Dynamic advertisement stream replacement

• US 9,955,122 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2008
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Karlsson, Kent, Netterdag, Gabriel, Linderoth, Martin, Hllmarker, Ola
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ryan, Patrick A
• Application Number:
  US12/101,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20090260030A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,665 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 36, 725 42, 382232, 382234, 382236, 370394, 37524001
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for replacing default advertisement streams in a media stream with replacement advertisement streams. User profile information is obtained for a particular user and/or device. A default advertisement stream is identified and replaced with advertisement streams selected using the user profile information. Timestamp information and sequence number information is maintained to allow uninterrupted delivery of the modified media stream while customizing media streams for particular users.

Claims

1. A method to be performed by a content server, the method comprising:

maintaining profile information associated a plurality of mobile devices;

maintaining a plurality of replacement advertisement streams;

monitoring activity associated with the plurality of mobile devices, wherein monitoring activity includes maintaining information about what advertisements have already been viewed on the mobile devices;

receiving a plurality of live media streams from the plurality of content providers;

receiving a first request for a first live media stream from a first mobile device and a second request for the first live media stream from a second mobile device;

identifying a default advertisement stream in the first live media stream;

selecting a first replacement advertisement stream and a second replacement advertisement stream from the advertisement database;

removing and replacing the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the first replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the first mobile device and removing and replacing the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the second replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the second mobile device, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream is inserted in first live media stream based on an advertisement marker flag set in a header field, the marker flag being a single bit configured to indicate whether the packet is part of media content or part of an advertisement, wherein replacement advertisement packets corresponding to the replacement advertising stream are dynamically inserted as default advertisement packets are removed;

transmitting the first live media stream to the first mobile device and the second live media stream to the second mobile device;

wherein the content server is configured to ensure that the last packet before the removed default advertisement stream is either an I frame or a P frame and that the first frame of any replacement stream is an I frame such that the replacing advertising streams is seamless;

wherein the content server is further configured to maintain a current sequence number per RTP data stream;

wherein sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the first mobile device following insertion of the first replacement advertisement stream are modified and maintained to be different from sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the second mobile device following insertion of the second replacement advertisement stream

wherein if sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is different from the default advertising streams being replaced, the sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is modified to allow seamless client device operation;

wherein in addition to sequence numbers being modified, timestamps are also separately modified to reflect changes in streaming time based on the change in the number of packets, wherein for audio encodings, timestamps are modified by incrementing the timestamps by the packetization interval multiplied by an audio sampling rate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content providers include a plurality of cable and satellite providers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream includes more packets than the second replacement advertisement stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein sequence numbers in first live media stream are modified and maintained differently for numerous mobile devices following insertion of replacement advertisement streams.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the default advertisement stream is identified using a marker flag.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream is selected based at least partially on a timestamp information match with the default advertisement stream.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first live media stream is a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream.

8. An apparatus, comprising memory configured to maintain computer code for:

maintaining profile information associated a plurality of mobile devices;

maintaining a plurality of replacement advertisement streams;

monitoring activity associated with the plurality of mobile devices, wherein monitoring activity includes maintaining information about what advertisements have already been viewed on the mobile devices;

receiving a plurality of live media streams from the plurality of content providers;

receiving a first request for a first live media stream from a first mobile device and a second request for the first live media stream from a second mobile device;

identifying a default advertisement stream in the first live media stream;

selecting a first replacement advertisement stream and a second replacement advertisement stream from the advertisement database;

removing and replacing the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the first replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the first mobile device and removing and replacing the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the second replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the second mobile device, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream is inserted in first live media stream based on an advertisement marker flag set in a header field, the marker flag being a single bit configured to indicate whether the packet is part of media content or part of an advertisement, wherein replacement advertisement packets corresponding to the replacement advertising stream are dynamically inserted as default advertisement packets are removed;

transmitting the first live media stream to the first mobile device and the second live media stream to the second mobile device;

wherein the apparatus is configured to ensure that the last packet before the removed default advertisement stream is either an I frame or a P frame and that the first frame of any replacement stream is an I frame such that the replacing advertising streams is seamless;

wherein the apparatus is further configured to maintain a current sequence number per RTP data stream;

wherein sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the first mobile device following insertion of the first replacement advertisement stream are modified and maintained to be different from sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the second mobile device following insertion of the second replacement advertisement stream

wherein if sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is different from the default advertising streams being replaced, the sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is modified to allow seamless client device operation;

wherein in addition to sequence numbers being modified, timestamps are also separately modified to reflect changes in streaming time based on the change in the number of packets, wherein for audio encodings, timestamps are modified by incrementing the timestamps by the packetization interval multiplied by an audio sampling rate.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the plurality of content providers include a plurality of cable and satellite providers.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream includes more packets than the second replacement advertisement stream.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein sequence numbers in first live media stream are modified and maintained differently for numerous mobile devices following insertion of replacement advertisement streams.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the default advertisement stream is identified using a marker flag.

13. A system, comprising:

a server configured to monitor activity associated with a plurality of mobile devices and maintain profile information associated with the plurality of mobile devices, wherein monitoring activity includes maintaining information about what advertisements have already been viewed on the mobile devices;

an advertisement database configured to maintain a plurality of replacement advertisement streams;

a content server configured to receive a plurality of live media streams from the plurality of content providers, receive a first request for a first live media stream from a first mobile device and a second request for the first live media stream from a second mobile device, identify a default advertisement stream in the first live media stream, select a first replacement advertisement stream and a second replacement advertisement stream from the advertisement database, remove and replace the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the first replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the first mobile device, remove and replace the default advertisement stream in the first live media stream with the second replacement advertisement stream obtained using profile information associated with the second mobile device, and transmit the first live media stream to the first mobile device and the second live media stream to the second mobile device, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream is inserted in first live media stream based on an advertisement marker flag set in a header field, the marker flag being a single bit configured to indicate whether the packet is part of media content or part of an advertisement, wherein the content server is configured to ensure that the last packet before the removed default advertisement stream is either an I frame or a P frame and that the first frame of any replacement stream is an I frame such that the replacing advertising streams is seamless, wherein replacement advertisement packets corresponding to the replacement advertising stream are dynamically inserted as default advertisement packets are removed;

wherein sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the first mobile device following insertion of the first replacement advertisement stream are modified and maintained to be different from sequence numbers in the first live media stream transmitted to the second mobile device following insertion of the second replacement advertisement stream, wherein the content server is further configured to maintain a current sequence number per RTP data stream,

wherein if sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is different from the default advertising streams being replaced, the sequence information corresponding to the first or second replacement advertisement stream is modified to allow seamless client device operation;

wherein in addition to sequence numbers being modified, timestamps are also separately modified to reflect changes in streaming time based on the change in the number of packets, wherein for audio encodings, timestamps are modified by incrementing the timestamps by the packetization interval multiplied by an audio sampling rate.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of content providers include a plurality of cable and satellite providers.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream includes more packets than the second replacement advertisement stream.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein sequence numbers in first live media stream are modified and maintained differently for numerous mobile devices following insertion of replacement advertisement streams.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the default advertisement stream is identified using a marker flag.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the first replacement advertisement stream is selected based at least partially on a timestamp information match with the default advertisement stream.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the first live media stream is a Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) stream.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein a content server is connected over a network to a controller operable to establish a session with the first mobile device using a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the content server includes the replacement advertisement stream without decoding payload data in the plurality of packets.