Dynamic advertisement insertion device

• US 9,299,089 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2013
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Lechner, Marcelo D., Flood, Erin, Kaplovitz, Yehuda, Elias, Daniel S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOYD, ALEXANDER L
• Application Number:
  US14/105,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20150172737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 837 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

A device is configured to receive scheduling information associated with a program. The device is configured to determine a time break, corresponding to an advertisement, associated with the program. The device is configured to receive guide information associated with the program. The device is configured to identify the program based on the guide information and the scheduling information, and generate an advertisement map based on identifying the program and based on the time break. The advertisement map may include information that identifies the time break and the program. The device is configured to provide the advertisement map to a dynamic advertisement insertion system to permit the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement during a subsequent playing of the program.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors to;

receive scheduling information associated with a program;

identify an advertisement that is included in the program and for which viewership does not need to be assessed during a rating period;

determine a time break, corresponding to the advertisement, associated with the program based on the scheduling information;

receive guide information associated with the program;

identify the program based on the scheduling information and the guide information;

receive a notification of a cue tone that indicates a time that a local service provider played the advertisement during the time break;

generate an advertisement map based on identifying the program, the time break, and the notification of the cue tone,

the advertisement map including information that identifies the time break and the program; and

provide the advertisement map to a dynamic advertisement insertion system to permit the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement during a subsequent playing of the program.

2. The device of claim 1,

where the advertisement map is a first advertisement map, and

where the one or more processors, when providing the advertisement map to the dynamic advertisement insertion system, are to:

modify a second advertisement map associated with the dynamic advertisement insertion system so that the second advertisement map identifies the time break and the program.

3. The device of claim 1,

where the program further includes a plurality of advertisements for which viewership is to be determined by an audience measurement system, and

where the one or more processors, when identifying the advertisement, are to:

determine that the advertisement is not one of the plurality of advertisements, and

determine that the advertisement does not need to be assessed for viewership during the rating period based on determining that the advertisement is not one of the plurality of advertisements.

4. The device of claim 3,

where the plurality of advertisements are regional advertisements that are broadcast to a particular region, and

where the advertisement is a local advertisement that is broadcast to a particular locality that is located within the particular region.

5. The device of claim 1,

where the one or more processors, when determining the time break, are to:

determine a time period associated with the time break, and

where the one or more processors, when providing the advertisement map to the dynamic advertisement insertion system, are to;

provide the advertisement map to the dynamic advertisement insertion system to cause the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement with a new advertisement associated with the time period.

6. The device of claim 1,

where the program is a first program,

where the one or more processors, when receiving the scheduling information, are to:

determine a first channel associated with the first program, and

determine a first time associated with the time break;

where the one or more processors, when receiving the guide information, are to;

identify a program identifier associated with a second program,

the second program being associated with a second channel and a time range, and

where the one or more processors, when identifying the first program, are to;

associate the program identifier with the first program based on determining that the first channel matches the second channel and that the first time is within the time range.

7. The device of claim 1,

where the advertisement is a first advertisement,

where the time break is a first time break,

where the one or more processors are further to:

determine a second time break associated with a second advertisement that is included in the program,

where the one or more processors, when generating the advertisement map, are to;

generate the advertisement map based on identifying the program, the first time break, the notification of the cue tone, and the second time break, and

where the advertisement map indicates that the dynamic advertisement insertion system should not replace the second advertisement during the subsequent playing of the program.

8. A computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive scheduling information associated with a program;

determine that an advertisement, included in the program, does not need to be assessed during a rating period;

determine a time break, corresponding to the advertisement, associated with the program based on the scheduling information and based on determining that the advertisement does not need to be assessed during the rating period;

receive guide information associated with the program;

receive a notification of a cue tone that indicates a time, during the time break, when the advertisement was previously broadcast;

determine an advertisement map based on the scheduling information, the guide information, and the notification of the cue tone,

the advertisement map including information that identifies the time break and the program; and

provide the advertisement map to a dynamic advertisement insertion system to permit the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement with a new advertisement during a subsequent playing of the program.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the guide information includes a broadcast schedule for a set of programs that include the program.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to provide the advertisement map, cause the one or more processors to:

determine the rating period associated with determining a viewership associated with a plurality of advertisements included in the program; and

provide the advertisement map based on determining that the rating period corresponds to a current time period.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to provide the advertisement map, cause the one or more instructions to:

provide the advertisement map to the dynamic advertisement insertion system to cause the dynamic advertisement insertion system to play the program and the new advertisement via a video on demand (VOD) system.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to determine the time break, cause the one or more processors to:

determine a starting time associated with the time break as measured from a start of the program; and

determine an ending time associated with the time break as measured from the start of the program.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 8,

where the one or more instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine a program identifier associated with the program, and

where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to determine the advertisement map, cause the one or more processors to;

determine the advertisement map based on the program identifier and based on the time break.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the scheduling information comprises a Cable Computerized Management Systems (“

CCMS”

) schedule.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a device, scheduling information associated with a video program,

the video program including an advertisement;

determining, by the device, that the advertisement does not need to be assessed for viewership during a rating period;

determining, by the device, a time break, corresponding to the advertisement, associated with the video program based on the scheduling information and based on determining that the advertisement does not need to be assessed for viewership during the rating period;

identify a cue tone that indicates a time, during the time break, when the advertisement was previously displayed; and

modifying, by the device, an advertisement map, associated with a dynamic advertisement insertion system, based on the cue tone,

the advertisement map including information that identifies the time break and the video program, and

modifying the advertisement map permitting the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement with a new advertisement during a subsequent playing of the video program.

16. The method of claim 15, where modifying the advertisement map comprises:

identifying the new advertisement; and

modifying the advertisement map to permit the dynamic advertisement insertion system to replace the advertisement with the new advertisement.

17. The method of claim 16, where identifying the new advertisement comprises:

identifying the new advertisement based on a geographic location of a user device associated with the subsequent playing of the video program.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

identifying a program identifier associated with the video program,

where modifying the advertisement map comprises;

modifying the advertisement map to permit the dynamic advertisement insertion system to play the video program based on identifying the video program with the program identifier.

19. The method of claim 15,

where the advertisement map is a first advertisement map, and

where modifying the advertisement map comprises:

replacing the first advertisement map with a second advertisement map,

the second advertisement map including information that identifies the time break and the video program.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, by the device, guide information associated with the video program,

where the guide information comprises a broadcast schedule associated with a plurality of video programs that include the video program, and

where modifying the advertisement map is further based on the guide information.