Method for enhancing digital video recorder television advertising viewership

• US 7,779,437 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2000
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Solutions Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TiVo Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Barton, James M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHELEHEDA, JAMES R
• Application Number:
  US09/740,618
• Publication Number:
  US 20010049820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,529 Days
• Field of Search: 358/908, 386/1, 386/68, 725 32- 36, 725 22- 23, 725/135, 725/37
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4663 involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 : for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 : End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 : for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 : involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 : in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals

Abstract

A method for enhancing digital video recorder television advertising viewership provides a method wherein the first or last number of seconds of a commercial break are carefully authored to provide a “teaser” to entice the viewer to watch multiple commercials during the commercial break instead of skipping the commercial break using the fast forward or jump functions of the DVR. A bookending function displays an advertisement before and/or after a program that has been recorded on the DVR'"'"'s storage device is played to the viewer. The viewer selects a recorded program from the DVR'"'"'s storage device to playback. Before the program is played back, an advertisement is retrieved from the storage device and is displayed before the program is run. Another advertisement is retrieved and then played after the program is over.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing viewership of television advertisements, comprising:

receiving, by a digital video recorder (DVR), a program segment containing a commercial break;

playing the program segment to a viewer;

detecting, by the DVR, an in-band signal associated with the program segment, the in-band signal containing information about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

in response to detecting the in-band signal;

creating, by the DVR, a menu based on the information contained in the in-band signal about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

displaying, by the DVR, the menu; and

while displaying the menu, pausing playback of the program segment by the DVR and a user is allowed to select between skipping past the menu to continue viewing the program segment and selecting a particular item in the menu.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the in-band signal comprises a tag that triggers the DVR to display the menu;

and wherein the tag includes information to be displayed in the menu.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the pausing step is triggered by the DVR upon detection of an in-band signal.

4. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors;

a receiving subsystem that receives, by a digital video recorder (DVR), a program segment containing a commercial break;

a playing subsystem that plays the program segment to a viewer;

a detecting subsystem in the DVR that detects an in-band signal associated with the program segment, the in-band signal containing information about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

responsive to detecting the in-band signal;

a creating subsystem in the DVR that creates a menu based on the information contained in the in-band signal about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

a displaying subsystem in the DVR that displays the menu; and

a pausing subsystem in the DVR that that pauses playback of the program segment while displaying the menu and a user is allowed to select between skipping past the menu to continue viewing the program segment and selecting a particular item in the menu.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the in-band signal comprises a tag that triggers the DVR to display the menu;

and wherein the tag includes information to be displayed in the menu.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the pausing subsystem is triggered upon detection of an in-band signal.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

receiving, by a digital video recorder (DVR), a program segment containing a commercial break;

playing the program segment to a viewer;

detecting, by the DVR, an in-band signal associated with the program segment, the in-band signal containing information about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

in response to detecting the in-band signal;

creating, by the DVR, a menu based on the information contained in the in-band signal about each of the commercials in the commercial break;

displaying, by the DVR, the menu; and

while displaying the menu, pausing playback of the program segment by the DVR and a user is allowed to select between skipping past the menu to continue viewing the program segment and selecting a particular item in the menu.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the in-band signal comprises a tag that triggers the DVR to display the menu;

and wherein the tag includes information to be displayed in the menu.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the pausing step is triggered by the DVR upon detection of an in-band signal.