System and method for managing advertising in program streams

• US 9,918,117 B1
• Filed: 10/04/2016
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Flickinger, Gregory C., Blasko, John P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Kieu Oanh T
• Application Number:
  US15/285,196
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• 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 21/2543 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 21/25883 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 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/6582 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: 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Method and system for managing advertising in program streams. Advertisement opportunities (avails) in a program stream may be divided into sections (subavails) with the goal of directing advertising at a particular target audience (group). A program stream is split into one or more sub-streams to produce additional advertising avail sections (subavails) able to be targeted to a subgroup of subscribers. Subavails may also refer to various advertisement opportunities in different presentation streams (sub-streams). Each sub-stream may be targeted at a subgroup of subscribers with demographic and product preference characteristics. By correlating the subscriber characteristics with advertisement parameters supplied by an advertiser, the system/method determines which advertisement is best to display in the one or more subavails. Accordingly, such a subavail, or group of subavails may be sold to an advertiser, e.g., via an auction.

Claims

1. A method for managing advertisement opportunities in a network environment, the method comprising:

retrieving advertisement parameters supplied by an advertiser;

creating at least one program substream by dividing a program stream;

identifying avails that are positioned within the program stream and dividing the avails into one or more subavails in the at least one program substream;

retrieving subscriber characteristics related to viewers of the at least one program substream; and

correlating the subscriber characteristics with the advertisement parameters to determine which advertisement is the optimum advertisement to schedule to display in the one or more subavails.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selling the one or more subavails to one or more prospective advertisers.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving one or more bids for one or more subavails; and

selling the one or more subavails to the highest bidder.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

grouping one or more subavails by the advertisement parameters; and

correlating the groups of subavails to the subscriber characteristics.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining pricing for the groups of subavails based on the correlation.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selling the groups of subavails based on the determined pricing.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting the correlation results to one or more prospective advertisers;

receiving one or more bids for each group of subavails; and

selling the group of subavails to the highest bidder.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the subavails are grouped by combining the plurality of subavails across different program substreams.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the subavails are grouped by combining a plurality of time-sequenced subavails.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the subavails are gathered from the same programming stream.

11. A method for managing advertisement opportunities in a network environment, the method comprising:

retrieving, at the head end, advertisement parameters supplied by an advertiser and stored;

creating, at the head end, at least one program substream by dividing a program stream;

identifying, at the head end, avails that are positioned within the program stream and dividing the avails into one or more subavails in the at least one program substream;

retrieving subscriber characteristics related to viewers of the at least one program substream stored at the head end; and

correlating, at the head end, the subscriber characteristics with the advertisement parameters to determine which advertisement is the optimum advertisement to schedule to display in the one or more subavails.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

selling the one or more subavails to one or more prospective advertisers.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving one or more bids for one or more subavails; and

selling the one or more subavails to the highest bidder.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

grouping one or more subavails by the advertisement parameters; and

correlating the groups of subavails to the subscriber characteristics.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining pricing for the groups of subavails based on the correlation.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

selling the groups of subavails based on the determined pricing.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

transmitting the correlation results to one or more prospective advertisers;

receiving one or more bids for each group of subavails; and

selling the group of subavails to the highest bidder.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the subavails are grouped by combining the plurality of subavails across different program substreams.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the subavails are grouped by combining a plurality of time-sequenced subavails.

20. In a digital content delivery network environment, an advertisement management system for managing avails, the system comprising:

a computer server for storing and communicating advertisement parameters supplied by an advertiser;

avail opportunities module for creating at least one program substream by dividing a program stream, identifying avails that are positioned within the program stream, and dividing the avails into one or more subavails in the at least one program substream;

an avail recognition module for recognizing advertising opportunities; and

a subavail selection module for retrieving subscriber characteristics related to viewers of the at least one program substream and correlating the subscriber characteristics with the advertisement parameters to determine which advertisement is the optimum advertisement to schedule to display in the one or more subavails.