Grouping advertisement subavails

• US 8,087,045 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Flickinger, Gregory C., Blasko, John P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Kieu Oanh T
• Application Number:
  US12/024,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20080127252A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,425 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725 34- 36, 725/42, 725/46
• 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 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• 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 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Method and system for creating one or more advertising avail sections (subavails) and thereupon aggregating the subavails to form one or more groups of subavails. The advertisement opportunities (avails) may be divided into sections (subavails) with each section being directed at a particular target audience (group). The subavails are then aggregated into one or more groups of subavails so that the groups of subavails can be sold to the advertisers. The grouping of subavails is generally based on a correlation wherein the subavails are characterized based on one or more characteristics. The groups of subavails are formed based on one or more shared characteristics. The advertiser has an option to buy a group of subavails (rather than an avail in prior art), whereby the advertiser may reach a targeted group of an audience.

Claims

1. A method of fulfilling a request for presenting an advertisement by grouping subavails from multiple avails, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a first request to present a first advertisement, wherein the request includes subscriber characterization information and an expected viewership for the first advertisement;

(b) selecting at least one subavail from at least two of the avails, each selected subavail having an expected viewership satisfying the received subscriber characterization information;

(c) grouping the selected subavails, wherein the selected subavails grouped together meet or exceed the expected viewership for the first advertisement; and

(d) transmitting a response notifying fulfillment of the first request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) includes determining pricing for fulfillment of the request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) includes optimizing profit associated with fulfilling the request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein optimizing the profit associated with fulfilling the request further comprises:

(i) receiving a second request for presenting a second advertisement;

(ii) comparing the profit received from fulfilling the first request with the profit of the second request; and

(iii) fulfilling the request that provides the greater profit.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the subavails are selected from advertising opportunities across different channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the subavails are selected from advertising opportunities from the same channel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber information includes subscriber demographics.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the demographics include at least one of age, gender, household income, ethnicity, marital status and household size.

9. In a television network environment, the television network environment being a cable-based system, a satellite-based system or a switched digital video system, an advertisement management system for managing avails, the system comprising:

a request management module for receiving and analyzing requests for presentation of advertisements and communicating request fulfillment;

an avail recognition module for recognizing advertising opportunities;

a subavail generation module for creating a plurality of subavails based on the recognized avails;

a subavail selection module for selecting at least one subavail from at least two avails based on data from the requests provided by the request management module, the data including subscriber characterization information and expected viewership of at least one advertisement, wherein each selected subavail has an expected viewership satisfying the received subscriber characterization information; and

a request fulfillment module for grouping selected subavails, wherein the selected subavails grouped together meet or exceed the expected viewership for the at least one advertisement.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a pricing module for determining a price for fulfilling the received requests.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the subscriber characterization information includes subscriber demographics.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the demographics include at least one of age, gender, household income, ethnicity, marital status and household size.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the subavails are grouped by combining a plurality of subavails across different channels.