System and method for preferred placement programming of iTV content

• US 20050188402A1
• Filed: 09/02/2004
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TVWorks LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Singer, Tyson, Ganapavarapu, Srikanth, Carney, John, de Andrade, David, Moreau, Samuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,220,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen

Abstract

Preferred placement of programming content is provided by a system and method to organize or sequence the display of a set of programmable content elements of an iTV application to a viewer, using business rules that describe the preferred placement conditions or criteria. Such criteria include brand, content owner, application location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, content category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and/or subscriber and set-top box profile and behavior data. In one implementation, the present invention allows for managing the ‘shelf space’ within and for iTV applications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising organizing a set of programmable content elements of an interactive television (iTV) application using business rules that describe preferred placement criteria of the programmable content elements;

and dispaying the content elements so organized to a viewer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the business rules include rules for placing one or more of:

product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, video on demand (VOD) listings, broadcast-on-demand listings, or transactional opportunities, across disparate iTV services.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the rules for placing product offerings are configured to accommodate multiple selection criteria including one or more of:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, or subscriber profile.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the business rules are configured to accommodate subscriber specific rules according to a subscriber profile associated with a particular client device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the business rules may be selected dynamically at the time of execution of the iTV application, or at the time of application creation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the preferred placement criteria include one or more of:

brand, content owner, application location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, content category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, or subscriber and set-top box profile and behavior data.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the programmable content elements include one or more of:

advertising, promotions, content placement packages or programming campaign definitions.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein each programmable element is identified by a resource key attribute that references an associated programming campaign.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the programming campaign specifies programming of associated content elements and includes a campaign key that uniquely identifies the programming campaign, a list of candidates each providing a set of programmed values for attributes of the associated content elements, a qualifying predicate for each candidate that includes a generalized set of conditions, and a display rule to select one candidate among those that qualify.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the iTV application is accessible via a user interface including one or more groups of programmable opportunities.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein each programmable opportunity comprises a location within the iTV application where content may be placed.

12. The method of claim 111 wherein the content includes one or more of:

advertisements, promotions, data including text, images, links to other applications, or audio/video content.

13. An interactive television (iTV) system, comprising a server configured to organize a set of programmable content elements of an iTV application using business rules that describe preferred placement criteria of the programmable content elements;

and a client communicatively coupled to the server via a content distribution network and which is configured to display the content elements so organized to a viewer.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the server includes a programming manager configured to allow placement of advertising, promotional opportunities, video, images and text within user interfaces accessible by the viewer through the client.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the server includes a programming manager configured to program the content elements according to:

a campaign key that uniquely identifies a programming campaign, a list of candidate content elements each providing a set of values for attributes of associated ones of the content element, a qualifying predicate for each candidate content element that consists of a generalized set of conditions, and a display rule to select one of the candidates among those that qualify.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the programming campaign includes one or more of:

promotions, requests for information, or content placement opportunities.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein multiple the business rules are adapted to accommodate one or more of:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time-of-day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current application, current content type, or subscriber profile.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the business rules determine which of the content elements are shown via a user interface and when, and in what order and sequence the content elements should be displayed.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the business rules are described in XML format.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the business rules define preferred placements of the content elements based on one or more of the following criteria:

time of day, current channel, current broadcast content, viewer demographic, viewer behavior, navigation context or current content category.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the business rules comprise rules associated with one or more of the following categories:

advertising and promotional rules;

TV channel association rules;

timing rules for rotation of content, ads, and promotions;

category placement rules;

VOD metadata rules;

or self provisioning rules.

22. A method, comprising describing programmable conditions for placement of content within an interactive television (iTV) applications along multiple dimensions according to business rules that include sets of content programming rules that support creation of user interfaces within which the content is displayed.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the content programming rules comprise one or more of:

rules for time shifting so as to present different content selections to viewers based on time of day;

rules adapted to permit different content selections to be presented based on current broadcast content;

rules adapted to dynamically control content within tiled user interfaces;

rules adapted to control placement of tiles within tiled user interfaces;

rules adapted to permit groupings of ties within tiled user interfaces; and

rules adapted to permit dynamically controlled transitions between tile groupings within tiled user interfaces.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein content programming is conditioned by dynamically executing the business rules, which are conditioned by parameters including one or more of:

current application, application type, location, time-of-day, day part, current channel, current network family, current channel category, current program, current program genre, current program attributes, current content type, or application data.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the business rules are defined to target subscriber profile attributes including one or more of:

demographics, service tier, geography, or subscriber behavior.