Time-based dynamic secondary content placement calls in time-shifted content

• US 10,129,593 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2017
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Badawiyeh, Basil
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen Ba, Hoang Vu A
• Application Number:
  US15/458,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20180270534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 609 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• 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 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for enabling time-based secondary content scheduling and dynamic placement for users of a content distribution network. In one embodiment, the network comprises a managed network, and the secondary content comprises advertising which was scheduled at the time the primary content was stored/recorded. A management process is adapted to identify the originally scheduled advertisements and utilize a temporal reference (e.g., time stamp) or other data associated with the original recording provided to the management process when an advertisement call is made dynamically, thereby preserving such relationship when the recorded content is requested for playback with a certain period of time, without having to store the advertisements with each recording. In another embodiment, a Campaign Management System (CMS) is used to associate campaigns based on a time period “in the past” (e.g., via use of one or more historic records regarding the advertisement placement for each user individually).

Claims

1. A computerized method of delivering digitally rendered programming content in a content distribution network, the computerized method comprising:

receiving data representative of a request for storing the digitally rendered programming content, the request (i) associated with a computerized client device or user associated with a subscriber account and (ii) being received through the content distribution network;

storing the requested digitally rendered programming content;

storing data indicating at least a time the storing of the digitally rendered programming content is effected;

identifying one or more secondary digitally rendered content elements associated with the requested digitally rendered programming content at the time the storing is effected, the identifying of the one or more secondary digitally rendered content elements associated with the requested digitally rendered programming content at a time the storing is effected comprising;

(i) contacting a secondary content decision process using at least data indicative of the computerized client device or the user; and

(ii) receiving from the secondary content decision process first data indicative of the one or more secondary digitally rendered content elements to be inserted into the stored digitally rendered programming content;

receiving data representative of a request for at least a portion of the stored digitally rendered programming content from at least the computerized client device;

determining that the request meets one or more prescribed criteria, the one or more prescribed criteria comprising a time associated with receipt of the request being within a prescribed temporal window of the time of the storing of the digitally rendered programming content; and

based on the determination that the request meets the one or more prescribed criteria, causing delivery of the identified one or more secondary digitally rendered content elements to at least the computerized client device, the causing delivery of the identified one or more secondary digitally rendered content elements to at least the computerized client device comprising causing delivery according to respective cues within the stored digitally rendered programming content while the stored digitally rendered programming content is being delivered to at least the computerized client device.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the stored digitally rendered programming content comprises linear content, and the cues comprise Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)-35 cues.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the stored digitally rendered programming content is stored on a network-based storage device and within a storage area designated for use by the user only.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the storing comprises storing a first portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a user-specific storage area, and a second portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a common storage area.

5. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the storing the first portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a user-specific storage area comprises:

applying at least one algorithm to the digitally rendered programming content to identify a plurality of data structures within the digitally rendered programming content, a combination of the identified plurality of data structures being unique to the requesting user;

extracting or copying the identified data structures to the user-specific storage area; and

storing data indicative of the identified plurality of data structures so as to enable recombination with the second portion.

6. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the first portion comprises only a particular type of data structure within the requested digitally rendered programming content.

7. The computerized method of claim 6, wherein the particular type of data structure within the requested digitally rendered programming content comprises one of a P-frame, P-slice, I-frame, or I-slice.

8. Computerized network apparatus configured for secondary content management within a content distribution network, the computerized network apparatus comprising:

digital processor apparatus;

first network data interface apparatus in data communication with the digital processor apparatus and configured to communicate with one or more network entities configured to select appropriate digitally rendered secondary content for respective ones of a plurality of computerized user devices;

second network data interface apparatus in data communication with the digital processor apparatus and configured to communicate with a network content storage apparatus;

third network data interface apparatus in data communication with the digital processor apparatus and configured to communicate with the plurality of computerized user devices via at least one or more communication channels of the content distribution network; and

storage apparatus in data communication with the digital processor apparatus, the storage apparatus comprising at least one computer program configured to, when executed on the digital processor apparatus;

receive from one of the plurality of computerized user devices via the third interface, a data message comprising a request to record digitally rendered programming content, the request being received through the content distribution network;

store the requested digitally rendered programming content, the storage comprising storage of a first portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a user-specific data storage area, and a second portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a common data storage area;

communicate with one or more computerized network entities via the first network data interface to identify the appropriate digitally rendered secondary content for the one of the plurality of computerized user devices, the appropriate digitally rendered secondary content associated with the requested digitally rendered programming content at a time that the storage of the requested digitally rendered programming content is effected;

receive data representative of a request for at least a portion of the stored digitally rendered programming content from at least the one of the plurality of computerized user devices;

determine, using a computerized process, that the request meets one or more prescribed criteria; and

based on the determination that the request meets the one or more prescribed criteria, cause delivery of the identified appropriate digitally rendered secondary content to at least the one of the plurality of computerized user devices.

9. The computerized network apparatus of claim 8, wherein the storage of the first portion of the digitally rendered programming content in a user-specific data storage area comprises:

application of at least one algorithm to the digitally rendered programming content to identify a plurality of data structures within the digitally rendered programming content, a combination of the identified plurality of data structures being unique to a user of the one of the plurality of computerized user receiver devices;

extract or copy the identified data structures to the user-specific data storage area; and

store data indicative of the identified plurality of data structures so as to enable recombination thereof with the second portion.

10. The computerized network apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first portion comprises only a particular type of data structure within the requested digitally rendered programming content.

11. The computerized network apparatus of claim 10, wherein the particular type of data structure within the requested digitally rendered programming content is selected from the group consisting of:

(i) a P-frame, (ii) a P-slice, (iii) an I-frame, and (iv) an I-slice.

12. The computerized network apparatus of claim 8, wherein the determination that the request meets one or more prescribed criteria comprises a determination, using the computerized process, that the request is received within a prescribed time period from a time that the storage is effected.

13. The computerized network apparatus of claim 8, wherein the delivery of the identified appropriate digitally rendered secondary content to at least the one of the plurality of computerized user devices comprises delivery of the identified appropriate digitally rendered secondary content to at least the one of the plurality of computerized user devices at one or more insertion points specified by marker data within the digitally rendered programming content.

14. The computerized network apparatus of claim 8, wherein the delivery of the identified appropriate digitally rendered secondary content to at least the one of the plurality of computerized user devices comprises assembly of the identified appropriate digitally rendered secondary content, and at least sub-portions of the first and second portions from the user-specific data storage area and the common data storage area, respectively, into a digital content stream.

15. The computerized network apparatus of claim 8, wherein the storage of the first portion of the digitally rendered programming content in the user-specific data storage area, and the second portion of the digitally rendered programming content in the common data storage area comprises allocation of a plurality of segments associated with the digitally rendered programming content between the user-specific data storage area and the common data storage area based at least on an allocation algorithm.

16. The computerized network apparatus of claim 15, wherein the allocation algorithm identifies a plurality of numeric sequences or their mathematical complements, and the allocation of the plurality of segments comprises allocating the plurality of segments corresponding to one of the plurality of numeric sequences or its mathematical complement.

17. Computer readable apparatus comprising a non-transitory storage medium, the non-transitory medium comprising at least one computer program having a plurality of instructions, the instructions configured to, when executed on a digital processing apparatus of a computerized server apparatus within a content distribution network:

receive, from a computerized client device associated with a user, data representative of a request to store digitally rendered programming content, the request received through the content distribution network, the user being associated with an account via data maintained in a subscriber database associated with the content distribution network;

store the requested digitally rendered programming content;

store first data indicative of at least a time that the storage of the digitally rendered programming content is effected;

contact a computerized secondary content decision process, the contact including at least data indicative of the computerized client device or the user;

receive, from the computerized secondary content decision process, second data indicative of one or more digitally rendered secondary content elements to be inserted into the stored digitally rendered programming content, the one or more digitally rendered secondary content elements selected based at least on data indicating an association between the one or more digitally rendered secondary content elements with the requested digitally rendered programming content at the time that the storage of the digitally rendered programming content is effected;

receive data representative of a request for at least a portion of the stored digitally rendered programming content from the computerized client device;

determine that the data representative of the request is received within a prescribed time period from the time that the storage is effected; and

based at least one on the determination, cause delivery of the one or more digitally rendered secondary content elements to the computerized client device, the delivery being in accordance with respective cues contained within the stored digitally rendered programming content while the stored digitally rendered programming content is being delivered to the computerized client device.

18. The computer readable apparatus of claim 17, wherein the stored digitally rendered programming content comprises linear content, and the cues comprise Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE)-35 cues.

19. The computer readable apparatus of claim 17, wherein at least a portion of the stored digitally rendered programming content is stored on a network-based storage device and within a storage area designated for access only by of (i) the user, and/or (ii) the computerized client device.

20. The computer readable apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more digitally rendered secondary content elements are identified by the computerized secondary content decision process based at least on (i) the data indicative of the computerized client device or the user, and (ii) a subject matter or theme associated with the digitally rendered programming content.