso, R. James, Gordon, Yvette Marie, Carver, David
• Application Number:
  US10/863,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108776A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A first entity maintains an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services. At least some of the advertising opportunities are bound with advertising on behalf of a second entity that is separate from the first entity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining by a first entity an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

binding at least some of the advertising opportunities with advertising on behalf of a second entity that is separate from the first entity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity is a content delivery entity.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity is a member of a group consisting of a cable television operator and a local broadcaster.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the second entity is content generation or content delivery entity.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the second entity is a member of a group consisting of a network, a local broadcaster, a provider to a library of stored content, a network affiliate, a movie producer, a movie distributor, and a program content developer.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the first entity receiving advertisements from a third entity, and binding the at least some of the advertising opportunities includes binding at least some of the advertisements received from the third entity on behalf of the second entity.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the third entity is separate from the second entity.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the third entity is an agent of a fourth entity.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the third entity is an advertising agent.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the fourth entity is an advertiser.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the third entity is an advertiser.

12. The method of claim 6 further comprising establishing a commercial relationship between the first entity and the second entity related to the binding of advertising opportunities to advertising.

13. The method of clam 12 further comprising establishing a commercial relationship between the second entity and the third entity related to the binding of advertising opportunities to advertising.

14. A method comprising:

receiving advertising, including receiving advertising copy and receiving structured data associated with the advertising copy; and

binding advertising opportunities to the received advertising according to the received structured data.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the structured data includes tagged data.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the tagged data includes data tagged according to an extensible markup language.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the received data identifies multiple variants of at least some of the advertising copy, and binding the advertising opportunities to the advertising includes selecting among the multiple variants according to the received data.

18. A method comprising:

maintaining an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving advertising, receiving at least some advertisements that each include multiple different advertisement copy for presentation to different sets of the one or more viewers.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising receiving the advertising in conjunction with content.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein receiving the advertising in conjunction with the content include receiving multiplexes of multiple different advertisement copy within the received content.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers is performed at a common distribution location for each of the sets of viewers.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the common location includes a location of a cable system head end.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers is performed at different locations each associated with a different one of the sets of one or more viewers.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the binding is performed at one or more of the viewers'"'"' set-top boxes.

26. A method comprising:

receiving content that includes advertising opportunities in content;

receiving advertising associated with the advertising opportunities independently of the content; and

binding the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received via switched digital video streams.)

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received via a data network.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received and stored before binding the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the advertising is stored at the viewer'"'"'s set top box.

31. A method comprising:

maintaining an inventory of advertising opportunities in content; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, binding new advertisement copy to replace old advertising copy associated with the at least some of the advertising opportunities.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the content is time-shifted content.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the old advertising copy was previously presented to one or more viewers.

34. Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain by a first entity an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

bind at least some of the advertising opportunities with advertising on behalf of a second entity that is separate from the first entity.

35. Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

receive advertising, including receiving advertising copy and receiving structured data associated with the advertising copy; and

bind advertising opportunities to the received advertising according to the received structured data.

36. Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, bind different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers.

37. Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

receive content that includes advertising opportunities in content;

receive advertising associated with the advertising opportunities independently of the content; and

bind the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

38. Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain an inventory of advertising opportunities in content; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, bind new advertisement copy to replace old advertising copy associated with the at least some of the advertising opportunities.