Method, apparatus and computer-readable medium for promoting television programs

• US 8,069,459 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BCE Incorporated
• Original Assignee: BCE Incorporated
• Inventors: Ratsch, Peter Werner, Heilbron, Maarten Boudewijn, Snow, Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Beliveau; Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huerta; Alexander Q
• Application Number:
  US12/038,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20090172725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725 34- 36
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 21/26241 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 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A method, which comprises: receiving from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream; accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times; consulting said schedule to identify at least one particular television program among those of said television programs scheduled to air on content streams provided by providers different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start times fall within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and causing conveyance of an advertisement for the at least one particular television program during the promotional time slot.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream;

accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times;

consulting said schedule to identify at least one eligible television program, an eligible television program being a television program that is scheduled to air on a content stream provided by a provider different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start time falls within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and

causing conveyance of an advertisement for a target television program during the promotional time slot;

wherein when two or more eligible television programs are scheduled to air on content streams provided by at least two providers different from the provider of the first content stream, the method further comprises selecting the target television program from among the two or more eligible television programs by determining a potential revenue associated with each of the two or more television programs, the target television program being a television program associated with the greatest potential revenue.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the time window of acceptable viewability ends at a predefined time after the promotional time slot.

3. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the time window of acceptable viewability begins at a predefined time before the promotional time slot.

4. The method defined in claim 1, executed by an entity managed or operated by a television service provider different from the provider of the first content stream, wherein said consulting is restricted to those of said television programs scheduled to air on content streams that are provided by the television service provider.

5. The method defined in claim 4, wherein the content stream carrying the target television program is a pay channel provided by the television service provider.

6. The method defined in claim 5, wherein the target television program is a movie and wherein the advertisement includes a promotional trailer for said movie.

7. The method defined in claim 1, wherein said consulting is restricted to television programs scheduled to air on content streams that are provided by the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program.

8. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the provider of the first content stream is remunerated by the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program, based on conveyance of the advertisement.

9. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the provider of the first content stream and the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program have a pre-defined arrangement for remuneration of the provider of the first content stream by the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program, based on a number or frequency of advertisements conveyed during promotional time slots rendered available by the provider of the first content stream.

10. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during airing of a first television program falling into a particular programming category.

11. The method defined in claim 10, wherein said consulting is restricted to television programs falling into the particular programming category.

12. The method defined in claim 11, wherein the particular programming category is a service-provider-defined programming category.

13. The method defined in claim 11, wherein the particular programming category is a viewer-defined programming category.

14. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising obtaining said advertisement by consulting a database of advertisements on a basis of the target television program.

15. The method defined in claim 1, wherein said consulting results in identification of a plurality of eligible television programs to be promoted during the promotional time slot, the method further comprising obtaining said advertisement by consulting a database of advertisements on a basis of the plurality of eligible television programs.

16. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during airing of a first television program and wherein the advertisement contains video, the method further comprising mixing the video from the advertisement with video from the first television program.

17. The method defined in claim 16, wherein mixing comprises implementing a screen split between the first television program and the advertisement.

18. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during airing of a first television program and wherein the advertisement contains text, the method further comprising overlaying the text from the advertisement onto images from the first television program.

19. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during airing of a first television program and wherein the advertisement contains audio, the method further comprising mixing the audio from the advertisement with audio from the first television program.

20. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during a commercial break, the method further comprising playback of the advertisement in full screen mode during the promotional time slot.

21. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising generating an indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

22. The method defined in claim 21, further comprising inserting into the advertisement the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

23. The method defined in claim 22, wherein the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program is in the form of a perceptible media snippet.

24. The method defined in claim 21, further comprising transmitting the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program to customer equipment in the form of a marker sent with the first content stream.

25. The method defined in claim 24, wherein the marker is transmitted to the customer equipment during the promotional time slot.

26. The method defined in claim 24, wherein the marker is transmitted to the customer equipment in advance of the promotional time slot.

27. The method defined in claim 24, further comprising obtaining an indication that a viewer has issued a command to effect a channel change consequent to transmission of the marker.

28. The method defined in claim 27, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of charging the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program.

29. The method defined in claim 27, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of evaluating an advertisement success rate.

30. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising generating an invitation to a viewer to effect a semi-automatic channel change and inserting said invitation into the advertisement.

31. The method defined in claim 30, wherein said invitation includes an audio, visual and/or text indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

32. The method defined in claim 30, wherein the promotional time slot occurs during airing of a first television program falling into a particular programming category and wherein said invitation includes an audio, visual and/or text indication of the particular programming category.

33. The method defined in claim 30, further comprising obtaining an indication that a viewer has issued a command to effect the semi-automatic channel change.

34. The method defined in claim 33, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of charging the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program.

35. The method defined in claim 33, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of evaluating an advertisement success rate.

36. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising obtaining an indication that a viewer has issued a command to effect a channel change while viewing said advertisement.

37. The method defined in claim 36, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of charging the provider of the content stream carrying the target television program.

38. The method defined in claim 36, further comprising recording said indication for purposes of evaluating an advertisement success rate.

39. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving from the provider of the first content stream a sequence of indications of respective promotional time slots to be rendered available on the first content stream.

40. The method defined in claim 39, wherein said indications are received at time instants that are non-deterministic.

41. The method defined in claim 40, wherein said promotional time slots follow their respective indications by unequal amounts of time.

42. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable program code which, when interpreted by a controller, causes the controller to execute a method that comprises:

being attentive to receipt from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream;

accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times;

consulting said schedule to identify at least one eligible television program, an eligible television program being a television program that is scheduled to air on a content stream provided by a provider different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start time falls within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and

causing conveyance of an advertisement for a target television program during the promotional time slot;

wherein when two or more eligible television programs are scheduled to air on content streams provided by at least two providers different from the provider of the first content stream, the method further comprises selecting the target television program from among the two or more eligible television programs by determining a potential revenue associated with each of the two or more television programs, the target television program being a television program associated with the greatest potential revenue.

43. An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream;

means for accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times;

means for consulting said schedule to identify at least one eligible television program, an eligible television program being a television program that is scheduled to air on a content stream provided by a provider different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start time falls within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and

means for causing conveyance of an advertisement for a target television program during the promotional time slot; and

selection means, wherein when two or more eligible television programs are scheduled to air on content streams provided by at least two providers different from the provider of the first content stream, the selection means selects the target television program from among the two or more eligible television programs by determining a potential revenue associated with each of the two or more television programs, the target television program being a television program associated with the greatest potential revenue.

44. A method, comprising:

receiving from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream;

accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times;

consulting said schedule to identify at least one eligible television program, an eligible television program being a television program that is scheduled to air on a content stream provided by a provider different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start time falls within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and

causing conveyance of an advertisement for a target television program during the promotional time slot;

wherein when two or more eligible television programs are scheduled to air on content streams provided by at least two providers different from the provider of the first content stream, the method further comprises selecting the target television program from among the two or more eligible television programs by conducting an auction among the at least two providers, the target television program being a television program scheduled to air on a content stream provided by the winner of the auction.

45. The method defined in claim 44, wherein the time window of acceptable viewability ends at a predefined time after the promotional time slot.

46. The method defined in claim 44, wherein the time window of acceptable viewability begins at a predefined time before the promotional time slot.

47. The method defined in claim 44, further comprising generating an indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

48. The method defined in claim 47, further comprising inserting into the advertisement the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

49. The method defined in claim 48, wherein the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program is in the form of a perceptible media snippet.

50. The method defined in claim 47, further comprising transmitting the indication of the content stream carrying the target television program to customer equipment in the form of a marker sent with the first content stream.

51. The method defined in claim 50, wherein the marker is transmitted to the customer equipment during the promotional time slot.

52. The method defined in claim 50, wherein the marker is transmitted to the customer equipment in advance of the promotional time slot.

53. The method defined in claim 44, further comprising generating an invitation to a viewer to effect a semi-automatic channel change and inserting said invitation into the advertisement.

54. The method defined in claim 53, wherein said invitation includes an audio, visual and/or text indication of the content stream carrying the target television program.

55. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable program code which, when interpreted by a controller, causes the controller to execute a method that comprises:

being attentive to receipt from a provider of a first content stream an indication of a promotional time slot to be rendered available on the first content stream;

accessing a program schedule indicative of television programs scheduled to begin airing on respective content streams at respective start times;

consulting said schedule to identify at least one eligible television program, an eligible television program being a television program that is scheduled to air on a content stream provided by a provider different from the provider of the first content stream and whose start time falls within a time window of acceptable viewability relative to the promotional time slot; and

causing conveyance of an advertisement for a target television program during the promotional time slot;

wherein when two or more eligible television programs are scheduled to air on content streams provided by at least two providers different from the provider of the first content stream, the method further comprises selecting the target television program from among the two or more eligible television programs by conducting an auction among the at least two providers, the target television program being a television program scheduled to air on a content stream provided by the winner of the auction.