Scheduling and presenting IPG ads in conjunction with programming ads in a television environment

• US 7,653,923 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Flickinger, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Salce, Jason P
• Application Number:
  US09/749,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20010032333A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,317 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 36, 725/39, 725 41- 47, 725/51
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/10 Arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or the distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 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 21/4821 : using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• 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

A method and system whereby conventional television advertisements (i.e., those delivered to viewers while they watch television programming) can be delivered in conjunction with and correlated with advertisements that are presented to viewers in the Interactive Program Guide (IPG). Moreover, the invention described herein provides for delivering highly targeted ads to viewers in both conventional programming avails and in the IPG, and for linking the targeted ads in these two media to provide for enhanced and highly effective advertising campaigns.

Claims

1. A method of enhancing the effectiveness of IPG ads and programming ads in a television network environment, the method comprising:

(a) storing an IPG ad queue, the IPG ad queue containing an ordered list of IPG ads;

(b) storing a programming ad queue, the programming ad queue containing an ordered list of programming ads to be inserted in a programming avail;

(c) linking at least one IPG ad with at least one programming ad to form at least one IPG-programming ad combination;

(d) displaying one or more IPG ads from the at least one IPG-programming ad combination in the IPG when the IPG is invoked immediately prior to or immediately subsequent to the display of a programming ad in the programming avail, wherein the IPG ads are displayed in accordance with the IPG ad queue; and

(e) reordering the IPG ad queue in accordance with the displayed programming ad.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the IPG ads or at least one of the programming ads is a targeted ad, thus forming a targeted IPG-programming ad combination.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is assigned to at least one subscriber group, the at least one subscriber group comprising at least one subscriber.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is formed prior to the assignment of the combination to the at least one subscriber group.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is formed subsequent to the assignment of at least one IPG ad or at least one programming ad to the at least one subscriber group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein viewer interaction with an IPG ad allows a viewer to request additional information regarding a particular linked programming ad.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein viewer interaction with an IPG ad causes a related linked programming ad to be subsequently displayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one IPG ad is displayed in the IPG when the IPG is invoked during the presentation of one of the programming ads.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

(f) reordering the programming ad queue according to the displayed programming ad.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the IPG ad queue and the programming ad queue includes unscheduled ads.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the reordering of step (e) includes changing the order of the IPG ads within the IPG ad queue.

11. A method of enhancing the effectiveness of IPG ads and programming ads in a television network environment, the method comprising:

(a) storing an IPG ad queue, the IPG ad queue containing an ordered list of IPG ads;

(b) storing a programming ad queue, the programming ad queue containing an ordered list of programming ads to be inserted in a programming avail;

(c) linking at least one IPG ad with at least one programming ad to form at least one IPG-programming ad combination;

(d) displaying one or more IPG ads from the at least one IPG-programming ad combination in the IPG when the IPG is invoked immediately prior to or immediately subsequent to the display of a programming ad in the programming avail, wherein the IPG ads are displayed in accordance with the IPG ad queue; and

(e) reordering the IPG ad queue in accordance with a reordering of the programming ad queue.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

(f) reordering the programming ad queue according to the displayed programming ad.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the IPG ad queue and the programming ad queue includes unscheduled ads.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the IPG ads or at least one of the programming ads is a targeted ad, thus forming a targeted IPG-programming ad combination.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is assigned to at least one subscriber group, the at least one subscriber group comprising at least one subscriber.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is formed prior to the assignment of the combination to the at least one subscriber group.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the targeted IPG-programming ad combination is formed subsequent to the assignment of at least one IPG ad or at least one programming ad to the at least one subscriber group.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein viewer interaction with an IPG ad allows a viewer to request additional information regarding a particular linked programming ad.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein viewer interaction with an IPG ad causes a related linked programming ad to be subsequently displayed.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one IPG ad is displayed in the IPG when the IPG is invoked during the presentation of one of the programming ads.

22. The method of claim 11 wherein the reordering of step (e) includes changing the order of the IPG ads within the IPG ad queue.