Subscriber selected advertisement display and scheduling

• US 20050283797A1
• Filed: 08/09/2005
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Flickinger, Gregory C., Eldering, Charles, Gill, Komlika K.
• Application Number:
  US11/199,867
• Publication Number:
  US 20050283797A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• 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 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

A subscriber selected ad display and scheduling system which allows subscribers to request any one of a plurality of advertisements they wish to view from a library of advertisements stored at the set-top box. Generally, the set-top box stores a plurality of advertisements that have been targeted to the subscriber. Two different embodiments are provided. In one embodiment, the subscriber may view different available advertisements via an advertisement guide, and select one or more advertisements wherein upon selection, the contents of the selected advertisements are immediately displayed at the subscriber display. Alternatively, the subscriber may select one or more advertisements from a list of advertisements with the help of an advertisement guide. In this embodiment, the selected advertisements are scheduled for displays, i.e., as soon as the next avail (advertisement opportunity) is identified, the next selected advertisement is inserted in the avail.

Claims

1. A method of providing at least one targeted advertisement over a transmission medium to subscribers in a video network, the method comprising:

(a) creating a plurality of groups for targeting advertisements, each group being associated with one or more target markets;

(b) assigning subscribers to at least one of the groups, wherein the assignment to the at least one of the groups is based at least partially on subscriber interactions with the video network;

(c) associating at least one targeted advertisement with each of the groups;

(d) selecting at least one targeted advertisement for delivery to the subscribers by matching the group associated with the at least one targeted advertisement to the respective groups to which the subscribers have been assigned;

(e) transmitting the at least one targeted advertisement to the subscribers over the transmission medium at an advertisement transmission bit rate to the subscribers;

(f) storing the at least one targeted advertisement;

(g) presenting the subscribers with an advertisement list containing the at least one targeted advertisement;

(h) receiving, from the subscribers, requests for presentation of the at least one targeted advertisement;

(i) presenting the at least one targeted advertisement to the subscribers; and

(j) monitoring the presentation requests for the at least one targeted advertisement, wherein the monitoring forms part of the subscriber interactions used in assigning subscribers to the at least one of the groups.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

(k) reassigning subscribers to an alternate group based on limited selection of advertisements from the at least one of the groups.

3. The method of claim 64 wherein the subscribers are assigned to the at least one of the groups based on a combination of consumer data and subscriber characterization data.

4. A method of providing at least one targeted advertisement over a transmission medium to subscribers in a video network, the method comprising:

(a) creating a plurality of groups for targeting advertisements, each group being associated with one or more target markets;

(b) assigning subscribers to at least one of the groups, wherein the assignment to the at least one of the groups is based at least partially on subscriber interactions with the video network;

(c) associating at least one targeted advertisement with each of the groups;

(d) selecting at least one targeted advertisement for delivery to the subscribers by matching the group associated with the at least one targeted advertisement to the respective groups to which the subscribers have been assigned;

(e) transmitting the at least one targeted advertisement to the subscribers over the transmission medium at an advertisement transmission bit rate to the subscribers;

(f) storing the at least one targeted advertisement;

(g) transmitting program content to the subscribers over the transmission medium in a program delivery stream at a program content transmission bit rate;

(h) transmitting the at least one targeted advertisement over the transmission medium at an advertisement transmission bit rate to the subscribers, wherein the at least one targeted advertisement is transmitted in advance of being presented to the subscribers and is transmitted simultaneous with the transmission of the program content;

(i) presenting the subscribers with an advertisement list containing the at least one targeted advertisement;

(j) receiving, from the subscribers, requests for presentation of the at least one targeted advertisement;

(k) presenting the at least one targeted advertisement to the subscribers; and

(l) monitoring the presentation requests for the at least one targeted advertisement, wherein the monitoring forms part of the subscriber interactions used in assigning subscribers to the at least one of the groups.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein step (h) includes varying the advertisement transmission bit rate such that the transmission of the at least one targeted advertisement does not exceed the maximum bandwidth of the transmission medium.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein step (h) includes varying the advertisement transmission bit rate such that the transmission of the advertisements does not substantially reduce the program content transmission bit rate

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

(m) reassigning subscribers to an alternate group based on limited selection of advertisements from the at least one of the groups.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the subscribers are assigned to the at least one of the groups based on a combination of consumer data and subscriber characterization data.