Targeted advertising through electronic program guide

• US 20060248555A1
• Filed: 06/27/2006
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E., Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/106 Receiver-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/70 characterised in that receivers can be addressed
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/15 on receiving information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/63 for services of sales data processing systems or methods specially adapted for electronic commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/478 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 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A mechanism for matching Electronic Program Guide (EPG) advertisements to subscribers or groups of subscribers and delivering those advertisements within the EPG. The subscribers are initially characterized in different groups by using commercially available data, such as demographic data. Furthermore, the groups of subscribers may be formed according to their characteristics. These characteristics may be derived from, but are not limited to, demographic data, geographic information or individual subscriber selection data. Subsequent to the formation of the groups, suitable advertisements to be placed in the EPG avails are selected, based on the matching of the advertisement characteristics to the characteristics of the groups, wherein the EPG avails are the advertising opportunities available within the EPG. Different versions of the EPG having targeted advertisements may be created, and the different versions may be placed on a download server for transmission over an access system to the subscriber. At the subscriber end, the different versions of the EPG may be received and the subscriber end, being assigned to a particular group, may receive the EPG which corresponds to that group. The subscriber end generally comprises a suitable subscriber interface, such as, a set-top box (STB) or a cable-ready television having a unique identification.

Claims

1. A method of presenting targeted advertisements to users of a media program service, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining a characterization of a user;

(b) obtaining a characterization of each of a plurality of advertisements;

(c) creating a set of targeted advertisements by correlating the characterization of the user with the characterization of each of the plurality of advertisements;

(d) generating an electronic listing of media streams at a central server;

(e) associating the set of targeted advertisements with the listing of media streams;

(f) creating an electronic programming guide page having the electronic listing of media streams and the set of targeted advertisements, wherein said electronic programming guide page has at least one area for the display of advertisements; and

(g) downloading the electronic programming guide page to user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the characterization of each of the plurality of advertisements is represented by an ad characterization vector.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the characterization of the user is represented by a user characterization vector.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said correlating in step (c) is realized by taking the dot product of the user characterization vector with the ad characterization vector.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the price charged to advertisers for the displaying of an advertisement is related to a degree of correlation of the characterization of the user with the characterization of the advertisement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(h) displaying the targeted advertisements in the electronic programming guide page.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic programming guide page is a webpage.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing of electronic media streams includes a plurality of links, each link corresponding to a particular electronic media stream.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein clicking one of the links actuates presentation of the corresponding electronic media stream.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic listing of media streams is arranged in a grid.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program streams are obtained for presentation via the Internet.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic listing of media streams includes an image representative of the corresponding media stream.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic listing of media streams includes a condensed video representative of the corresponding media stream.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program streams are videos.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program streams are in MP3 format.

16. The method of claim 19, wherein the media program streams are in MPEG format.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the characterization of the user is realized by assigning the user to a category.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the characterization of the user is based on the demographic characteristics of the user.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the demographic characteristics of the user are obtained from the multicast address of the user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the multicast address is used to determine the geographic location of the user.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein each of the at least one electronic listings of media streams corresponds to at least one category.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the associating of step (d) is based on the characterization of the advertisements and the category to which each customized electronic listing of media streams corresponds.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the categories are based on demographic characteristics.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the categories are formed by analyzing a plurality of user profiles.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one set of advertisements is assigned to at least one of the categories.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the associating in step (d) is based on the category of each of the at least one electronic listing of media streams and the category of each set of advertisements.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one electronic programming guide page is assigned to a category based on the category of the corresponding advertisements and the electronic listings of media streams.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

(g) obtaining a characterization of a user.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the electronic programming guide page downloaded to user equipment corresponds to the characterization of the user.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

(h) selecting the electronic programming guide page for display based on the characterization of the user and the category to which the electronic programming guide page corresponds.

21. A method of presenting targeted advertisements to users of a media program service, the method comprising:

(a) generating at least one electronic listing of media streams at a central server;

(b) obtaining a characterization of each of a plurality of advertisements;

(c) creating at least one set of advertisements based on the characterization of each of the plurality of advertisements;

(d) associating each of the at least one electronic listings of media streams with at least one of the sets of advertisements;

(e) creating at least one electronic programming guide page having one of the electronic listings of media streams and the associated at least one set of advertisements, wherein said electronic programming guide page has at least one area for the display of advertisements; and

(f) downloading at least one of the at least one the electronic programming guide pages to user equipment.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

(g) obtaining a characterization of a user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one electronic listing of media streams is customized based on the characterization of the user.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the creating of step (c) is realized by correlating characterization of each of the plurality of advertisements with the characterization of the user.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one of the electronic programming guide pages downloaded to user equipment corresponds to the characterization of the user.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

(h) displaying the electronic programming guide page corresponding to the user characterization.

37. The method of claim 21, wherein the user equipment is a personal computer.

38. The method of claim 24, wherein the price charged to advertisers for the displaying of an advertisement is related to a degree of correlation of the characterization of the user with the characterization of the advertisement.

39. The method of claim 21, wherein the electronic programming guide page is a webpage.