Advertisement distribution system for distributing targeted advertisements in television systems

• US 7,328,448 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Issued: 02/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Gill, Komlika K.
• Primary Examiner(s): BUI, KIEU OANH T
• Application Number:
  US09/748,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20020083443A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,596 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/35, 725/42, 725/32, 725/115, 725/116, 705/10, 705/14
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• 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 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• 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 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17363 : at or near the user terminal

Abstract

Providing refreshed advertisements to subscriber equipment 210, such as a set-top box. A “client” application runs on the subscriber equipment 210 and includes a queue 404 for storing targeted advertisements, a processor 402 for monitoring the display of each advertisement to the subscriber, a counter 410 for counting each display, and a trigger circuit 406 for initiating an advertisement download each time it is determined that the queue of advertisements stored at the client application has reached a low-level threshold. An advertisement management system 202 provides advertisements to the client application. These advertisements may be network-based advertisements or may be targeted to each individual subscriber, based on a subscriber profile that is provided by a subscriber characterization system 204.

Claims

1. In a television network system, subscriber equipment for displaying targeted advertisements to a subscriber, the subscriber equipment comprising:

a communications interface for receiving at least one queue identifying a sequence of targeted advertisements, wherein the at least one queue is selectively distributed to the subscriber and the targeted advertisements have been previously matched to the subscriber, and wherein at least one of the targeted advertisements is repeatedly placed in the queue according to a controllable predetermined spacing, the controllable predetermined spacing specifying the number of intervening advertisements between occurrences of the at least one targeted advertisement and wherein the controllable spacing predetermined is specified by an advertiser;

memory for storing the at least one queue;

a processor, responsive to the at least one queue, configured to repeatedly insert the targeted advertisements into program streams for display to the subscriber in accordance with the sequence; and

a trigger circuit for determining if the at least one queue has reached a low-level, wherein said communications interface refreshes the at least one queue in response to a low-level determination by said trigger circuit.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a counter for tracking the number of times each targeted advertisement is displayed to the subscriber.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications interface also receives the targeted advertisements and said memory also stores said targeted advertisements.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each targeted advertisement stored in said memory is identified by an advertisement identifier that uniquely identifies the targeted advertisement and the at least one queue references the advertisement identifier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement, the at least one queue includes advertiser data identifying the advertiser sponsoring the advertisement.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement, the at least one queue includes a time frame defining a time during which the targeted advertisement should be displayed.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the time frame defining the time during which the advertisement should be displayed includes at least one of:

an hour frame indicating the hours of the day during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a day frame indicating the days of the week, month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a week frame indicating the weeks of the month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed; and

a month frame indicating the months of the year during which the advertisement should be displayed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement, the at least one queue includes at least one of:

an expiration date of the targeted advertisement;

a maximum total number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed;

a maximum number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed each day;

a total number of times the targeted advertisement has previously been displayed to the subscriber; and

a number of times the targeted advertisement has been displayed that day.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said trigger circuit determines that the at least one queue has reached a low-level if at least one of the following occur:

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of slots remaining;

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of targeted advertisements remaining; and

the at least one queue has a particular number of targeted advertisements that are within a specified time of being expired.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications interface is connectable to an advertisement management system over a network connection wherein the targeted advertisements are identified by the advertisement management system based on a profile of the subscriber supplied to the advertisement management system.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one queue includes a state indicator for activating said trigger circuit.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing is variable.

13. A method of displaying targeted advertisements to a subscriber in a communications network, the method comprising:

(a) selectively distributing at least one queue to a node associated with the subscriber, each queue identifying an ordered list of targeted advertisements, each of the targeted advertisements being previously matched to the subscriber, and wherein a sequence including at least two of the targeted advertisements is placed in the queue according to a controllable predetermined spacing, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing is specified by an advertiser, the controllable predetermined spacing specifying the number of intervening advertisements between one of the at least two advertisements and the successive advertisement of the at least two advertisements in the sequence;

(b) storing the at least one queue at the node;

(c) inserting the targeted advertisements into one or more programming streams displayed to the subscriber, the advertisements being repeatedly inserted in accordance with the ordered list of the corresponding at least one queue; and

(d) refreshing the at least one queue upon a determination that the at least one queue has reached a low-level.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

(e) tracking the number of times each targeted advertisement is displayed to the subscriber.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein each targeted advertisement is identified by an advertisement identifier that uniquely identifies the targeted advertisement and the at least one queue references the advertisement identifier.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein for each targeted advertisement, the at least one queue includes advertiser data identifying the advertiser sponsoring the advertisement.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein for each targeted advertisement, the at least one queue includes a time frame defining a time during which the targeted advertisement should be displayed.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the time frame defining the time during which the advertisement should be displayed includes at least one of:

an hour frame indicating the hours of the day during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a day frame indicating the days of the week, month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a week frame indicating the weeks of the month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed; and

a month frame indicating the months of the year during which the advertisement should be displayed.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein for each targeted advertisement the at least one queue includes at least one of:

an expiration date of the targeted advertisement;

a maximum total number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed;

a maximum number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed each day;

a total number of times the targeted advertisement has previously been displayed to the subscriber; and

a number of times the targeted advertisement has been displayed that day.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the determination of step (d) is made if one of the following occur:

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of slots remaining;

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of targeted advertisements remaining; and

the at least one queue has a particular number of targeted advertisements that are within a specified time of being expired.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein at least three advertisements of the targeted advertisements are placed in the queue according to the controllable predetermined spacing.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing specifies different numbers of intervening advertisements between successive targeted advertisements in the sequence.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least two advertisements are identical.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least two advertisements are sponsored by the same advertiser.

25. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least two advertisements are variants of each other.

26. A method of allowing an advertiser to purchase advertisement opportunities to be displayed to a subscriber in a communications network, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a controllable predetermined spacing according to which the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements will be displayed, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing is specified by the advertiser;

(b) arranging at least one queue of targeted and ordered advertisements, each of the targeted advertisements being previously matched to the subscriber, and wherein the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements are inserted in the queue according to the controllable predetermined spacing, the controllable predetermined spacing specifying the number of intervening advertisements between successive occurrences of the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements;

(c) selectively distributing the at least one queue to a node associated with the subscriber;

(d) storing the at least one queue at the node;

(e) inserting the targeted advertisements into avails in one or more programming streams displayed to the subscriber, the advertisements being repeatedly inserted in accordance with the order of the at least one queue.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing is variable.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the advertiser specifies varying numbers of intervening advertisements for the controllable predetermined spacing.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the advertiser specifies that the controllable predetermined spacing is a certain number of advertisements for the spacing between the first and second occurrences of the advertiser'"'"'s advertisements and a different number of advertisements for the spacing of between the second and third occurrences of the advertiser'"'"'advertisements.

30. A method of displaying targeted advertisements to a subscriber in a communications network, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a plurality of targeted advertisements at subscriber equipment, wherein each advertisement has been previously matched to the subscriber;

(b) storing the plurality of advertisements at the subscriber equipment;

(c) allowing an advertiser to specify that a subset of the plurality of targeted advertisements is to be displayed to the subscriber according to a controllable predetermined spacing, the controllable predetermined spacing specifying the number of intervening advertisements between the advertisements of the subset and the subsequent advertisement of the subset;

(d) arranging the plurality of targeted advertisements in a queue having a sequence, wherein the subset of the plurality of targeted advertisements is placed in the queue according to the controllable predetermined spacing;

(e) inserting the targeted advertisements into a programming stream for display to the subscriber in accordance with the sequence.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the controllable predetermined spacing is variable.

32. A method for displaying advertisements to a subscriber in a communications network, the method comprising:

(a) selecting a plurality of target advertisements matched to a subscriber;

(b) arranging at least a subset of the plurality of targeted advertisements in at least one queue, wherein a first targeted advertisement is placed a first predetermined interval from a second targeted advertisement, the first predetermined interval being the number of advertisements separating the first and second targeted advertisements, and wherein the first predetermined interval is specified by an advertiser;

(c) selectively distributing the at least one queue to a node associated with the subscriber;

(d) storing the at least one queue at the node;

(e) inserting the targeted advertisements into avails in one or more programming streams displayed to the subscriber, the advertisements being repeatedly inserted in accordance with the sequence of the at least one queue.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein a third targeted advertisement is placed into the at least one queue at a second predetermined interval from the second targeted advertisement.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first predetermined interval and the second predetermined interval specify the same number of intervening advertisements.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the first predetermined interval and the second predetermined interval specify a different number of intervening advertisements.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the second predetermined interval is specified by the advertiser.

37. The method of claim 33, wherein the first and second targeted advertisements are variants of each other.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the first and second targeted advertisements are the same advertisement.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the first and second targeted advertisements are for the same advertiser.