Method for enhancing digital video recorder television advertising viewership

• US 8,176,512 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2005
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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:
  US11/182,554
• Publication Number:
  US 20050273828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,489 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/142, 725/58
• US Class Current: 725/34
• 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 advertisements in a digital video recorder (DVR) environment, comprising:

recording, by the DVR, program material onto at least one storage device communicatively coupled to the DVR;

receiving, by the DVR, advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement from an external source;

storing, by the DVR, the advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement on the at least one storage device;

displaying, by the DVR, a list of program materials stored on the at least one storage device;

in response to a viewer selecting a particular program material from the list, playing back, by the DVR, the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer;

upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed before the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer before the playing back step begins to play back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer and/or upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed after the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer after the playing back step has completed playing back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer, a service provider configuring the playing back step whether to display an advertisement before the particular program material is played back and/or whether to display an advertisement after the particular program material is played back;

prior to the playing back step displaying an advertisement and when the playing step has been configured by the service provider to display an advertisement, selecting, by the DVR, an advertisement from the at least one storage device to display based on characteristics of the advertisement and the viewer'"'"'s viewing preferences and/or personal data;

charging, by the service provider, advertisers for targeted advertising selected by the DVR that are targeted to the specific audience that the viewer is a part of.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the playing back step selects an advertisement to be displayed after the program material playback to the viewer has been completed that is different than the advertisement displayed before the program material playback to the viewer began.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting advertisements from the external source for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step further comprises:

recording groups of advertisements from an input source.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the recorded groups of advertisements are selected for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.

6. An apparatus for enhancing viewership of advertisements in a digital video recorder (DVR) environment, comprising:

a recording subsystem, on the DVR, that records program material onto at least one storage device communicatively coupled to the DVR;

a receiving subsystem, on the DVR, that receives advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement from an external source;

a storage subsystem that stores the advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement on the at least one storage device;

a program listing subsystem, on the DVR, that displays a list of program materials stored on the at least one storage device;

a playback subsystem, on the DVR, that, in response to a viewer selecting a particular program material from the list, plays back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer;

wherein the playback subsystem, upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed before the particular program material is played back, displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer before the playback subsystem begins to play back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer and/or upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed after the particular program material is played back, displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer after the playback subsystem has completed playing back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer, a service provider configuring the playback subsystem whether to display an advertisement before the particular program material is played back and/or whether to display an advertisement after the particular program material is played back;

a selecting subsystem, on the DVR, that, prior to the playing back subsystem displaying an advertisement and when the playback subsystem has been configured by the service provider to display an advertisement, selects an advertisement from the at least one storage device to display based on characteristics of the advertisement and the viewer'"'"'s viewing preferences and/or personal data;

a charging subsystem, at the service provider, that charges advertisers for targeted advertising selected by the DVR that are targeted to the specific audience that the viewer is a part of.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the playback subsystem selects an advertisement to be displayed after the program material playback to the viewer has been completed that is different than the advertisement displayed before the program material playback to the viewer began.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

a requesting subsystem, wherein the requesting subsystem requests advertisements from the external source for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the receiving subsystem further comprises:

an advertisement recording subsystem, wherein the advertisement recording subsystem records groups of advertisements from an input source.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the recorded groups of advertisements are selected for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.

11. A non-transitory program storage medium readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for enhancing viewership of advertisements in a digital video recorder (DVR) environment, comprising the steps of:

recording, by the DVR, program material onto at least one storage device communicatively coupled to the DVR;

receiving, by the DVR, advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement from an external source;

storing, by the DVR, the advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement on the at least one storage device;

displaying, by the DVR, a list of program materials stored on the at least one storage device;

in response to a viewer selecting a particular program material from the list, playing back, by the DVR, the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer;

upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed before the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer before the playing back step begins to play back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer and/or upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed after the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer after the playing back step has completed playing back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer, a service provider configuring the playing back step whether to display an advertisement before the particular program material is played back and/or whether to display an advertisement after the particular program material is played back;

prior to the playing back step displaying an advertisement and when the playing step has been configured by the service provider to display an advertisement, selecting, by the DVR, an advertisement from the at least one storage device to display based on characteristics of the advertisement and the viewer'"'"'s viewing preferences and/or personal data;

charging, by the service provider, advertisers for targeted advertising selected by the DVR that are targeted to the specific audience that the viewer is a part of.

12. The non-transitory program storage medium of claim 11, wherein the playing back step selects an advertisement to be displayed after the program material playback to the viewer has been completed that is different than the advertisement displayed before the program material playback to the viewer began.

13. The non-transitory program storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

requesting advertisements from the external source for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.

14. The non-transitory program storage medium of claim 11, wherein the receiving step further comprises:

recording groups of advertisements from an input source.

15. The non-transitory program storage medium of claim 14, wherein the recorded groups of advertisements are selected for the viewer'"'"'s target audience.