System and method for delivering personalized advertising data

• US 7,814,521 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Inventors: Liu, Yali, Li, Zhi, Ou, Canhui
• Primary Examiner(s): Koenig; Andrew Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malangone; Carmine
• Application Number:
  US11/789,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20080271068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• Field of Search: 725 34- 35, 725/46, 725 93- 97, 709/205, 709226-228
• US Class Current: 725/96
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A method is disclosed for distributing advertising data in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system, the method including dividing a plurality of end user devices in the IPTV system into K advertising groups; multicasting J advertising data multicast groups to end user devices in J advertising groups having a percentile ranking above or equal to a predetermined percentile ranking; and unicasting advertising data channels for actively viewed IPTV channels being viewed by other end users.

Claims

1. A method for distributing advertising video data in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system, the method comprising:

dynamically dividing a plurality of end user devices in the IPTV system into a quantity K advertising groups based on end user profile data for the plurality of end user devices;

IF K is less than a first integer, M selected based the IPTV system available bandwidth,

replicating each of N IPTV channels for each of the K advertising groups;

inserting into each replicated IPTV channels in each advertising group, advertising data selected for the advertising group;

sending the N times K IPTV channels to an IPTV server close to the plurality of end user devices;

ELSEIF K is greater than or equal to the quantity M,

THEN

sending a quantity of N IPTV channels to an IPTV server close to the plurality of end user devices;

dynamically determining a percentile ranking relative to a predetermined percentile ranking for each of the plurality of end user devices, wherein the ranking is based on end user profile data for each end user device and available IPTV bandwidth wherein the predetermined percentile ranking is based on a first percentage of end user devices that will fit within a second percentage of multicast groups;

placing a quantity of the plurality of end user devices having the a percentile ranking above the predetermined percentile ranking into J advertising groups and assigning each of a quantity I of the plurality of end user devices having a ranking below the predetermined percentile ranking to one of a quantity of I unicasts;

concurrently multicasting to the quantity J of advertising video data multicast groups at a first advertising data multicast speed to each of a plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups and the quantity K of multicast video data channels at a second multicast speed to all end users in the K advertising groups,

wherein the second multicast speed is faster than the first multicast speed and

wherein the quantity K of video data channels have empty advertising data slots which are filled at the end user devices with the advertising video data received in the quantity J multicasts of advertising video data transmitted from the server to the plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups,

wherein the end users in the J advertising groups have a percentile ranking above or equal to a predetermined percentile ranking; and

unicasting from the server, advertising video data channels with advertising included in the unicasting for actively viewed television channels to each of a quantity I of end users having a percentile ranking below the predetermined percentile ranking for insertion of the unicast advertising data into the multicast video data stream, wherein the quantity I of end users is the number of end users below the predetermined percentage and the quantity J comprises the number of advertising groups for end users above the predetermined percentile ranking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising video data channels are only unicast and multicast for actively viewed IPTV channels.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking, I, J and M are selected based on IPTV system available bandwidth between the IPTV server and the end user devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking is substantially 80% and M is equal to 5.

5. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

sending channel assignment data to the end user devices indicating internet protocol addresses for IPTV channels and advertising data for the IPTV channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising data in the unicasts are inserted into one of the N IPTV channels at the quantity I end user devices.

7. A system for distributing advertising data in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system, the system comprising:

a computer readable memory;

a processor in data communication with the memory; and

a computer program embedded in the memory, the computer program further comprising instructions that when executed by a computer perform functions to;

dynamically divide a plurality of end user devices in the IPTV system into a quantity K advertising groups based on end user profile data for the plurality of end user devices;

instructions to,

IF K is less than a first integer, M, wherein M is selected based on the IPTV system available bandwidth,

replicate each of N of IPTV channels for each of the K advertising groups;

insert into each replicated IPTV channel for each respective advertising group, advertising data selected for the advertising group;

send the N times K IPTV channels to an IPTV server close to the plurality of end user devices;

ELSEIF K is greater than or equal to M,

THEN

instructions to

send a quantity of N IPTV channels to an IPTV server close to the plurality of end user devices;

dynamically determine a percentile ranking relative to a predetermined percentile ranking for each of the plurality of end user devices,

wherein the a percentile ranking is based on end user profile data for each of the plurality of end user devices and available IPTV system bandwidth,

wherein the a predetermined percentile ranking is based on a first percentage of end user devices that will fit within a second percentage of multicast groups;

ELSEIF K is greater than or equal to the quantity M,

THEN

instructions to

place a quantity of the plurality of end user devices having the a percentile ranking above the predetermined percentile ranking into J advertising groups, instructions to multicast a quantity J of advertising data multicast groups at a first multicast speed and a quantify K of multicast video data channels at a second multicast speed faster than the first multicast speed and wherein the video data channels have empty advertising data slots which are filled at the end user devices with the advertising video data received in the first multicast of advertising video data from the server to a plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups, and assigning each of a quantity I of the plurality of end user devices having the a percentile ranking below the a predetermined percentile ranking to one of a quantity of I unicasts;

wherein the end users in the J advertising groups have a percentile ranking above or equal to a predetermined percentile ranking; and

concurrently multicast to the quantity J of advertising video data multicast groups at a fist advertising data multicast speed to each of a plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups and the quantity K of multicast video data channels at a second multicast speed to all end user sin the K advertising groups, wherein the second multicast speed is faster than the first multicast speed and wherein the quantity K video data channels have empty advertising data slots which are filled at the end user devices with the advertising video data received in the quantity J multicasts of advertising video data transmitted from the server to the plurality of end user device in the J advertising groups, wherein the end user in the J advertising groups have a percentile ranking above or equal to a predetermined percentile ranking and

instructions to

unicast from the server, advertising video data channels with advertising included in the unicasting for actively viewed television channels to a quantity I of end users having a percentile ranking below the predetermined percentile ranking for insertion of the unicast advertising data into the multicast video data channels at the end user devices, wherein the quantity I of end users is the number of end users below the predetermined percentile ranking and the quantity J comprises the number of adverting groups for end users above the predetermined percentile ranking.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking, I, J, and M are selected based on IPTV system available bandwidth between the IPTV server and the end user devices.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking is substantially 80%.

10. The system of claim 7, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to send channel assignment data to the end user devices indicating internet protocol addresses for IPTV channels and advertising data for the IPTV channels.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the advertising data in the unicasts are inserted into one of the N IPTV channels at quantity I end user devices respectively.

12. A tangible computer readable non-transitory medium containing a computer program, that when executed by a computer performs functions that are useful for distributing advertising data in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system, the computer program comprising:

instructions to;

dynamically divide a plurality of end user devices in the IPTV system into a quantity K advertising groups based on end user profile data for the plurality of end user devices;

instructions to,

IF K is greater than a first integer, M, wherein M is selected based on the IPTV system available bandwidth,

replicate each of N IPTV channels for each of the K advertising groups;

insert into each replicated IPTV channel for each respective advertising group, advertising data selected for the advertising group; and

send N times K IPTV channels to an IPTV server close to the plurality of end user devices;

ELSEIF K is greater than or equal to the quantity M,

THEN

instructions to,

place a quantity of the plurality of end user devices having a percentile ranking above the predetermined percentile ranking into J advertising groups,

dynamically determine a percentile ranking relative to a predetermined percentile ranking for each of the plurality of end user devices, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking is based on end user profile data for each end user device and available IPTV bandwidth;

wherein the a predetermined percentile ranking is based on a first percentage of end user devices that will fit within a second percentage of multicast groups;

instructions to,

place a quantity of the plurality of end user devices having the a percentile ranking above the predetermined percentile ranking into J advertising groups and assigning each of a quantity I of the plurality of end user devices having the a percentile ranking below the a predetermined percentile ranking to one of a quantity of I unicasts;

concurrently multicast to the quantity J of advertising video data multicast groups at a first advertising data multicast speed to each of a plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups and the quantity K of multicast video data channels at a second multicast speed to all end users in the K advertising groups,

wherein the second multicast speed is faster than the first multicast speed and

wherein the quantity K video data channels have empty advertising data slots which are filled at the end user devices with the advertising video data received in the quantity J multicast of advertising video data transmitted from the server to the plurality of end user devices in the J advertising groups,

wherein the end users in the J advertising groups have a percentile ranking above or equal to a predetermined percentile ranking; and

instructions to,

unicast from the server, advertising video data channels with advertising included in the unicasting for actively viewed television channels to each of the quantity I of end users having the a percentile ranking below the predetermined percentile ranking for insertion of the unicast advertising data into the multicast video data channels is at the end user devices,

wherein the quantity I of end users is the number of end users below the predetermined percentile ranking and the quantity J comprise the number advertising groups for end users above the predetermined percentile ranking.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking, I, J, and M are selected based on IPTV system available bandwidth between the IPTV server and the end user devices.

14. The medium of claim 12, wherein the predetermined percentile ranking is substantially 80%.

15. The medium of claim 12, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to,

send channel assignment data to the end user devices indicating internet protocol addresses for IPTV channels and advertising data for the IPTV channels.

16. The medium of claim 12, wherein the advertising data in the unicasts are inserted into one of the N IPTV channels at the quantity I of end user devices respectively.