Advertising insertion for playback of video streams on user devices

• US 9,264,750 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Mathews, Robin M., Ruffini, Michael P., Saxena, Tushar
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US12/977,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20120167132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/4532 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 21/47202 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

One or more servers in an IP network receive, from a user device, a selection of live streaming content and assemble an index file including links to chunks of the selected live streaming content and links to advertising files for insertion within the selected live streaming content. The one or more severs send, to the user device, a link to the index file associated with the selected live streaming content and receive, from the user device, a streaming request for the selected live streaming content. The one or more servers send, to the user device, the index file including the links to chunks of the selected live streaming content and the links to advertising files for insertion within the selected live streaming content. The user device may use the links to combine the chunks of the selected live streaming content and the advertising files into a single linear presentation. A standards-based client for the user device is used with the server side implementation. Multiple groupings of index files, based on various location and business criteria, allow for reduction in media stream creation, and granularity of addressing each subscriber.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more servers, comprising:

receiving, by one of the servers and from a content source, live video content that includes advertising segments within the live video content;

dividing, by one of the servers, the live video content into chunks, wherein the chunks include separate program content and advertising segments and, wherein an end of one or more of the chunks of the program content corresponds to a beginning of one or more of the chunks of the advertising segments;

assembling, by one of the servers, multiple index files that each define a single linear presentation for the live video content, wherein each of the index files include links to the chunks of the program content and links to advertising content for insertion in place of the chunks of the advertising segments;

receiving, by one of the servers and from a user device, a selection of the live video content;

identifying a location for the user device; and

sending, by one of the servers and to the user device, a link to one of the multiple index files based on the location for the user device;

adding to the one of the multiple index files, by one of the servers and after sending the one of the multiple index files, entries for links to additional chunks of the live video content when content corresponding to the live video content continues to be received from the content source.

2. The method of claim 1, where the links to the advertising content include uniform resource locators (URLs) and parameters for advertisements targeted to a user of the user device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if location-based restrictions apply to the selected live video content;

and

selecting the link to the index file based on the location-based restrictions and the location of the user device.

4. The method of claim 3, where the link to the index file includes one or more of:

a link to a blackout notification for user devices within a particular geographic location;

or

a link to alternate content for the selected live video content.

5. The method of claim 1, where identifying a location for the user device comprises determining a location based on one or more of:

login information of a user,

a device identifier,

a stored user profile, or

a serving base station for a wireless user device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device, a request for a list of content available to a user of the user device; and

sending, to the user device, the list of available content, where the list includes one or more titles of live content available for streaming to the user device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, to the user device, a link to a business rules server;

receiving, from the user device, a request for an advertising profile; and

sending, to the user device, an advertising profile identifier, where the advertising profile identifier maps the user device to an advertisement grouping.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, from the user device, a request for advertising associated with the advertising profile identifier; and

sending, to the user device, advertising files based on the advertising profile identifier.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding to the index file, after sending the index file, entries for additional links to advertising content for insertion between at least some of the links to the additional chunks.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assembling, by one of the servers, another index file including links to the chunks of the selected live streaming content and links to different advertising content for insertion in place of the one or more advertising segments.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the different advertising content is selected based on a profile associated with a user of the user device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the links to the advertising content include:

links to particular types of advertising content, or

advertising parameters that may be used by the user device to retrieve the advertising content.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by one of the servers and from the user device, a request for the chunks of the program content based on the links to the chunks of the program content in the index file; and

receiving, by a different one of the servers, a request for the advertising content based on the links to the advertising content in the index file.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein dividing the live video content into chunks comprises:

identifying a cue tone for an advertising segment in the live video content,

defining an end to a particular chunk of the program content based on the identified cue tone, and

indicating that a next chunk, after the particular chunk, begins the advertising segment.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein assembling the multiple index files comprises:

receiving an indication that a chunk in the live video content starts the one or more advertising segments,

selecting first advertising parameters for a first advertisement,

inserting, into a first one of the multiple index files and in place of the chunk that starts the one or more advertising segments, the advertising parameters,

selecting second advertising parameters for a second advertisement, and

inserting, into a second one of the multiple index files and in place of the chunk that starts the one or more advertising segments, the second advertising parameters.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the first or second advertising parameters includes:

selecting a particular advertisement based on instructions from a business rules server, or

selecting criteria for a user device to use to obtain an advertisement from a group of advertisements.

17. A system, comprising:

a web server to;

receive, from a user device, a request for a list of content available to a user of the user device,

send, to the user device, the list of available content, where the list includes one or more titles of live content available for streaming to the user device,

receive, from the user device, a selection of live streaming content, from the list of available content, and

send, to the user device, a link to one of multiple index files that each define a single linear presentation for associated with the selected live streaming content; and

an index server to;

receive, chunks of the selected live streaming content, wherein the chunks include separate program content and advertising segments and, wherein an end of one or more of the chunks of the program content corresponds to a beginning of one or more of the chunks of the advertising segments,

assemble the multiple index files, wherein each of the multiple index files includes a sequence of links to the chunks of the program content and links to advertising content for insertion in place of the chunks of the advertising segments,

receive, from the user device and via the link to the one of the multiple index files, a request for the one of the multiple index files,

send, to the user device, the one of the multiple index files,

add to the one of the multiple index files, after sending the one of the multiple index files, entries for links to additional chunks of the live streaming content when content corresponding to the selection of the live streaming content continues to be received from a content source.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

an advertising server to;

receive, from the user device and based on the one of the multiple index files, a request for an advertising file targeted to a user of the user device, and

send, to the user device, the advertising file.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a business rules server to;

receive, from the user device, a request for an advertising profile, and

send to the user device, an advertising profile identifier, where the advertising profile identifier maps the user device to an advertisement grouping,

wherein the user device receives a link to the business rules server from the web server.

20. The system of claim 18, where the links to advertising content include uniform resource locators (URLs) and multiple parameters to define content of an advertising file.