System and method for delivering advertising content according to a selection received from subscriber equipment

• US 9,021,521 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2013
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Debois, Dean, Coppa, Frank, Huffman, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US14/016,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20140007160A1
• Time in Patent Office: 602 Days
• Field of Search: 725/4, 725/32, 725/36, 725/42, 725/60, 705/14.4, 705/14.49, 705/14.55, 705/14.67, 370/535
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/375 Commercial
• 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 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• 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 21/25891 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• 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 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• 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: H04W 4/06 : Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server comprising a memory to store executable instructions and a controller coupled to the memory. The controller, reponsive to executing the instructions, performs operations comprising presenting a graphical user interface enabling selectable advertisements or a selectable channel distribution service for delivery to a set top box, presenting filters for targeted delivery of advertisements to subscriber equipment based on information descriptive of the subscriber, selecting advertisements from an advertising server based on detected selections of advertisements or a detected channel distribution service preference, transmitting a globally unique identifier of the set top box to a billing server, initiating storage of the selectable advertisements at a remote advertisement delivery server, and presenting the selectable advertisements to the set top box. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A server comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a controller coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the controller performs operations comprising;

presenting a graphical user interface enabling selectable advertisements or a selectable channel distribution service for delivery to a set top box;

presenting filters for targeted delivery of advertisements to subscriber equipment based on information descriptive of the subscriber;

selecting advertisements from an advertising server, based on detected selections of advertisements or a detected channel distribution service preference;

transmitting a globally unique identifier of the set top box to a billing server;

initiating storage of the selectable advertisements at a remote advertisement delivery server; and

presenting the selectable advertisements to the set top box.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the information comprises demographic information, a geographic location, a purchased product, or a purchased service.

3. The server of claim 1, further comprising a unicast stream server, and wherein the selectable advertisements are presented to the set top box in a unicast transmission.

4. The server of claim 3, wherein a selectable advertisement presented in the unicast transmission is incorporated into a digital video stream before being presented to the set top box.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise storing the selectable advertisements at the advertisement delivery server using the globally unique identifier of the set top box.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise initiating storage of the selectable advertisements at the set top box.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise collecting electronic programming guide information or channel subscription information from an internet protocol television network.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the server, the set top box, the advertising server, the billing server, and the advertisement delivery server operate in an internet protocol television network.

9. A server comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a controller coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the controller performs operations comprising;

logging selections of advertisement preferences from an advertising server or channel service preferences from a channel service server, wherein the selections are received from subscriber equipment at an internet protocol television network;

storing billing information regarding the subscriber;

forwarding information regarding the selections to a subscriber management system of the internet protocol television network; and

receiving a globally unique identifier of a set top box.

10. The server of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise logging a channel selection of the subscriber equipment.

11. The server of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise logging an advertisement content selection of the subscriber equipment.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise forwarding a channel selection of the subscriber equipment and the advertising content selection to the subscriber management system.

13. The server of claim 9, wherein the selections by the subscriber equipment are made using a graphical user interface presented on a display device coupled to the subscriber equipment.

14. The server of claim 9, wherein the set top box comprises the subscriber equipment.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, at a server comprising a processor, a selection by subscriber equipment of advertising content from an advertising server or video channel content from a channel service server, wherein the selection is enabled using a graphical user interface presented via a set top box having a globally unique identifier;

storing, by the server, the selection on a delivery server using the globally unique identifier of the set top box; and

inserting, by the server, the selected advertising content into a video stream for presentation by the subscriber equipment, the video stream comprising broadcasted content, wherein the selected advertising content is incorporated into the video stream in response to a signal in the broadcasted content that an advertisement is to be inserted.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the signal comprises a queue tone.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising inserting, by the server, advertising content in accordance with a default advertising insertion policy when no selection by the subscriber equipment of advertising content is received.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising forwarding, by the server, information comprising the selection to a subscriber management system of an internet protocol television network.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the selected advertising content and the video channel content are stored on separate servers.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the selected advertising content is delivered to the set top box via a unicast transmission.