Advertisement insertion

• US 8,051,445 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Barrett, Peter T., Ludvig, Edward A., de Heer, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shepard; Justin E
• Application Number:
  US12/024,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 725/36
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23895 involving multiplex stream encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43853 involving multiplex stream decryption arrangements using cryptography for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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

Abstract

Advertisement insertion techniques are described. In an implementation, a network operator decrypts a stream of content received from a content provider at a first server. The decrypted stream of content is communicated to an advertisement splicer, which locates one or more advertisement insertion points in the decrypted stream of content. One or more advertisements are then inserted in the located one or more advertisement insertion points. The decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more advertisements to a second server, which encrypts the decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more advertisements. The encrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more advertisements is emitted to be communicated to one or more clients for output.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a network operator of an Internet Protocol (IP) network;

decrypting a stream of content received from a content provider by a first server, the stream of content being received as packetized content from a content provider that is compressed for the IP network based at least partially on compression schemes supported by one or more clients;

communicating the decrypted stream of content from the first server to an advertisement splicer;

locating one or more advertisement insertion points in the decrypted stream of content;

determining whether advertisements are scheduled for the located one or more advertisement insertion points;

in response to determining that one or more of the advertisements are scheduled for the located one or more advertisement insertion points, inserting the one or more scheduled advertisements in the located one or more advertisement insertion points to replace content from the content provider, and not inserting one or more of the advertisements that are not scheduled for the located one or more advertisement insertion points;

in response to inserting the one or more scheduled advertisements, implementing techniques that initiate a revenue server to collect revenue from one or more advertisers that provided the one or more scheduled advertisements that were inserted;

communicating the decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled advertisements to a second server;

encrypting the decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled advertisements; and

emitting the encrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled advertisements to be communicated to the one or more clients for output.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the first server is further configured to depacketize the stream of content received via the IP network.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the communicating of the decrypted stream of content to the advertisement splicer and the communicating of the decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled advertisements to the second server is performed via streaming in accordance with a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Transport Stream (TS) User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multicast.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the emitting of the encrypted stream of content includes packetizing the encrypted stream of content for communication using the IP network to the one or more clients.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the encrypting of the decrypted stream of content uses at least one encryption technique that is not used in conjunction with the communicating of the decrypted stream of content to the advertisement splicer or the communicating of the decrypted stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled advertisements to the second server.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the content received from the content provider at the first server includes at least one advertisement.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein:

the at least one advertisement is a national advertisement; and

the one or more scheduled advertisements inserted in the located one or more advertisements insertion points are local advertisements.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the advertisements are scheduled based on one or more criteria other than geography.

9. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising receiving the one or more scheduled advertisements by the advertisement splicer over the IP network.

10. A method comprising:

collecting revenue by a network operator of an Internet Protocol (IP) network from one or more advertisers to insert local advertisements into an encrypted stream of television content that is compressed for the IP network based at least partially on compression schemes supported by one or more clients;

determining whether the local advertisements are scheduled for one or more advertisement insertion points of the stream of television content; and

in response to determining that one or more of the local advertisements are scheduled for the one or more advertisement insertion points, inserting the one or more scheduled local advertisements into the encrypted stream of television content received as packetized content from a content provider by decrypting the encrypted stream of television content and using a third party advertisement splicer, which is not aware of techniques used to perform the decrypting, to insert the one or more scheduled local advertisements into respective one or more advertisement insertion points of the stream of television content to replace content from a content provider, and not inserting one or more of the local advertisements that are not scheduled for the located one or more advertisement insertion points.

11. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the encrypted stream of television content includes at least one advertisement that is embedded by the content provider that provided the encrypted stream of television content to the network operator.

12. A method as described in claim 10, wherein the third party advertisement splicer is incapable of performing encryption or decryption techniques.

13. A method as described in claim 10, further comprising emitting the stream of content having the inserted one or more scheduled local advertisements to be communicated to one or more clients for output over the IP network.

14. A network operator comprising:

a server to decrypt and depacketize a stream of television content received from a content provider as packetized content that is compressed for an Internet Protocol (IP) network based at least partially on compression schemes supported by one or more clients, and to determine whether advertisements are scheduled for one or more advertisement insertion points of the stream of television content;

an advertisement splicer to insert, in response to determining that one or more of the advertisements are scheduled for the one or more advertisement insertions points, the one or more scheduled advertisements into the one or more advertisement insertion points located in the decrypted stream of television content to replace content from the content provider, and not insert one or more of the advertisements that are not scheduled for the located one or more advertisement insertion points;

a revenue server to initiate, in response to the insertion of the one or more scheduled advertisements, collection of revenue from one or more advertisers that provided the one or more scheduled advertisements that were inserted; and

a server to encrypt and packetize the stream of television content having the inserted scheduled one or more advertisements for communication to the one or more clients via the IP network.

15. A network operator as described in claim 14, wherein:

the decryptor and the advertisement splicer communicate, one to another, via one or more transport streams; and

the advertisement splicer and the server communicate, one to another, via one or more transport streams.

16. A network operator as described in claim 14, wherein the advertisement splicer is produced by a third-party and does not incorporate one or more techniques used by the decryptor to decrypt the stream of television content.

17. A network operator as described in claim 14, wherein the advertisement splicer is to receive the one or more scheduled advertisements via a network connection from an advertiser.

18. A network operator as described in claim 14, further comprising a server to communicate a result of the insertion of the one or more scheduled advertisements into the one or more advertisement insertion points to the one or more clients.