Technique for optimizing the delivery of advertisements and other programming segments by making bandwidth tradeoffs
First Claim
1. A method of increasing a quantity of differentiable programming content available in a digital programming transmission stream comprising:
- creating a plurality of digital programming components, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
defining at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components to comprise at least one component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content; and
inserting at least the at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components into the digital programming transmission stream;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content available in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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Abstract
A technique for optimizing the delivery of a multiplicity of advertisements and other programming is provided by trading off full-motion video for other forms of high quality still images, text, graphics and audio. By creating a group of synchronized digital programming components, for example, still-frame video, audio, graphics, text, animation, and media objects, which combined utilize less bandwidth than a standard digital programming segment of full-motion video with CD quality audio, a greater number of differentiable programming content options can be made available in the digital transmission stream. Because of the greatly expanded amount of differentiable content that can be created using the bandwidth tradeoff techniques, greater precision in targeting particular content, such as advertisements, to particular users is possible. The invention also contemplates the system requirements, both hardware and software, for a digital programming transmission center and for a user'"'"'s receiver, necessary to implement the bandwidth tradeoff methodology.
387 Citations
80 Claims
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1. A method of increasing a quantity of differentiable programming content available in a digital programming transmission stream comprising:
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creating a plurality of digital programming components, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
defining at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components to comprise at least one component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content; and
inserting at least the at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components into the digital programming transmission stream;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content available in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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2. A method of providing an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content transmitted via a digital programming transmission stream, to a plurality of users, the method comprising:
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synchronizing a plurality of digital programming components, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
defining at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components to comprise at least one component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
inserting the at least one subset of digital programming components into the digital programming transmission stream; and
transmitting the digital programming transmission stream to the plurality of users;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content transmitted in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment. - View Dependent Claims (21, 28)
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3. A method of receiving an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content received by at least one user via a digital programming transmission stream, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of synchronized digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content; and
selecting for presentation at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components, the at least one subset comprising at least one component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content received in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 19, 22, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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4. A method for creating differentiable programming content, wherein a quantity of differentiable programming content available for transmission in a digital programming transmission stream is increased, the method comprising:
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creating a plurality of digital programming components, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
synchronizing the plurality of digital programming components; and
defining at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components to comprise at least one component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content available for transmission in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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36. A system for providing an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content transmitted via a digital programming transmission stream, to a plurality of users, the system comprising:
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an encoder that interleaves a plurality of synchronized digital programming components, wherein at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components comprises at least one component programming segment, and the at least one component programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content; and
a transmitter that transmits the plurality of digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream to the plurality of users, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content transmitted in the digital programming transmission stream by the transmitter is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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37. A system for receiving an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content received by at least one user via a digital programming transmission stream, the system comprising:
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a tuner that receives a plurality of synchronized digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
a decoder that separates and selects at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components, the at least one subset comprising at least on component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unity of differentiable programming content;
a program output that outputs the at least one component programming segment to a presentation device for presentation of the at least one component programming segment to the at least one user; and
a processor that coordinates and directs the functions of the tuner, the decoder, and the program output;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content in the digital programming transmission stream received by the receiver is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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38. A system for providing an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content transmitted via a digital programming transmission stream, to a plurality of users, the system comprising:
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a means for combining a plurality of synchronized digital programming components, wherein at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components comprises at least one component programming segment, and the at least one component programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content; and
a means for transmitting the plurality of digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream to the plurality of users, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content transmitted in the digital programming transmission stream by the transmitting means is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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39. A system for receiving an increased quantity of differentiable programming content in a programming transmission system, the differentiable programming content received by at least one user via a digital programming transmission stream, the system comprising:
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a means for receiving a plurality of synchronized digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
a means for selecting at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components, the at least one subset comprising at least on component programming segment, wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unity of differentiable programming content;
a means for outputting the at least one component programming segment to a means for presenting the at least one component programming segment to the at least one user; and
a means for processing that coordinates and directs the functions of the receiving means, the selecting means, and the outputting means;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content in the digital programming transmission stream received by the receiving means is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment.
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75. A computer program product for instructing a computer controlled digital programming reception system with interactive programming technology to select targeted differentiable programming content for a user, the targeted differentiable programming content received at the reception system via a digital programming transmission stream in an increased quantity, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for controlling the programming reception system, the computer readable program code comprising instructions for:
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causing the programming reception system to determine whether a plurality of synchronized digital programming components received in the digital programming transmission stream comprises targeted differentiable programming content, wherein the plurality of digital programming components utilize a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, wherein the standard digital programming segment is a unit of differentiable programming content;
causing the programming reception system to access information in a user profile about the user;
causing the programming reception system to select at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components, the at least one subset comprising at least one component programming segment;
wherein the at least one component programming segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a standard digital programming segment, the quantity of differentiable programming content received in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one component programming segment; and
wherein the selection of the at least one subset of the plurality of component programming segments is determined by the programming reception system based upon the user profile information of the user to provide targeted differentiable programming content to the user; and
causing the programming reception system to output the at least one component programming segment for presentation to the user on a presentation device. - View Dependent Claims (76)
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77. A method of receiving an increased quantity of differentiable advertising segments in a programming transmission system, the differentiable advertising segments received by at least one user via a digital programming transmission stream, the method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of synchronized digital programming components in the digital programming transmission stream, the plurality of digital programming components utilizing a bandwidth of the digital programming transmission stream less than or equal to a bandwidth normally allocated for a full-motion audio-video segment, wherein the full motion audio-video segment is a unit of differentiable programming content; and
selecting for presentation at least one subset of the plurality of digital programming components, the selection performed by a processor implementing at least one command code, the selection based upon packet identification numbers of a plurality of packets comprising the at least one subset, the at least one subset comprising at least one advertising segment, wherein the at least one advertising segment is also a unit of differentiable programming content;
wherein, without increasing the bandwidth normally allocated for a full motion audio-video segment, the quantity of differentiable advertising segments received in the digital programming transmission stream is able to be increased by the number of units of differentiable programming content corresponding to the at least one advertising segment. - View Dependent Claims (78, 79, 80)
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Specification