METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOCAL STORAGE AND INSERTION OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

• US 20070266400A1
• Filed: 07/26/2007
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Versteeg, William, Rogers, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,302,123 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/432 Content retrieval operation from a local storage medium, e.g. hard-disk details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• 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 21/458 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing

Abstract

A method and system for inserting television commercials that are selected according to the unique interests and purchasing habits of viewers in individual households, or the relative location of the household within a local broadcast area. The present system provides a cable or satellite television set top box that stores a plurality of television commercials for products or services that have been found to be of interest to viewers in a household that uses the set top box. At commercial breaks during the broadcast of network television programs, the television network indicates when the set top box is authorized to insert a stored television commercial instead of a broadcast commercial. If the set top box locates a locally stored commercial that is appropriate for the television program and the user, the commercial is inserted into the commercial break.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A system for inserting television commercials stored locally in a television set top box into a media programming stream, comprising:

a receiver for receiving broadcast media programming into the set top box;

a commercials database for storing advertisements in the set top box;

a commercials detector for detecting audio tones in broadcast media programming where one or more of the detected audio tones are substitution signals that indicate authorization for a local television station to insert a locally stored advertisement into the media stream, wherein the locally stored advertisement which is inserted is determined based upon the frequency that each of a plurality of advertisements stored in the set top box has been previously inserted, and wherein at least one advertisement among the plurality of stored advertisements which has not been frequently inserted is favored over the remaining plurality of stored advertisements; and

switching logic to interrupt a television connected to the set top box from the media programming stream and to temporarily decode a television commercial stored in the commercials database when a substitution signal is detected in the commercials detector.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the television commercials are received by the receiver via at least one of a television broadcast, a satellite broadcast and a signal received from a wireless communication network.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the television commercials are received by the receiver from a wireless communication device.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the receiver also includes a modem, wherein the modem allows the advertisements to be received via a wireline.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the locally stored television commercials are inserted in a sequence calculated to maximize contractual fee income.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the broadcast media programming stream includes private data transmission interleaved with audiovisual data.

28. The system of claim 22 further comprising a decoder for decoding the plurality of television commercials into the television set top box.

29. A method for inserting targeted advertisements into a media delivery system of a subscriber during broadcast media programming, comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of advertisements in a database in a media delivery device, wherein each of the stored plurality is of a type that is determined to appeal to one or more users of the media delivery device;

receiving a signal at the media delivery device to insert one of the plurality of advertisements into a media delivery stream;

inserting the one of the plurality of advertisements into the media delivery stream wherein the advertisement inserted is determined based upon a frequency that each of the plurality of advertisements has been previously inserted.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the media delivery device is an electronic device proximate to and in communication with a receiver for rendering broadcast signals to the one or more users.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the database tracks the frequency with which each of the plurality of advertisements is provided to the receiver.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the receiver is one of a television, a high definition television, an am/fm radio, a digital radio and a wireless communication device.

33. The method of claim 29 further comprising, receiving the plurality of advertisements for storage in the database via at least one of a satellite download, a wireless network, a radio broadcast, a television broadcast and a wireline modem.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein the plurality of advertisements are at least one of text, audio and visual advertisements capable of being rendered on a wireless communication device.

35. The method of claim 29 wherein the database tracks the elapsed time that each advertisement is actually rendered by the receiver.

36. A media delivery device for inserting an advertisement into a media stream and rendering the advertisement to a subscriber, comprising:

a decoder for decoding a media advertisement;

a commercials database for storing the decoded advertisement in the media delivery device;

a signal detector for detecting signals within the media stream being rendered to the subscriber to insert the advertisement stored in the commercials database into the media stream; and

means for substituting an advertisement being received through the media stream with the decoded advertisement from the commercials database.

37. The device of claim 36, wherein the media delivery device is an electronic memory device in physical proximity to and in communication with a receiver rendering the media stream to the subscriber.

38. The device of claim 36, wherein the decoder is an MPEG decoder

39. The device of claim 36, further comprising a processor executing instructions to determine the priority for inserting the advertisement, wherein the priority is based on one of the frequency with which the advertisement has been previously inserted, a price paid by an advertiser, an expiration date of an advertising contract, and a periodicity stipulated in the advertising contract.

40. The device of claim 36, wherein if the advertisement is to be inserted, the decoder disconnects from the incoming media stream and connects the commercials database to the receiver rendering the media stream to the subscriber and at the conclusion of the advertisement disconnects from the commercials database and reestablishes a connection with the incoming media stream.

40-1. The device of claim 36, wherein the media stream is a media stream formatted for rendering the advertisement on at least one of a television, a radio, a computer monitor and a personal communication device.