SYSTEM AND METHOD OF SELECTIVE CHANNEL OR ADVERTISING DELIVERY

• US 20120005704A1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Debois, Dean, Coppa, Frank R., Huffman, James D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,555,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/375 Commercial
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 : Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a network device having a controller programmed to store a subscriber selectable preference for advertisements and for video channel distribution to send to a set top box (STB) and receive a signal from a broadcast stream indicating the location for insertion of an advertisement based on the subscriber selectable preference. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium operating in a set top box (STB), comprising computer instructions to:

present a graphical user interface (GUI) enabling selectable advertisement preferences and selectable channel distribution service preferences for delivery to the STB, wherein storage of portions of the selectable advertisement preferences and the selectable channel distribution service preferences is initiated responsive to one or more detected selections from the GUI; and

enable presentation of the at least one advertisement and the at least one media channel responsive to a detected unicast signal.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the storage of the selectable advertisement is performed according to a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the STB.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the selectable advertisement is presented using a unicast stream server.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method splices the selectable advertisement into a digital video stream before presenting.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI presents filters for targeted ad delivery based on one or more of demographics, geographic location, purchased products, or purchased services.

6. The storage medium of claim 5, comprising computer instructions to collect EPG information or channel subscription information from an IPTV network to provide further targeted ad delivery.

7. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to select ads from an ad catalog server and transmitting the STB'"'"'s Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) to a billing server.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to receive a unicast transmission of a subscriber selectable advertisement selected by an ad campaign manager and to play the selectable advertisement selected by the ad campaign manager when a queue tone is delivered in a broadcast stream.

9. A set top box (STB) comprising a controller programmed to:

receive subscriber selectable Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) channel distribution service selections selected from a channel service catalog for delivery of a plurality of individually selected video channels to the STB, wherein storage of identifiers corresponding to the plurality of selected video channels at an IPTV billing system and an IPTV subscriber management system are initiated in response to receiving the subscriber selectable IPTV channel distribution service selections; and

receive the plurality of selected video channels.

10. The STB of claim 9, wherein the identifiers corresponding to the plurality of selected video channels are stored at the STB.

11. The STB of claim 9, wherein the controller is programmed to receive subscriber selectable advertisements or advertisement preferences and to initiate storage of the subscriber selectable advertisements or advertisement preferences at a remote ad delivery server in response to a selection of at least one of a subscriber selectable advertisement or a subscriber selectable preference.

12. The STB of claim 11, wherein the STB receives a unicast transmission of the advertisements when a queue tone is delivered in a broadcast stream and an ad campaign manager selects an advertisement for delivery to the STB based on the subscriber selectable preferences.

13. The STB of claim 11, wherein the controller is programmed to select ads from an ad catalog server and to transmit an STB'"'"'s Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) to a billing server.

14. The STB of claim 9, wherein the controller is programmed receive advertisements based on the subscriber selectable preferences or the subscriber selectable advertisements.

15. A network device comprising a controller programmed to:

store a subscriber selectable preference for advertisements and for video channels used for selecting advertisements and for video channel distribution to send to a set top box (STB) in an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network; and

receive a signal from a broadcast stream indicating a location for insertion of an advertisement based on the subscriber selectable preference.

16. The network device of claim 15, wherein the network device delivers the advertisements to the STB via a unicast transmission.

17. The network device of claim 15, wherein the network device logs advertisements based on the subscriber selectable preference using a Globally Unique Identifier in XML format for the STB.

18. The network device of claim 15, wherein the subscriber selectable preference for advertisements and subscriber selectable preference comprises specific individual advertisements and individual channel selections.

19. The network device of claim 15, wherein the controller further uses subscriber demographics, geographic location, purchased product history, or purchased service history in addition to the subscriber selectable preferences to determine the selection of advertisements sent to the STB.

20. The network device of claim 15, wherein the controller is programmed to initiate the storing of the subscriber selectable preference for video channels at an IPTV billing system and an IPTV subscriber system and further programmed to transmit video channels to the STB based on the subscriber selectable preference for video channels.