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

• US 8,042,131 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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:
  US12/643,596
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100906A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 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 displaying Electronic Program Guide (EPG) advertisements and programming advertisements in a television network environment, the method comprising:

(a) storing an EPG advertisement queue, the EPG advertisement queue containing an ordered list of EPG advertisements;

(b) storing a plurality of programming advertisements to be inserted in a programming avail;

(c) linking each programming advertisement with at least one EPG advertisement to form a plurality of EPG-programming advertisement combinations;

(d) when the EPG is invoked immediately subsequent or concurrent to a displayed programming advertisement, displaying the EPG advertisement that is highest in the EPG advertisement queue and which is also contained in the EPG-programming advertisement combination corresponding to the displayed programming advertisement; and

(e) reordering the EPG advertisement queue by placing the displayed EPG advertisement at the bottom of the EPG advertisement queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the EPG advertisements or at least one of the programming advertisements is a targeted advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement 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 EPG-programming advertisement 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 EPG-programming advertisement combination is formed subsequent to the assignment of the at least one EPG advertisement or at least one programming advertisement to the at least one subscriber group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein viewer interaction with the at least one EPG advertisement allows a viewer to request additional information regarding the corresponding linked programming advertisement.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein viewer interaction with the EPG advertisement causes the corresponding linked programming advertisement to be subsequently displayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one EPG advertisement is displayed in the EPG when the EPG is invoked during the presentation of one of the programming advertisements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of programming advertisements includes unscheduled advertisements.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of programming advertisements are organized into a programming advertisement queue.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the programming advertisement queue is reordered based on the displaying of the at least one EPG advertisement.

12. An Electronic Program Guide (EPG) advertisement system for displaying EPG advertisements and programming advertisements in a television network environment, the system comprising:

a storage module to store an EPG advertisement queue containing an ordered list of EPG advertisements and to store a plurality of programming advertisements to be inserted in a programming avail;

a processor configured to link each programming advertisement with at least one EPG advertisement to form a plurality of EPG-programming advertisement combinations;

a display module configured to display an EPG advertisement when the EPG is invoked immediately subsequent or concurrent to a displayed programming advertisement, wherein the EPG advertisement that is displayed is the highest in the EPG advertisement queue and that is also contained in the EPG-programming advertisement combination corresponding to the displayed programming advertisement.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processing module is further configured to reorder the EPG advertisement queue by placing the displayed EPG advertisement at the bottom of the EPG advertisement queue after the EPG advertisement has been displayed.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the EPG advertisements or at least one of the programming advertisements is a targeted advertisement.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is assigned to at least one subscriber group, the at least one subscriber group comprising at least one subscriber.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is formed prior to the assignment of the combination to the at least one subscriber group.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is formed subsequent to the assignment of the at least one EPG advertisement or at least one programming advertisement to the at least one subscriber group.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

an input module to receive a viewer interaction with the at least one EPG advertisement, allowing a viewer to request additional information regarding the corresponding linked programming advertisement.

19. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

an input module to receive a viewer interaction with the at least one EPG advertisement, causing the corresponding linked programming advertisement to be subsequently displayed.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the display module displays the at least one EPG advertisement when the EPG is invoked during the presentation of one of the programming advertisements.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of programming advertisements includes unscheduled advertisements.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of programming advertisements are organized into a programming advertisement queue.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the programming advertisement queue is reordered based on the display module displaying of the at least one EPG advertisement.

24. A non-transitory computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of displaying Electronic Program Guide (EPG) advertisements and programming advertisements in a television network environment, said method comprising:

(a) storing an EPG advertisement queue, the EPG advertisement queue containing an ordered list of EPG advertisements;

(b) storing a plurality of programming advertisements to be inserted in a programming avail;

(c) linking each programming advertisement with at least one EPG advertisement to form a plurality of EPG-programming advertisement combinations;

(d) when the EPG is invoked immediately subsequent or concurrent to a displayed programming advertisement, displaying the EPG advertisement that is highest in the EPG advertisement queue and which is also contained in the EPG-programming advertisement combination corresponding to the displayed programming advertisement; and

(e) reordering the EPG advertisement queue by placing the displayed EPG advertisement at the bottom of the EPG advertisement queue.

25. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 24, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is assigned to at least one subscriber group, the at least one subscriber group comprising at least one subscriber.

26. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 25, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is formed prior to the assignment of the combination to the at least one subscriber group.

27. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 25, wherein the EPG-programming advertisement combination is formed subsequent to the assignment of the at least one EPG advertisement or at least one programming advertisement to the at least one subscriber group.

28. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 24, wherein viewer interaction with the at least one EPG advertisement allows a viewer to request additional information regarding the corresponding linked programming advertisement.

29. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 24, wherein viewer interaction with the at least one EPG advertisement causes the corresponding linked programming advertisement to be subsequently displayed.

30. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 24, wherein the at least one EPG advertisement is displayed in the EPG when the EPG is invoked during the presentation of one of the programming advertisements.