Providing directed advertising based on user preferences

• US 9,426,537 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Tom, Richard W., Feng, Eric I., Zheng, Hua, Colaco, Jean-Paul, Miller, Adam W.
• Primary Examiner(s): DUFFIELD, JEREMY S
• Application Number:
  US14/064,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20140053187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,030 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/36
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• 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 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• 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 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method determines user preference information for a user for a number of advertisements in a set of advertising blocks and a temporal distribution of the advertising blocks. When each advertising block in the set of advertising blocks occurs according to the temporal distribution during sending of a video program, the method determines a number of advertisements in the advertising block based on the user preference information, determines advertisements for the advertising block equal to the number of advertisements, and sends the determined advertisements during the advertising block.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a computer system, advertisement options for configuring a total amount of advertisements that is set by a media program provider of a video program, wherein the advertisement options allow selecting of a number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a number of advertisements in the number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and allow a number restriction per advertising block, wherein the advertisement options are provided to a user without a need for the user to provide an indicia of compensation for receiving the advertisement options;

receiving, by the computer system, first user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertising blocks for the video program;

receiving, by the computer system, second user preference information from the user selecting the temporal distribution that distributes the selected number of advertising blocks throughout the video program, the temporal distribution being available to be specified by the user throughout the video program;

receiving, by the computer system, third user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks, wherein the third user preference information is restricted based on the number restriction per advertising block, and wherein the total amount of advertisements is constant irrespective of the first user preference information, the second user preference information, and the third user preference information;

using, by the computer system, the first, the second, and the third user preference information to configure the number of advertising blocks, the temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks for the video program;

determining, by the computer system, when each advertising block in the number of advertising blocks occurs according to the temporal distribution during sending of the video program;

when each advertising block occurs, performing;

determining, by the computer system, the number of advertisements in the advertising block based on the third user preference information;

determining, by the computer system, advertisements for the advertising block equal to the number of advertisements in the advertising block; and

sending, by the computer system, the determined advertisements during the advertising block.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer system, the first, the second, and the third user preference information from a user interface, the first, the second, and the third user preference information selected by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number restriction per advertising block limits the user such that each advertising block includes at least N number of advertisements and no more than M number of advertisements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein different advertisement options are presented to the user depending on whether compensation from the user was received or not.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user preference information states only one advertising block is included in the video program and the second user preference information indicates where in the video program the one advertising block is located.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user preference information describes the temporal distribution of a plurality of advertising blocks in the number of advertising blocks throughout the video program.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving fourth user preference information selecting specific advertisements that the user would like included in at least one of the number of advertising blocks.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sending the advertisement options to a user interface, the advertisement options including required advertisements that the user must view and elective advertisements that the user can choose to view; and

receiving the fourth user preference information that specifies which of the elective advertisements the user chooses to view.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the fourth user preference information describes a combination of the required advertisements and the elective advertisements the user chooses to view.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a sponsor is charged for at least one of the advertisements and a cost of the at least one of the advertisements is based on how the at least one advertisement is to be presented in the video program.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, the second, and the third user preference information is specified by the user without providing the indicia of compensation for viewing the video program.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, advertisement options for configuring a total amount of advertisements that is set by a media program provider of a video program, wherein the advertisement options allow selecting of a number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a number of advertisements in the number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and allow a number restriction per advertising block, wherein the advertisement options are provided to a user without a need for the user to provide an indicia of compensation for receiving the advertisement options;

displaying, by the computer system, the advertisement options in a user interface;

receiving, by the computer system, first user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertising blocks for the video program;

receiving, by the computer system, second user preference information from the user selecting the temporal distribution that distributes the selected number of advertising blocks throughout the video program, the temporal distribution being available to be specified by the user throughout the video program;

receiving, by the computer system, third user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks, wherein the third user preference information is restricted based on the number restriction per advertising block, and wherein the total amount of advertisements is constant irrespective of the first user preference information, the second user preference information, and the third user preference information;

sending, by the computer system, the first, the second, and the third user preference information for the number of advertising blocks, the temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks for the video program to a video program provider;

receiving, by the computer system, the video program, wherein each advertising block in the number of advertising blocks is configured in the video program according to the number of advertising blocks, the temporal distribution, and the number of advertisements in each of the number of advertising blocks specified in the first, the second, and the third user preference information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the number restriction per advertising block limits the user such that each advertising block in the number of advertising blocks includes at least N number of advertisements and no more than M number of advertisements.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein different advertisement options are displayed depending on whether compensation from the user was received or not.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving fourth user preference information selecting specific advertisements that the user would like included in at least one of the number of advertising blocks.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the advertisement options include required advertisements that the user must view and elective advertisements that the user can choose to view; and

the fourth user preference information specifies which of the elective advertisements the user chooses to view.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the fourth user preference information describes a combination of the required advertisements and the elective advertisements the user chooses to view.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein a sponsor is charged for at least one of the advertisements and a cost of the at least one of the advertisements is based on how the at least one advertisement is to be presented in the video program.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions, that when executed, control a computer system to be configured for:

providing advertisement options for configuring a total amount of advertisements that is set by a media program provider of a video program, wherein the advertisement options allow selecting of a number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a number of advertisements in the number of advertising blocks, allow selecting of a temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and allow a number restriction per advertising block, wherein the advertisement options are provided to a user without a need for the user to provide an indicia of compensation for receiving the advertisement options;

receiving first user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertising blocks for the video program;

receiving second user preference information from the user selecting the temporal distribution that distributes the selected number of advertising blocks throughout the video program, the temporal distribution being available to be specified by the user throughout the video program;

receiving third user preference information from the user selecting the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks, wherein the third user preference information is restricted based on the number restriction per advertising block, and wherein the total amount of advertisements is constant irrespective of the first user preference information, the second user preference information, and the third user preference information;

using the first, the second, and the third user preference information to configure the number of advertising blocks, the temporal distribution of the number of advertising blocks, and the number of advertisements to be included in each of the number of advertising blocks for the video program;

determining when each advertising block in the number of advertising blocks occurs according to the temporal distribution during sending of the video program;

when each advertising block occurs, performing;

determining the number of advertisements in the advertising block based on the third user preference information;

determining advertisements for the advertising block equal to the number of advertisements in the advertising block; and

sending the determined advertisements during the advertising block.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising:

sending the advertisement options to a user interface, wherein selection of the advertisement options is used to determine the first, the second, and the third user preference information.