System and method for selectively distributing commercial messages over a communications network
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for selectively distributing messages over a communications network comprising:
- a controller for communicating over the network with a plurality of subscriber terminals in a plurality of subscriber households served by the communications network, each of said subscriber terminals having a network address;
a reservoir of data operatively associated with said controller, said reservoir containing network addresses of said subscriber terminals and subscriber profile data associated with each of said subscriber households and including demographic data;
a source of commercial messages;
selection means operatively associated with said controller for selecting at least one of said commercial messages for transmission to at least one of said subscriber terminals based on the subscriber profile data associated with said at least one subscriber terminal; and
identifying means operatively associated with said controller for identifying the selected at least one commercial message with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal;
said controller causing the transmission, over said network from said source to said at least one subscriber terminal, of commercial messages identified with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal.
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Abstract
A device and method of distributing commercial messages to an individually addressable subscriber terminal ("converter") on a network is provided. A server, located on the network, selectively tags commercial messages with routing information and converter addresses, and transmits the messages on the network to be received and displayed by the addressed converters. The addresses are selected based on information stored in a database related to demographic and other information relating to the members of the household of the subscriber. The server sends selected commercial messages to selected households.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. An apparatus for selectively distributing messages over a communications network comprising:
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a controller for communicating over the network with a plurality of subscriber terminals in a plurality of subscriber households served by the communications network, each of said subscriber terminals having a network address; a reservoir of data operatively associated with said controller, said reservoir containing network addresses of said subscriber terminals and subscriber profile data associated with each of said subscriber households and including demographic data; a source of commercial messages; selection means operatively associated with said controller for selecting at least one of said commercial messages for transmission to at least one of said subscriber terminals based on the subscriber profile data associated with said at least one subscriber terminal; and identifying means operatively associated with said controller for identifying the selected at least one commercial message with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal; said controller causing the transmission, over said network from said source to said at least one subscriber terminal, of commercial messages identified with the network address of said at least one subscriber terminal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for selectively distributing commercial messages across a communications network to at least one of a plurality of subscriber terminals in subscriber households having a network address comprising the steps of:
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identifying each of a collection of stored commercial messages with a product code representing characteristics of a subscriber household profile common to actual customers of the subject matter of that commercial message which the code identifies; prioritizing said plurality of subscriber terminals with respect to each product code, based on the conformance of subscriber household profile data for each of said plurality of subscriber terminals to the characteristics represented by each product code; and controlling the transmission of a commercial message from said collection to said subscriber terminals so that only terminals of a specified priority relative to the product code receive the commercial message identified with the product code. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification