Movie advertising playback techniques

• US 8,141,111 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2007
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crowdstrike, Inc. (CrowdStrike Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Open TEXT SA (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Hoffert, Eric, Nassar, Rabih, Pomerance, Brenda, Gilley, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US11/713,116
• Publication Number:
  US 20080187279A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,848 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/37, 725/42, 725/88, 725/102, 725/135, 386/6, 386/22, 386/23, 386/32, 386/37, 386/68, 386/79, 386/83, 386/125, 386/126, 715720-724, 715/719, 715/972
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/005 Reproducing at a different information rate from the information rate of recording for television signals H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/10 Arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or the distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• 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 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• 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 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• 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 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/7605 : on discs or drums H04N5/781, H04N5/805, H04N5/83, H04N5/85 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• 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 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 : the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer of the movie wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, then only the portion of the movie preceding the static ad can be skipped, that is, the ad is unskippable; this technique is referred to as “bounceback” since the end of the skip bounces back to the start of the static ad. If the ad is dynamic, then the ad is moved to after the end of the skip; this technique is referred to as “slip-ad” since the ad slips to later in the movie. When a movie has multiple ads, some can be static and some can be dynamic.

Claims

1. A method for ensuring that an ad in a movie is viewed by a viewer, comprising:

receiving at a server computer communicatively coupled to a device associated with the viewer, when the viewer is at a selected point in playback of the movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ad,

moving the ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resuming playback after the omitted portion and prior to the position of the moved ad.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ad in the movie is a proxy ad that causes delivery of a stored ad for insertion into the movie during playback.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the stored ad is selected in accordance with a characteristic of the viewer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the characteristic of the viewer is chosen from the viewer'"'"'s location, demographic information of the viewer, activity of the viewer and display device capability.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the stored ad is selected in accordance with a characteristic of the movie.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the characteristic of the movie is selected from a keyword, and resolution of an ad image that can be accommodated in the movie.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the movie has an ineligible zone that is ineligible to receive a moved ad, and the step of moving ensures that the moved ad is outside of the ineligible zone.

8. A method for ensuring that at least two ads in a movie are viewed by a viewer, comprising:

receiving at a server computer communicatively coupled to a device associated with the viewer, when the viewer is at a selected point in playback of the movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ads,

determining that one of the ads is a static ad that cannot be moved, and that one of the ads is a proxy ad that can be moved,

determining the location of the start of the static ad in the movie,

omitting playback of the portion of the movie between the selected point and the start of the static ad,

moving the proxy ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resuming playback of the movie beginning at the start of the static ad and prior to the position of the moved proxy ad.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the static ad has a pre-ad zone, and wherein the omitting omits playback of the portion of the movie between the selected point and the start of the pre-ad zone, and the resuming resumes playback of the movie beginning at the start of the pre-ad zone.

10. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

receiving at a server computer communicatively coupled to a device associated with the viewer, when the viewer is at a selected point in playback of the movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ad,

moving the ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resuming playback after the omitted portion and prior to the position of the moved ad.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the ad in the movie is a proxy ad that causes delivery of a stored ad for insertion into the movie during playback.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the stored ad is selected in accordance with a characteristic of the viewer.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the characteristic of the viewer is chosen from the viewer'"'"'s location, demographic information of the viewer, activity of the viewer and display device capability.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the stored ad is selected in accordance with a characteristic of the movie.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the characteristic of the movie is selected from a keyword, and resolution of an ad image that can be accommodated in the movie.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the movie has an ineligible zone that is ineligible to receive a moved ad, and the step of moving ensures that the moved ad is outside of the ineligible zone.

17. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by at least one processor to perform:

receiving at a server computer communicatively coupled to a device associated with the viewer, when the viewer is at a selected point in playback of the movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ads,

determining that one of the ads is a static ad that cannot be moved, and that one of the ads is a proxy ad that can be moved,

determining the location of the start of the static ad in the movie,

omitting playback of the portion of the movie between the selected point and the start of the static ad,

moving the proxy ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resuming playback of the movie beginning at the start of the static ad and prior to the position of the moved proxy ad.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the static ad has a pre-ad zone, and wherein the omitting omits playback of the portion of the movie between the selected point and the start of the pre-ad zone, and the resuming resumes playback of the movie beginning at the start of the pre-ad zone.

19. A system comprising:

a server computer configured to;

receive, when a viewer is at a selected point in playback of a movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ad,

move the ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resume playback after the omitted portion and prior to the position of the moved ad.

20. A system comprising:

a server computer configured to;

receive, when a viewer is at a selected point in playback of a movie, a skip command from the viewer to omit playback of a portion of the movie that includes the ads,

determine that one of the ads is a static ad that cannot be moved, and that one of the ads is a proxy ad that can be moved,

determine the location of the start of the static ad in the movie,

omit playback of the portion of the movie between the selected point and the start of the static ad,

move the proxy ad from the omitted portion of the movie to a portion subsequent to the omitted portion, and

resume layback of the movie beginning at the start of the static ad and prior to the position of the moved proxy ad.