Method and system for planning and running video-on-demand advertising

• US 9,136,956 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2003
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Holdings LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Black, Neville A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US10/701,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20050096978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,332 Days
• Field of Search: 725/105, 725/32, 725 34- 35, 725/36, 725/42, 725/46, 725/43, 705 1448- 1449, 705/15.5, 705/15.52, 705/14.67, 705/16.68, 705/14.69
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• 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 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and system for planning and running video-on-demand (VOD) advertising includes a planner for planning advertising campaigns and an ad selector for running selected advertisements from selected ones of the campaigns. The campaigns are associated with household demographic classifications, video content category categories, household geographic locations, and/or video viewing times. In response to a viewer requesting a video, the selector selects the campaigns corresponding to the demographic classification associated with the viewer, the content category of the requested video, the geographic location associated with the viewer, and/or the viewing time at which the requested video is viewed. The demographic classification is determined by using an identifier of the viewer'"'"'s set-top-box. The selector may select the campaigns corresponding to the content categories of the requested video. The content categories are determined by using an identifier associated with the requested video.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a video on demand (VOD) request for a VOD program from a user device;

identifying a plurality of fractional sponsors for the VOD program, each fractional sponsor being associated with a fractional sponsorship of the VOD program, the fractional sponsorship corresponding to a predetermined numeric percentage of an audience for the VOD program;

selecting one fractional sponsor of the plurality of fractional sponsors according to its corresponding fractional sponsorship;

selecting at least one advertisement from the selected one fractional sponsor based at least on demographic information regarding a user of the user device based on the VOD request;

inserting the at least one advertisement from the selected one fractional sponsor within the VOD program at a location upstream from the user device; and

transmitting the VOD program having the at least one inserted advertisement to the user device over a distribution network, such that all advertisements within the VOD program transmitted to the user device are from the selected one fractional sponsor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a first user device and the selected one fractional sponsor is a first fractional sponsor, the method further comprising:

receiving a video on demand (VOD) request for the VOD program from a second user device;

selecting a second fractional sponsor from the plurality of fractional sponsors according to its corresponding fractional sponsorship;

selecting at least one advertisement from the second fractional sponsor;

inserting the at least one selected advertisement from the second fractional sponsor within the VOD program at a location upstream from the second user device; and

transmitting the VOD program having the at least one inserted advertisement from the second fractional sponsor to the second user device over the distribution network, such that all advertisements within the VOD program transmitted to the second user device are from the second fractional sponsor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the at least one advertisement from the second fractional sponsor is based, at least in part, on demographic information regarding a user of the second user device and a content category assigned to the VOD program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of the at least one advertisement comprises:

accessing a demographic classification code associated with the user device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the at least one advertisement further comprises comparing a cost of the at least one advertisement with a predetermined budget and dynamically controlling the selecting of the at least one advertisement to control a spending rate of the predetermined budget.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising declining to select an advertisement for inclusion with the VOD program if the predetermined budget has been exhausted.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the cost of the at least one advertisement is based on a per-unit time cost associated with an advertising campaign of the selected one fractional sponsor.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least one advertisement is further performed according to a time-of-day criterion.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one fractional sponsor is further performed according to predetermined priorities assigned to the plurality of fractional sponsors of the VOD program.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of fractional sponsors for the VOD program occurs before receiving the VOD request for the VOD program.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least one advertisement from the selected fractional sponsor is based, at least in part, a content category assigned to the VOD program.

12. A system comprising:

a non-transitory memory; and

a processor configured to perform the following;

identifying a plurality of fractional sponsors of a video program, each fractional sponsor associated with a fractional sponsorship of the video program, the fractional sponsorship corresponding to a predetermined numeric percentage of an audience for the video program;

selecting a single fractional sponsor from the plurality of fractional sponsors for a transmission of the video program to a first user device among a plurality of user devices, the selecting based, at least in part, on the associated fractional sponsorship of the single fractional sponsor; and

selecting advertisements from the single fractional sponsor of the identified plurality of fractional sponsors for inclusion with the transmission of the video program to the first user device, the selecting advertisements based at least in part on user demographic data, such that all advertisements of the video program transmitted to the first user device are from the single fractional sponsor.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the video program is a video on demand program, and the processor is further configured to access a demographic database using information received with a request for the video on demand program from the user device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to compare a cost of one advertisement of the selected advertisements for the single fractional sponsor with a predetermined budget, and dynamically control the selection of the one advertisement to control a spending rate of the predetermined budget.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to decline to select the one advertisement for inclusion with the video program if the predetermined budget has been exhausted.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the cost of the one advertisement is based on a per-unit time cost associated with an advertising campaign of the single fractional sponsor.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to select one advertisement of the selected advertisements according to a time-of-day criterion.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to select the single fractional sponsor among the plurality of fractional sponsors according to predetermined priorities assigned to the plurality of fractional sponsors of the video program.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the system is configured to identify the plurality of fractional sponsors for the video program prior to receiving a request for the video program.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the selecting the advertisements from the single fractional sponsor is based, at least in part, on a content category assigned to the video program.

21. A method, comprising:

storing, by a computing device, a list identifying predetermined numeric audience percentages for a plurality of fractional sponsors of a program;

for each of a plurality of transmissions of the program, selecting one of the fractional sponsors based on the audience percentages of the plurality of fractional sponsors;

for each of the plurality of transmissions, selecting at least one advertisement from the corresponding selected one of the fractional sponsors based, at least in part, on demographic information regarding a user of a user device intended to receive the one transmission; and

performing the plurality of transmissions of the program, wherein all advertisements within each of the transmissions are from a corresponding selected one of the fractional sponsors.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein selecting the at least one advertisement from the corresponding selected one of the fractional sponsors is based, at least in part, on content category assigned to content within the one transmission.