Registering media for configurable advertising

• US 8,370,198 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2009
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Ashish, Masterson, Mark, Tschumper, Brian, Vaidyanathan, Shankar, Vaddadi, Phani Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAO, VINCENT M
• Application Number:
  US12/404,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,424 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration

Abstract

A method for registering a media for configurable advertising is described herein. Advertising policies from a publisher of the media may be received at a video advertising platform. A request from the publisher to register the media for advertising may be received at a video advertising platform. The request may have media metadata. A media manifest may be generated at the video advertising platform. The media manifest may be based on the media metadata and the advertising policies. The media manifest may be configured to be received by a media player. The media player may play the media with one or more advertisements as specified by the media manifest.

Claims

1. A method for registering a media for advertising, comprising:

receiving, at a video advertising platform having a processing unit, one or more predefined advertising policies from a media publisher, the one or more predefined advertising policies received at the video advertising platform being separate from a media and comprising rules for presenting advertisements to a user during media playback;

receiving, at the video advertising platform, a request from the media publisher to register the media published by the media publisher for advertising, the request having media metadata pertaining to the media;

selecting, at the video advertising platform, at least one of the received advertising policies based on the media metadata pertaining to the media; and

generating, at the video advertising platform using the processing unit, a media manifest for the media using the selected at least one advertising policy, the media manifest indicating an advertising schedule for one or more advertisements during a playback of the media.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an interface to the publisher to enable the publisher to update the advertising policies and the media metadata.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the interface is a web service application programming interface.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving an update request from the publisher via the interface, wherein the update request comprises new advertising policies;

generating updated advertising policies based on the new advertising policies; and

re-generating the media manifest based on the media metadata and the updated advertising policies.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the media metadata comprise at least one of:

a title of the media, a participant in the media, a producer of the media, a time length of the media, a release date of the media, and an age-based rating of the media.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising policies comprise one or more of:

an advertisement duration, an advertisement-program ratio, an advertisement type, a maximum number of one or more advertisement positions, a maximum number of advertisement for each of the advertisement positions, a pre-roll enablement, a post-roll enablement, a click-to-continue option, and an advertisement skip threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertisement duration specifies a length of the one or more advertisements;

the advertisement-program ratio specifies a ratio between a length of the media and the advertisement duration;

the advertisement type specifies whether the one or more advertisements are a linear ad type, a non-linear ad type, a pre-roll ad type, or a post-roll ad type;

the maximum number of the advertisement positions specifies a limit on a number of times, during a playback of the media, that the one or more advertisements are shown;

the pre-roll enablement specifies whether the one or more advertisements are shown before the playback;

the post-roll enablement specifies whether the one or more advertisements are shown after the playback;

the click-to-continue option specifies whether a user is allowed to continue the playback without completion of the one or more advertisements; and

the ad skip threshold specifies either a number of times that the user is allowed to skip the one or more advertisements during the playback, or a duration of the one or more advertisements that is shown before the user uses the click-to-continue option.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the linear advertisement type indicates that the one or more advertisements are shown while the playback is paused, and the playback is resumed when the one or more advertisements ends.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the non-linear advertisement type indicates that the one or more advertisements are shown during the playback.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertisement positions specify one or more times during a playback when the one or more advertisements are shown.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the media manifest specifies at least one of the advertisement positions.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the media manifest specifies at least one uniform resource locator from which the one or more advertisements are obtained.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the media manifest specifies the advertisement type of the one or more advertisements.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the media manifest specifies whether the click-to-continue option is available for a user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more predefined advertising policies comprises storing the one or more predefined advertising policies, and generating the media manifest comprises accessing the stored at least one advertising policy that is selected based on the media metadata.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions executable by a computer processor to:

receive, at a video advertising platform, a plurality of different advertising policies from a media publisher, the plurality of different advertising policies received at the video advertising platform each comprising rules for presenting advertisements to a user during media playback;

receive, at the video advertising platform, a request from the media publisher to register a media published by the media publisher for advertising, the request having media metadata including information about the media that is received from the media publisher separate from and subsequent to the plurality of different advertising policies being received at the video advertising platform;

select, at the video advertising platform, at least one of the received advertising policies based on the media metadata; and

generate, at the video advertising platform, a media manifest using the selected at least one advertising policy, wherein the media manifest specifies how and when the one or more advertisements are shown during a playback of the media.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the media manifest specifies how and when the one or more advertisements are shown by:

specifying at least one uniform resource locator from which the one or more advertisements are obtained;

specifying a position within the media when the one or more advertisements are shown; and

specifying a time during the playback when the one or more advertisements are shown.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, and further comprising program instructions executable by a computer processor to:

store the plurality of advertising policies received at the video advertising platform; and

generate the media manifest by accessing the stored at least one advertising policy that is selected based on the media metadata.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions executable by the processor to;

receive, at a video advertising platform, a plurality of different advertising policies from a publisher of a media, each comprising rules for presenting advertisements to a user during media playback;

receive, at the video advertising platform, a request from the publisher to register the media for advertising, the request having media metadata including information describing the media;

generate, at the video advertising platform, a media manifest based on one or more advertising policies selected from the plurality of advertising policies based on the media metadata, wherein the media manifest indicates an advertising schedule for one or more advertisements during a playback of the media;

provide a web service application programming interface (API) to the publisher that enables the publisher to update the advertising policies and the media metadata;

receive an update request having a new advertising policy from the publisher via the web service API;

generate updated advertising policies based on the new advertising policy; and

re-generate, at the video advertising platform, the media manifest based on the media metadata and the updated advertising policies.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the media manifest specifies how and when one or more advertisements are shown during a playback of the media.