Queue-based head-end advertisement scheduling method and apparatus

• US 9,232,252 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheleheda, James R
• Application Number:
  US11/412,750
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,540 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/35, 725/36
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• 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 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• 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 21/2668 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 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/85406 involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for scheduling and inserting advertisements into a plurality of presentation channels in a communications network in which the presentation channels contain the same programming, but different advertisements. A single programming channel is split into a plurality of presentation channels. Different advertisements are inserted into the different presentation channels. The advertisements to be inserted into advertising avails are they are detected are determined by utilizing queues stored in memory corresponding to each presentation channel. Each queue comprises an ordered list of advertisement resource locators (ARLs), in which the order dictates which advertisement is to be inserted in the next advertising avail and in which the ARLs indicate at least the location from which the advertisement can be retrieved.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting television programming and advertisements from a head end to subscribers at a plurality of subscriber nodes, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of subscriber groups, members of the subscriber groups being based on at least one characteristic of the subscribers, the at least one characteristic being relevant to advertising;

assigning each subscriber node to one of the plurality of subscriber groups, wherein the assigning includes creating an advertising group map disclosing an advertising group to which each subscriber belongs and transmitting the advertising group map to said subscriber nodes;

receiving at the head end at least one programming channel of television programming, the at least one programming channel including programming content and a plurality of advertising avails representing temporal breaks in the programming content, each advertising avail having a beginning point and an ending point;

receiving at the head end a request from at least one of the subscriber nodes for programming content;

forming a plurality of presentation channels, each presentation channel corresponding to one of the subscriber groups, by replicating the at least one programming channel, each presentation channel including the programming content of the at least one programming channel and advertisements having an advertising play time that corresponds to a particular avail, wherein the advertisements replace previously scheduled advertisements within the particular avail having a scheduled play time equal to the advertising play time; and

transmitting each of the presentation channels to the at least one subscriber node in said subscriber group corresponding to said presentation channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from at least one of the subscriber nodes includes information identifying the at least one subscriber node as a member of the assigned subscriber group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from at least one of the subscriber nodes received includes a request to transmit the programming content corresponding to the at least one programming channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each subscriber group comprises a set of subscribers that is mutually exclusive of each other subscriber group.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisements included in one of the plurality of presentation channels is selected from a queue of advertisements corresponding to the assigned subscriber group of the subscriber node that requested the programming content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one subscriber node includes a set top box through which the request for the programming content is made.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic includes probabilistic demographic information of the subscribers.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic is based in part on the address of the subscribers.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic is based in part on socio-economic characteristics of the subscribers.

10. A method of receiving at a subscriber node at least one channel of television programming and advertisements from a head end of a television service delivery system, the method comprising:

assigning a subscriber node that corresponds to a particular subscriber to at least one of a plurality of advertising groups, when the particular subscriber signs up for service based on a subscriber completed questionnaire having at least one of the age, gender, ethnicity and income of the members of the household corresponding to the particular subscriber, wherein the assigning includes creating an advertising group map disclosing an advertising group to which each subscriber belongs and transmitting the advertising group map to said subscriber nodes;

forming a plurality of presentation channels via the television service delivery system by replicating a programming channel having television programming content and a plurality of advertising avails representing temporal breaks in the television programming, each advertising avail having a beginning point and an ending point wherein each of the presentation channels contains the television programming content and advertisements corresponding to a different one of the advertising groups placed within the plurality of advertising avails, the advertisements having an advertising play time that corresponds to a particular avail, wherein the advertisements replace previously scheduled advertisements within the particular avail having a scheduled play time equal to the advertising play time;

and

based on the assigning, enabling the subscriber node to select, receive and cause to be displayed on a monitoring device one of the presentation channels that corresponds to the transmitted advertising group map.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the advertising group map is received via the television service delivery system.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the advertising group map is received in a dedicated channel of the television service delivery system.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a presentation channel map disclosing for each presentation channel how the subscriber node can select that presentation channel for reception and display on the monitoring device; and

creating an individual channel map for the subscriber node indicating which presentation channel to select when enabling the subscriber node to select.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the advertising group map indicates a frequency of the one of the presentation channels and enabling the subscriber node, includes tuning to a particular frequency corresponding to the one of the presentation channels.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the television service delivery system includes a plurality of programming channels, each programming channel being replicated to form a plurality of corresponding presentation channels for selection, reception and display by the subscriber node.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the advertisements included in one of the plurality of presentation channels is selected from a queue of advertisements corresponding to the assigned subscriber group of the subscriber node that requested the programming content.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the subscriber node is assigned to the at least one advertising group based on probabilistic demographic information associated with the subscriber node.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the subscriber node is assigned to the at least one advertising group based in part on the address associated with the subscriber node.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the subscriber node is assigned to the at least one advertising group based in part on socio-economic characteristics associated with the subscriber node.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein each subscriber group comprises a set of subscribers that is mutually exclusive of each other subscriber group.