ADVANCE NOTICE OF TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20110078740A1
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: BOLYUKH, Yuriy, Stettner, Armando, Charania, Aamer, Kukoyi, Dolapo
• Granted Patent: US 8,516,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/41
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• 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 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A video client receives an advertising map over a subscription multimedia network, where the advertising map includes a schedule of default advertisements during a programming break and indications of available alternate advertisements. The video client provides, for display to a user, indicators for the schedule of default advertisements and receives user input to alter the schedule of default advertisements. The video client retrieves advertising content for the altered schedule and presents, on the display and during the programming break, the advertising content for the altered schedule.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a video client, comprising:

receiving, by the video client and over a subscription multimedia network, an advertising map that includes a schedule of default advertisements to be displayed during a programming break and indications of available alternate advertisements;

providing, by the video client and for display to a user, indicators for the schedule of default advertisements;

receiving, by the video client, a user input to alter the schedule of default advertisements;

retrieving advertising content for the altered schedule; and

providing, for display and during the programming break, the advertising content for the altered schedule.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the video client and to a server, a notification of the user input to alter the schedule of default advertisements; and

receiving, by the video client and based on the notification, instructions to retrieve supplemental advertising for presentation to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, where the advertising map includes one or more of:

an indication of a number of scheduled breaks within program content,

an indication of a number of timeslots for each scheduled break,

an indication of a duration of each timeslot for each scheduled break, or

an indication of restrictions for each timeslot.

4. The method of claim 3, where the advertising map further includes one or more of:

an image for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement,

a thumbnail video for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement, or

descriptive information for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, where providing indicators for the schedule of default advertisements comprises:

causing an interactive menu to be presented at a particular period before the programming break, and

presenting indicators for one or more of the alternative advertisements.

6. The method of claim 5, where the interactive menu is presented concurrently with other programming content.

7. The method of claim 1, where the user input to alter the schedule of default advertisements is received during the programming break.

8. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

receive advertising schedule information for a subscription multimedia service, where the advertising schedule information includes a default schedule of advertisements for a break in program content and indications of available alternative advertisements;

present, on a display and prior to the break in program content, the default schedule of advertisements;

receive user input to alter the default schedule of advertisements with one of the alternative advertisements;

retrieve advertising content for the altered schedule;

present, on the display and during the programming break, the advertising content for the altered schedule; and

store metrics regarding the user input to alter the default schedule of advertisements.

9. The system of claim 8, where the advertising schedule information comprises one or more of:

an image for each advertisement in the default schedule and each alternative advertisement,

a thumbnail video for each advertisement in the default schedule and each alternate advertisement, or

descriptive information for each advertisement in the default schedule and each alternate advertisement.

10. The system of claim 8, where the advertising schedule information comprises one or more of:

a number of scheduled breaks within the program content,

a number of timeslots for each scheduled break,

a duration of each timeslot for each scheduled break, or

restrictions for a type of advertisement for each timeslot.

11. The system of claim 8, where the default schedule of advertisements is presented within an interactive menu that displays indicators and additional information for each scheduled advertisement.

12. The system of claim 8, where the default schedule of advertisements is presented within an interactive menu that displays indicators for each scheduled advertisement and indicators for one or more of the alternative advertisements.

13. The system of claim 8, where the processor is further to:

automatically display the default schedule of advertisements at a particular time interval before the break in program content.

14. A method performed by one or more devices, comprising:

sending to a video client, over a network and by one of the one or more devices, an advertising map that includes a default schedule of advertisements during an upcoming time period and an indication of available alternative advertisements;

receiving, by one of the one or more devices via the network, a notification from the video client that a user has selected a particular alternative advertisement;

sending to the video client, by one of the one or more devices via the network, advertising content for the particular alternative advertisement;

determining, by one of the one or more devices and based on the notification, supplemental advertising content to be presented to the user; and

sending, by one of the one or more devices via the network, instructions to the video client to retrieve the supplemental advertising content for presentation to the user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

storing, by one of the one or more devices and in a memory, metrics regarding the user selection of the particular alternative advertisement.

16. The method of claim 14, where the advertising map comprises one or more of:

an indication of a number of scheduled breaks within program content,

an indication of a number of timeslots for each scheduled break,

an indication of a duration of each timeslot for each scheduled break,

an indication of restrictions for each timeslot,

an image for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement,

a thumbnail video for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement, or

descriptive information for each default advertisement and each alternate advertisement.

17. The method of claim 14, where determining the supplemental advertising content to be presented to the user comprises applying information in the notification to:

a dynamic set of advertising campaign rules,

a user profile associated with the video client, or

one or more contextual metrics.

18. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

send, to a video client and over a network, an advertising map that includes a default schedule of advertisements for an upcoming time period and an indication of available alternative advertisements;

send, to the video client via the network, program content that includes breaks into which advertising content is to be inserted;

receive, from the video client, a request to provide particular advertising content for one of the alternative advertisements; and

send, to the video client via the network, the particular advertising content for the one of the alternative advertisements.

19. The system of claim 18, where the adverting map comprises:

an indication of a number of scheduled breaks within program content,

an indication of a number of timeslots for each scheduled break,

an indication of a duration of each timeslot for each scheduled break, and

an indication of restrictions for each timeslot.

20. The system of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions in the memory to:

determine, based on the notification, supplemental advertising content to be presented to the user; and

send, to the video client over the network, instructions to retrieve the supplemental advertising content for presentation to the user.

21. A system, comprising:

one or more devices within a network for a subscription multimedia service, the one or more devices comprising;

means for receiving advertising schedule information for the subscription multimedia service, where the advertising schedule information includes a schedule of advertisements for a break in program content and indications of available alternative advertisements;

means for causing the schedule of advertisements to be presented prior to the break in program content;

means for receiving user input to replace an advertisement in the schedule of advertisements with an available alternative advertisement;

means for requesting advertising content for the available alternative advertisement;

means for receiving the advertising content for the available alternative advertisement; and

means for causing the advertising content for the available alternative advertisement to be presented during the programming break.

22. The system of claim 21, where the means for causing the schedule of advertisements to be presented prior to the break in program content includes:

means for displaying the default schedule of advertisements at a particular time interval before the break in the program content.

23. The system of claim 21, where the one or more devices further comprises:

means for storing metrics regarding the user input to replace the advertisement in the schedule of advertisements with the available alternative advertisement.