Content with advertisement information segment
First Claim
1. A computer-readable medium storing instructions that are executed by a computer to enable the computer to:
- receive and store an advertisement, a plurality of segments of one particular program, and at least one segment pointer interlaced between the segments of the one particular program, said at least one segment pointer to link to a remotely located info segment and other than said info segment; and
in response to detecting a segment pointer between segments of the plurality of segments of said one particular program, said computer to retrieve said info segment from a remote storage, said retrieval of said info segment separate from and not coinciding with the receipt of segments of the plurality of segments of said one particular program or an advertisement, said info segment including,a content identifier to indicate that said info segment is to be associated with the one particular program, anda plurality of entries, each entry specifying,an interruption point to identify a condition that, if detected, will cause the display of an advertisement to replace the display of the one particular program, andone or more conditions controlling the interruption.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A data delivery mechanism, such as a recordable disk or packets on a wire, delivering an info segment which specifies interruption points at which a first content item such as a television program is to be interrupted and a second content item such as an advertisement is to be inserted. The info segment may prevent certain types of second content items from being utilized, may permit them to be avoided, may control their duration, and other aspects of their utilization. The info segment may specify with which first content item it is associated. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed, such as an electronic programming guide.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A computer-readable medium storing instructions that are executed by a computer to enable the computer to:
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receive and store an advertisement, a plurality of segments of one particular program, and at least one segment pointer interlaced between the segments of the one particular program, said at least one segment pointer to link to a remotely located info segment and other than said info segment; and in response to detecting a segment pointer between segments of the plurality of segments of said one particular program, said computer to retrieve said info segment from a remote storage, said retrieval of said info segment separate from and not coinciding with the receipt of segments of the plurality of segments of said one particular program or an advertisement, said info segment including, a content identifier to indicate that said info segment is to be associated with the one particular program, and a plurality of entries, each entry specifying, an interruption point to identify a condition that, if detected, will cause the display of an advertisement to replace the display of the one particular program, and one or more conditions controlling the interruption. - View Dependent Claims (2, 13)
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3. A computer-readable medium storing instructions that are executed by a computer to enable the computer to:
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receive an electronic programming guide having a plurality of program identifications within said electronic programming guide; receive a plurality of info segments and associate, in said guide, an info segment with each of a predetermined one of the plurality of program identifications, each info segment including, a program identification to enable the association of the info segment with a the predetermined one of the plurality of program identifications, and a plurality of interruption point specifiers to identify a condition that, if satisfied during play of a program selected from said guide, will cause the computer to display an advertisement instead of the identified program, the timing of the occurrence of the condition, if the condition occurs at all, unknown at the time the info segment is associated with a predetermined one of the plurality of program identifications; and access a particular info segment through said electronic programming guide in response to user selection of a program from the electronic program guide to which the particular info segment is directed. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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5. A method comprising:
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receiving, on a receiver, and storing, in a cache coupled to said receiver, a particular content item, said particular content item stored for repeated access by a user at any time, said receiver also storing an info segment including a unique content identifier to associate said info segment with said particular content item and an interrupt point specifier to identify a condition that, if detected, will cause said receiver to replace the display of said particular content item with the display of an advertisement, the timing of the occurrence of the condition, if the condition occurs at all, unknown at the time of content access and unique to each access of said content; associating said info segment and said particular content item identified by said unique content identifier while said particular content item is stored in said cache; and monitoring, on said receiver, for said identified condition if said particular content item is accessed from said cache for display. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14)
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Specification