Advertisement distribution system for distributing targeted advertisements in television systems

• US 20020083443A1
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Gill, Komlika K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,328,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• 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 21/26233 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 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• 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 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17363 : at or near the user terminal

Abstract

Providing refreshed advertisements to subscriber equipment 210, such as a set-top box. A “client” application runs on the subscriber equipment 210 and includes a queue 404 for storing targeted advertisements, a processor 402 for monitoring the display of each advertisement to the subscriber, a counter 410 for counting each display, and a trigger circuit 406 for initiating an advertisement download each time it is determined that the queue of advertisements stored at the client application has reached a low-level threshold. An advertisement management system 202 provides advertisements to the client application. These advertisements may be network-based advertisements or may be targeted to each individual subscriber, based on a subscriber profile that is provided by a subscriber characterization system 204.

Claims

1. In a television network system, subscriber equipment for displaying targeted advertisements to a subscriber, the subscriber equipment comprising:

a communications interface for receiving at least one queue of targeted advertisements, wherein the at least one queue is selectively distributed to the subscriber;

memory for storing the at least one queue of selectively distributed advertisements;

a processor for inserting the targeted advertisements in program streams for display to the subscriber; and

a trigger circuit for determining if the at least one queue has reached a low-level, wherein said communications interface receives at least one additional queue of targeted advertisements in response to a low-level determination by said trigger circuit.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a counter for tracking number of times each targeted advertisement is displayed to the subscriber.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications interface also receives the targeted advertisements and said memory also stores said targeted advertisements, the at least one queue identifies a sequence for said processor to insert the targeted advertisement in the program stream for display to the subscriber.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each targeted advertisements stored in said memory is identified by an advertisement identifier that uniquely identifies the targeted advertisement and the at least one queue references the advertisement identifier.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement within the at least one queue, the at least one queue includes advertiser data identifying the advertiser sponsoring the advertisement.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement within the at least one queue, the at least one queue includes a time frame defining a time during which the targeted advertisement should be displayed.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the time frame defining the time during which the advertisement should be displayed includes at least one of:

an hour frame indicating the hours of the day during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a day frame indicating the days of the week, month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed;

a week frame indicating the weeks of the month or year during which the advertisement should be displayed; and

a month frame indicating the months of the year during which the advertisement should be displayed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein for each targeted advertisement within the at least one queue, the at least one queue includes at least one of:

an expiration date of the targeted advertisement;

a maximum total number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed;

a maximum number of times the targeted advertisement should be displayed each day;

a total number of times the targeted advertisement has previously been displayed to the subscriber; and

a number of times the targeted advertisement has been displayed that day.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said trigger circuit determines that the at least one queue has reached a low-level if at least one of the following occur:

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of slots remaining;

the at least one queue has less than a particular number of targeted advertisements remaining; and

the at least one queue has a particular number of targeted advertisements that are almost expired.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications interface is connectable to an advertisement management system over a network connection wherein the targeted advertisements are identified by the advertisement management system based on a profile of the subscriber supplied to the advertisement management system.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one queue includes a state indicator for activating said trigger circuit.

12. In a television network, a system for displaying targeted advertisements to subscribers, the system comprising:

an advertisement management system for

identifying targeted advertisements for a subscriber by correlating advertisement profiles with a subscriber profile, and generating at least one queue of targeted advertisements for the subscriber, wherein each of the at least one queue identifies a sequence for presenting the targeted advertisements to the subscriber;

an advertisement distribution system for distributing the targeted advertisements and at least one of the at least one queue to the subscriber over the television network; and

subscriber equipment for receiving the targeted advertisements and the at least one queue and displaying the targeted advertisements to the subscriber, the subscriber equipment including;

a communications interface for communicating with said advertisement management system advertisement and said distribution system,

memory for storing the targeted advertisements and the at least one queue,

a processor, responsive to the queue, for inserting the targeted advertisements in program streams for display to the subscriber, and

a trigger circuit for determining if the at least one queue has reached a low-level, wherein said subscriber equipment receives at least one additional queue in response to a low-level determination by said trigger circuit.

13. A set-top box for inserting targeted advertisements in place of default advertisements within television program streams, the set-top box comprising:

a communications interface for receiving a plurality of targeted advertisements and a queue identifying criteria for inserting the targeted advertisements;

memory for storing the targeted advertisements and the queue;

a processor for determining when and what targeted advertisement should be inserted into the program stream based on the queue;

an inserter for inserting the targeted advertisement into the program stream; and

a trigger circuit for determining when the targeted advertisements and the queue need to be refreshed.

14. A method for inserting targeted advertisements in place of default advertisements within television program streams, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of targeted advertisements and a queue identifying criteria for inserting the targeted advertisements;

storing the targeted advertisements and the queue in memory;

determining when and what targeted advertisement should be inserted into the program stream based on the queue;

inserting the targeted advertisement into the program stream; and

determining when the targeted advertisements and the queue need to be refreshed.