Preemptible station inventory

• US 20080040739A1
• Filed: 08/09/2006
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LOT Network Inc.
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Silverman, Scott, Steelberg, Ryan, Steelberg, Chad, Ketchum, Russell
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, processes, engines and computer program products are provided for preempting advertisements in a broadcast. In one exemplary system, a method is provided that includes determining one or more advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption, identifying rules for preempting advertisements and automatically preempting the one or more advertisements using an advertisement from available inventory if the rules are satisfied.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying one or more advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption;

identifying rules for preempting the identified advertisements;

programmatically evaluating the identified rules including evaluating available inventory; and

substituting one or more advertisements from available inventory for the identified advertisements if the rules are satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising prior to substituting, determining if one or more limits on preemption have been exceeded, and if so, maintaining one or more identified advertisements in the schedule.

3. The method of claim 1 where identifying advertisements includes categorizing each advertisement in the schedule.

4. The method of claim 1 where identifying advertisements includes tagging each advertisement in the schedule that is preemptible.

5. The method of claim 1 where identifying advertisements includes determining for each advertisement in the schedule if the advertisement is marked as being preemptible.

6. The method of claim 1 where identifying rules includes specifying rules for preemption.

7. The method of claim 6 where specifying rules includes specifying criteria for evaluating the identified advertisements as compared to the available inventory.

8. The method of claim 6 where the rules specify criteria for evaluating available inventory.

9. The method of claim 1 where evaluating includes evaluating pricing data associated with the available inventory.

10. The method of claim 9 where substituting includes substituting advertisements from the available inventory for the identified advertisements to realize greater revenue.

11. The method of claim 1 where substituting is limited based on further criteria.

12. The method of claim 1 where substituting is limited based on time of day associated with an identified advertisement.

13. The method of claim 1 where substituting is limited based on a time since an advertisement from the available inventory that is proposed for substitution was last included in the schedule.

14. The method of claim 1 where identifying advertisements in a schedule includes evaluating all advertisements in the schedule to determine one or more that are preemptible.

15. The method of claim 1 where programmatically evaluating the identified rules includes evaluating a first rule as against available inventory, the first rule being associated with a first time period and evaluating a second rule as against available inventory, the second rule being associated with a second different time period.

16. The method of claim 15 where substituting for an identified advertisement that is associated with the first time period is in accordance with the first rule and substituting for an identified advertisement that is associated with the second time period is in accordance with the second rule.

17. The method of claim 1 where the advertisements are audio advertisements for distribution on a radio broadcast medium.

18. The method of claim 1 where the advertisements are multimedia advertisements for distribution on a television broadcast medium.

19. A system comprising

a hub;

a broadcast station; and

a preemption module including components distributed between the hub and the broadcast station, the preemption module operable to programmatically identify one or more advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption, identifying rules for preempting the identified advertisements;

programmatically evaluate the identified rules including evaluating available inventory and substituting one or more advertisements from available inventory for the identified advertisements if the rules are satisfied.

20. The system of claim 19 where the broadcast station is operable to tag advertisements in the schedule that can be preempted.

21. The system of claim 19 where the hub includes a filter operable to limit a number of preemptions that occur to the schedule.

22. The system of claim 19 where the broadcast station includes components of the preemption module that are configured to programmatically evaluate identified rules and substitute advertisements.

23. The system of claim 19 where the hub includes components of the preemption module that identify rules and identify advertisements for substitution.

24. The system of claim 19 where the hub is a broadcasting hub and where the broadcast station is a regional broadcast studio of a radio communication system.

25. The system of claim 19 where the hub is a broadcasting hub and where the broadcast station is a regional broadcast studio of a television communication system.

26. An apparatus comprising:

means for identifying one or more advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption;

means for identifying rules for preempting the identified advertisements;

programmatic means for evaluating the identified rules including evaluating available inventory; and

means for substituting one or more advertisements from available inventory for the identified advertisements if the rules are satisfied.

27. A method comprising:

determining one or more advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption;

providing rules for preempting advertisements; and

automatically preempting the one or more advertisements using an advertisement from available inventory if the rules are satisfied.

28. A computer program product tangibly stored in a computer medium including instructions for causing a computing device to:

identify advertisements in a schedule that are available for preemption;

identify rules for preempting the identified advertisements;

programmatically evaluate the identified rules including evaluating available inventory; and

substitute one or more advertisements from available inventory for the identified advertisements if the rules are satisfied.