Advertisement subgroups for digital streams

• US 6,615,039 B1
• Filed: 05/10/2000
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Expanse Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Application Number:
  US09/568,477
• Time in Patent Office: 1,210 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/406, 455/414, 455/403, 455/419, 705/14, 705/26, 705/1, 709/224, 709/223, 725/42-45, 725/104, 725/70
• US Class Current: 455/418
• 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 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• 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 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/2668 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 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64 Addressing network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00; support for multicast or broadcast of one-way stream services H04L65/611
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• 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 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• 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

A targeted advertising system based on subgroups. Different subgroups are formed based on one or more subscriber characteristics, and different targeted advertisements transmitted to the different subgroups. In the Internet-environment, the subgroups are formed by utilizing multicast addresses. In cable-based and satellite-based systems, the subgroups are formed by node configurations. The targeted advertisements may be transmitted simultaneously with programming and inserted locally. An apparatus is presented which receives m program streams, n advertisements, and creates p presentation streams containing targeted advertisements, where p is greater than m.

Claims

1. A method for simultaneously transmitting different targeted advertisements within programming to different subgroups in a telecommunications system, the method comprising:

receiving a program stream that is some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

receiving a plurality of advertisement streams, each advertisement stream being some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

inserting a first advertisement stream in the program stream to create a first presentation stream and a second advertisement stream in the program stream to create a second presentation stream;

simultaneously transmitting the first presentation to a first subgroup and the second presentation stream to a second subgroup.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming a plurality of subgroups including at least the first subgroup and the second subgroup.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups using multicast addresses.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups using Internet multicasting protocol.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups based on cable nodes.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups based on routers.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups according to market segments.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said forming includes forming the subgroups according to subscriber characteristics.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the subscriber characteristics include at least some subset of geographic attributes, demographic attributes, psychographic attributes, and product and brand usage attributes.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the program stream includes programming and one or more pre-configured advertisements.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said inserting includes inserting the advertisement streams in place of some subset of the one or more pre-configured advertisements.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the program stream includes programming and one or more empty segments.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said inserting includes inserting the advertisement streams in place of some subset of the one or more empty segments.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said inserting includes inserting the advertisement streams in real-time.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein

said receiving a program stream includes receiving n program streams;

said receiving a plurality of advertisement streams includes receiving m advertisement streams; and

said inserting includes inserting at least some subset of the m advertisements streams in at least some subset of n program streams to create p presentation streams, where p is greater than n.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said simultaneously transmitting is accomplished by transmitting the presentation streams as cable television channels.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said simultaneously transmitting is accomplished by transmitting the presentation streams as streaming video channels.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said simultaneously transmitting includes transmitting the presentation streams as audio channels.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said simultaneously transmitting includes transmitting the presentation streams as broadcast channels.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said simultaneously transmitting includes transmitting the presentation streams as satellite channels.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some subset of the program streams, the advertisement streams, and the presentations streams are digital signals.

22. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

assigning a subgroup address to each subgroup;

assigning an advertisement identifier to each of the advertisement streams; and

creating a relationship between the subgroup addresses and the advertising identifiers.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the advertisements are inserted into the program stream based on the relationship.

24. A system for simultaneously transmitting different targeted advertisements within programming to different subgroups in a telecommunications system, the system comprising:

means for receiving a program stream that is some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

means for receiving a plurality of advertisement streams, each advertisement stream being some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

means for inserting a first advertisement stream in the program stream to create a first presentation stream;

means for inserting a second advertisement stream in the program stream to create a second presentation stream;

means for simultaneously transmitting the first presentation to a first subgroup and the second presentation stream to a second subgroup.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

means for assigning a subgroup address to each subgroup;

means for assigning an advertisement identifier to each of the advertisement streams; and

means for creating a relationship between the subgroup addresses and the advertising identifiers.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising means for selecting the advertisements to be inserted into the program stream responsive to said means for creating a relationship.

27. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for simultaneously transmitting different targeted advertisements within programming to different subgroups in a telecommunications system, the computer program comprising:

a source code segment for receiving a program stream that is some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

a source code segment for receiving a plurality of advertisement streams, each advertisement stream being some combination of a video stream and an audio stream;

a source code segment for inserting a first advertisement stream in the program stream to create a first presentation stream;

a source code segment for inserting a second advertisement stream in the program stream to create a second presentation stream;

a source code segment for simultaneously transmitting the first presentation to a first subgroup and the second presentation stream to a second subgroup.

28. The computer program of claim 27, further comprising:

means for assigning a subgroup address to each subgroup;

means for assigning an advertisement identifier to each of the advertisement streams; and

means for creating a relationship between the subgroup addresses and the advertising identifiers.

29. The computer program of claim 28, further comprising a source code segment for selecting the advertisements to be inserted into the program stream responsive to said source code segment for creating a relationship.

30. A method for creating multiple presentation streams having the same programming and different advertising and transmitting the presentation streams to different subgroups in a telecommunications system, the method comprising:

creating at least one subgroup within the telecommunication stream;

receiving a first presentation stream including programming and advertisements;

receiving at least one advertisement stream, wherein the at least one advertisement stream;

selecting at least one targeted advertisement stream from the at least one advertisement stream for targeting to the at least one subgroup;

inserting the at least one targeted advertisement stream in place of at least one advertisement in the first presentation stream to create a second presentation stream;

simultaneously transmitting the first presentation stream and the second presentation stream.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first presentation stream and the at least one advertisement stream are at least some combination of a video stream and an audio stream.

32. A system for creating multiple presentation streams having the same programming and different advertising and transmitting the presentation streams to different subgroups in a telecommunications system, the system comprising:

a receiver for receiving programming streams and advertisement streams;

a storage medium capable of storing the programming streams, the advertisement streams and identification of at least one subgroup within the telecommunication system;

an advertisement insertion module for inserting at least one advertisement stream in place of an advertisement within at least one programming stream to create at least one presentation stream;

a transmitter for simultaneously transmitting the at least one programming stream and the at least one presentation stream and the second presentation stream.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the first programming streams and the advertisement streams are at least some combination of video streams and audio streams.

34. The system of claim 32, further comprising a processor for selecting the advertisement streams to insert in the program streams.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein said processor selects the advertisement streams by matching characteristics about the advertisements with characteristics about the subgroups.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the characteristics include at least some subset of geographic attributes, demographic attributes, psychographic attributes, and product and brand usage attributes.

37. The system of claim 34, wherein said processor also defines the subgroups within the telecommunication system.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein said processor can define subgroups according to at least some subset of regional head-end, local head-end, node, router, set-top box, and IP address.