U.S. patent application number 10/759620 was filed with the patent office on 2004-07-29 for advertisement management system for digital video streams.
Invention is credited to Eldering, Charles A., Flickinger, Gregory C., Hamilton, Jeffrey S..
Application Number | 20040148625 10/759620 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32736617 |
Filed Date | 2004-07-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040148625 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Eldering, Charles A. ; et
al. |
July 29, 2004 |
Advertisement management system for digital video streams
Abstract
An Ad Management System (AMS) for managing sales and insertion
of targeted advertisements into advertising opportunities
("avails"). The AMS provides advertisers an ability to describe
their advertisements (ad characteristics) in terms of target market
demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other ad
specific parameters. The AMS receives the ad characteristics and
matches the ads to the avails. The AMS tracks different avails
including duration and bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of
schemes to determine if the ad can be placed in the avail including
comparing bandwidth requirements. The AMS targets advertisements by
correlating subscriber characteristics to the ad characteristics.
The subscriber characteristics may be associated with groups of
subscribers (e.g. nodes in cable television environments) or to
individual subscribers
Inventors: |
Eldering, Charles A.;
(Doylestown, PA) ; Flickinger, Gregory C.;
(Horsham, PA) ; Hamilton, Jeffrey S.; (Doylestown,
PA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
EXPANSE NETWORKS, INC.
6206 KELLERS CHURCH ROAD
PIPERSVILLE
PA
18947
US
|
Family ID: |
32736617 |
Appl. No.: |
10/759620 |
Filed: |
January 16, 2004 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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10759620 |
Jan 16, 2004 |
|
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09553637 |
Apr 20, 2000 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
725/34 ;
348/E7.063; 375/E7.024; 725/35; 725/42 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0273 20130101;
H04N 21/25891 20130101; H04N 21/812 20130101; H04N 21/235 20130101;
G06Q 30/0277 20130101; G06Q 30/0255 20130101; G06Q 30/0269
20130101; H04N 7/165 20130101; H04N 21/25883 20130101; H04N 21/2385
20130101; H04N 21/23424 20130101; H04N 21/8456 20130101; H04N
21/26241 20130101; H04N 21/44224 20200801; H04N 21/44231 20130101;
H04N 21/6582 20130101; H04N 21/44016 20130101; H04N 21/4331
20130101; H04N 21/435 20130101; H04N 21/2547 20130101; H04N
21/44204 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
725/034 ;
725/035; 725/042 |
International
Class: |
H04N 005/445; G06F
013/00; G06F 003/00; H04N 007/10; H04N 007/025 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for managing selection and insertion of advertisements,
the method comprising: determining an avail bandwidth for an
advertisement opportunity within a program stream; receiving
advertisement characteristics for a plurality of advertisements,
wherein the advertisement characteristics include intended target
market characteristics and minimum bandwidth requirements, wherein
the minimum bandwidth requirements represent required amount of
bandwidth available within the program stream for the advertisement
to be inserted; and selecting targeted advertisements for insertion
into the advertisement opportunity, wherein the targeted
advertisements are selected by comparing the avail bandwidth and
the minimum bandwidth requirements.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting targeted
advertisements includes selecting advertisements having minimum
bandwidth requirements in close proximity to the avail
bandwidth.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting targeted
advertisements includes selecting advertisements having minimum
bandwidth requirements less than or equal to the avail
bandwidth.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving subscriber
characteristics for a plurality of subscribers, wherein said
selecting targeted advertisements includes comparing the intended
target market characteristics and the subscriber
characteristics.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein said receiving subscriber
characteristics includes receiving node characteristics that are an
aggregate of the subscriber characteristics for subscribers
associated with a node.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein said receiving subscriber
characteristics includes receiving the subscriber characteristics
from publicly available data.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the publicly available data
includes real estate records and tax assessment records.
8. The method of claim 4, wherein said receiving subscriber
characteristics includes receiving subscriber characteristics
associated with a group of subscribers.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving avail
characteristics, wherein said selecting targeted advertisements
includes comparing the intended target market characteristics and
the avail characteristics.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the intended target market
characteristics include demographics.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein a probabilistic distribution is
assigned to various demographic attributes.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising inserting the
targeted advertisement into the avail.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising delivering the
advertisement to at least some subset of the subscribers.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the subset includes individual
subscribers.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the subset includes a group of
subscribers.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the group of subscribers are
generated based on connectivity.
17. The method of claim 13, wherein the subscribers include at
least some subset of individuals, households, and groups.
18. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining includes
determining the avail bandwidth for the advertisement opportunity
within a program stream that is part of a multiplexed stream having
a plurality of program streams, wherein the multiplexed stream is
allocated a multiplex bandwidth and the multiplex bandwidth is
divided among the plurality of program streams into program
bandwidths, the program bandwidth allocated based on bit rate
associated with program contents, and wherein the avail bandwidth
is based on the bandwidth available in the multiplexed stream
during the advertisement opportunity.
19. A method for managing selection and insertion of
advertisements, the method comprising: recognizing an avail in a
program stream, wherein the avail has an avail bandwidth associated
therewith; receiving advertisement characteristics for a plurality
of advertisements, wherein the advertisement characteristics
include minimum bandwidth requirements, wherein the minimum
bandwidth requirements represent required amount of bandwidth
available within the program stream for the advertisement to be
inserted; and determining a set of advertisements that can be
inserted into the avail, wherein said determining is based on
whether the avail bandwidth is at least the minimum bandwidth
requirements; and selecting an advertisement for insertion from the
set of advertisements.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein said recognizing includes
recognizing the avail within a program stream that is part of a
multiplexed stream having a plurality of program streams, wherein
the multiplexed stream is allocated a multiplex bandwidth and the
multiplex bandwidth is divided among the plurality of program
streams into program bandwidths, the program bandwidth allocated
based on bit rate associated with program contents, and wherein the
avail bandwidth is based on the bandwidth available in the
multiplexed stream during the avail.
21. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving subscriber
characteristics for a plurality of subscribers, wherein the
advertisement characteristics further include intended target
market characteristics, and wherein said selecting includes
selecting the advertisement based on similarities between the
intended target market characteristics for the advertisements and
the subscriber characteristics.
22. A computer based method for managing selection and insertion of
advertisements into a program stream, the method comprising:
receiving a program stream having a time varying bit rate and at
least one advertisement insertion opportunity, and wherein the at
least one advertisement insertion opportunity has an advertisement
insertion opportunity bit rate; selecting an advertisement for
insertion into the program stream, wherein the advertisement has a
minimum acceptable bit rate, wherein the minimum acceptable bit
rate represents minimum amount of bit rate that must be available
for the advertisement to be played in an acceptable format;
determining if the minimum acceptable bit rate is greater than or
less than the advertisement insertion opportunity bit rate; and
inserting the advertisement when the minimum acceptable bit rate is
less than the advertisement insertion opportunity bit rate.
23. The method of claim 22, further comprising halting the
insertion of the digitally compressed advertisement when the
minimum acceptable bit rate is greater than the advertisement
insertion opportunity bit rate.
24. The method of claim 22, further comprising receiving subscriber
characteristics for a plurality of subscribers, and wherein said
selecting includes selecting the advertisement based on
similarities between intended target market characteristics for the
advertisements and the subscriber characteristics.
Description
[0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 09/553,637 filed on Apr. 20, 2000. U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 09/553,637 is incorporated herein in its entirety, but is
not admitted to be prior art.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Advertising forms an important part of broadcast programming
including broadcast video (television), radio and printed media.
The revenues generated from advertisers subsidize and in some cases
pay entirely for programming received by subscribers. For example,
over the air broadcast programming (non-cable television) is
provided entirely free to viewers and is essentially paid for by
the advertisements placed in the shows that are watched. Even in
cable television systems and satellite-based systems, the revenues
from advertisements subsidize the cost of the programming, and were
it not for advertisements, the monthly subscription rates for cable
television would be many times higher than at present. Radio
similarly offers free programming based on payments for
advertising. The low cost of newspapers and magazines is based on
the subsidization of the cost of reporting, printing and
distribution from the advertising revenues.
[0003] Techniques for inserting pre-recorded spot messages into
broadcast transmission have been known. Generally, broadcast video
sources (i.e., TV networks, special interest channels, etc.)
schedule their air time with two types of information:
"programming" for the purpose of informing or entertaining, and
"avails" for the purpose of advertising. The avails may occupy
roughly 20-25% of the total transmitting time, and are usually
divided into smaller intervals of 15, 30, or 60 seconds.
[0004] In many prior art systems, the insertion of advertisements
in avails is handled by a combination of cue-tone detectors,
switching equipment and tape players which hold the advertising
material. Upon receipt of the cue tones, an insertion controller
automatically turns on a tape player containing the advertisement.
Switching equipment then switches the system output from the video
and audio signals received from the programming source to the
output of the tape player. The tape player remains on for the
duration of the advertising, after which the insertion controller
causes the switching equipment to switch back to the video and
audio channels of the programming source. When switched, these
successive program and advertising segments usually feed to a
radio-frequency (RF) modulator for delivery to the subscribers.
[0005] Many subscriber television systems, such as cable television
are currently being converted to digital equipment. These new
digital systems compress the advertising data according to
decompression standards, such as a Motion Picture Experts Group
(MPEG) compression standard (currently MPEG-2 standard). The
compressed data is then stored as a digital file on a large disk
drive (or several drives). Upon receipt of the cue tone, the
digital file is spooled ("played") off of the drive to a
decompressor. The video and accompanying audio data are
decompressed back to standard video and audio, and switched into
the video/audio feed of the RF modulator for delivery to the
subscriber.
[0006] A prior art (present model) of providing advertisements
along with actual programming is based on linked sponsorship. In
the linked sponsorship model, the advertisements are inserted into
the actual programming based on the demographic information related
to the viewers/subscribers. However, the ability to transmit
information digitally allows programming and advertisements to be
transported from various geographic locations and arranged in a
fashion which permits an optimized program to be presented to a
subscriber.
[0007] The transition to the digital age permits a migration to new
methods of advertising based on what is termed orthogonal
sponsorship. In orthogonal sponsorship, the advertisements are
targeted at subscribers based on a determination that the
advertisement will be of interest to the subscriber and that the
subscriber is likely to ultimately purchase the product or service
being advertised.
[0008] The digital systems are capable of handling both linked
sponsorship, orthogonal sponsorship and a combination of both.
However, what is required is a method and apparatus for identifying
advertising opportunities, presenting those opportunities to
advertisers, receiving information about the advertisements,
determining the ability to insert the advertisements, managing the
insertion process, and returning to the program in the digital
video arena.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The present invention is a method and apparatus for the
managing advertisements in a digital environment, including methods
for selecting suitable advertising based on subscriber profiles,
and substituting advertisements in a program stream with targeted
advertisements.
[0010] The Ad Management System (AMS) of the present invention
manages the sales and insertion of digital video advertisements
(hereinafter "ads") in telecommunications systems, such as cable
television (CATV), switched digital video (SDV), and streaming
video (Internet) based environments. The AMS provides advertisers
an ability to describe their advertisements in terms of target
market demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other
ad specific parameters.
[0011] The AMS receives the ad descriptions that include some or
all of the aforementioned parameters, and matches the ads to the
advertising opportunities ("avails") available in the programming
stream. The AMS tracks different avails including duration and
bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of schemes to determine
if the ad can be placed in the avail. In one embodiment, the ads
are received in a high resolution state with minimum compression,
and are compressed to a predetermined available bit rate (ABR)
bandwidth.
[0012] One of the key functions of the AMS is its ability to allow
ads to be matched to groups of subscribers (e.g. nodes in CATV
environments) or to individual subscribers in the SDV or streaming
video environments. The service is provided at no cost to the
subscriber/consumer, however, the economic efficiencies are created
and may be used to provide a revenue stream to the cable operator,
profiler and ad service operator.
[0013] Another key aspect of the present invention is one or more
privacy features wherein the raw consumer/subscriber data is
maintained private on a Secured Correlation Server (SCS). The raw
consumer/subscriber data is not available for sale or is not
accessible by third parties. Thus, the AMS forms part of a matching
service, in which advertisers work in conjunction with subscribers,
profilers (such as video surfstream profilers, Internet profilers,
and retail outlets), and network operators to allow subscribers to
receive more targeted ads while protecting the privacy of the
subscribers. The network operator may be a cable, Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL), or satellite network operator. Subscribers
receive the benefits of being able to have advertisements which are
more targeted to their lifestyle in addition to receiving discounts
from retailers and service providers.
[0014] Furthermore, a method of dynamic ad linking is presented in
which a present ad in an actual programming (e.g., a primary
program stream) can be replaced by another ad targeted at the
subscriber. A plurality of different schemes may be used for
dynamic linking, e.g., the ads may be statistically multiplexed
within a program stream in real-time. Alternatively, a local
storage may be used to store the ad for subsequent insertion into
the program stream.
[0015] These and other features and objects of the invention will
be more fully understood from the following detailed description of
the preferred embodiments, which should be read in light of the
accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and
form a part of the specification, illustrate the embodiments of the
present invention and, together with the description serve to
explain the principles of the invention.
[0017] In the drawings:
[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates an advertisement management system (AMS)
in accordance with the one embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate exemplary use of public
information based on median home prices or starter home prices;
[0020] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary tax assessment data that can
be used for determining the applicability of an advertisement;
[0021] FIGS. 4A-4D illustrate exemplary graphical representation of
ad characterization vectors;
[0022] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary case of demographic
correlation;
[0023] FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary case of utilizing avail
opportunities in conjunction with correlation data to match the
advertisements;
[0024] FIG. 7 illustrates a bar graph indicator utilized for
correlating advertisements and subscribers;
[0025] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary pricing scheme;
[0026] FIG. 9 is a functional diagram showing different functions
of avail sales/auctioning module; and;
[0027] FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary method of dynamic ad
linking.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
[0028] In describing an embodiment of the invention illustrated in
the drawings, specific terminology will be used for the sake of
clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to
the specific terms so selected, and it is to be understood that
each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate
in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.
[0029] With reference to the drawings, in general, and FIGS. 1
through 10 in particular, the method and system of the present
invention is disclosed.
[0030] Generally, an advertisement management system (AMS) in
accordance with the principles of the present invention consists of
one or more subsystems which allow for the characterization of the
advertisement, determination of advertising opportunities (avails),
characterization of the subscriber, correlation of the
advertisement with a subscriber or group of subscribers, and sale
of the advertisement, either through a traditional placement
(sale), an Internet based sale, or an Internet based auction.
[0031] As illustrated in FIG. 1, an AMS 100 comprises an ad
characterization module 102, an avail opportunities module 104, a
subscriber characterization module 108, a correlation module 110,
and an avail sales/auctioning module 112. The AMS 100 is also
configured to communicate to an ad insertion module 114. The ad
insertion module 114 may be located within the AMS 100 or may be
located externally.
[0032] The ad characterization module 102 allows one or more
advertisers to enter key characterization data regarding the
advertisement and the target market. The avail opportunities module
104 allows the content providers/producers of program streams to
indicate various avails that are available in the programming
stream, their basic characteristics, and the extent to which they
can be substituted. The subscriber characterization module 108
allows for the collection of subscriber data. The subscriber data
can be collected from a variety of sources including private
databases external to the system or public databases that contain
information relevant to the subscriber.
[0033] With respect to private data, the subscriber has generally
paid for the access to this data, e.g., the subscriber may receive
product promotions or other offers. The subscriber is also provided
access to his private data. The subscriber may access the private
data to assure the integrity of the data, e.g., the data accurately
reflects his interests and lifestyle.
[0034] The subscriber data may be based on an individual
subscriber, a group of subscribers, a household or a group of
households. Techniques evolving the coarse discrimination of
subscribers and grouping of subscribers into large groups can be
used to associate a serving area with a particular advertisement.
For example, in a cable television (CATV) system, it may be
determined that a group of subscribers associated with a particular
optical distribution node speak a particular language. This
knowledge may then be used to direct a particular set of
advertisements to that node. As an example, a node associated with
Spanish-speaking individuals can have advertisements in Spanish
inserted in the programming streams.
[0035] The specific targeting can also be based on public
information such has median home prices or starter home prices.
These prices can be further associated with zip codes, as shown in
FIGS. 2A and 2B. The publicly available data may be subscriber
specific. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of tax assessment data that
can be used as a factor in determining the applicability of an
advertisement. In the case of tax assessment data, the subscriber's
name, address and tax parcel number are known along with an
assessed value of the property. The assessed value of the property
can be used to determine an approximate income range for the family
and thus specifically target advertisements.
[0036] The publicly available data is not restricted to real estate
data, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, but can include a variety of
demographic data including median household age, household income,
race and other characteristics which can be determined on a group
or individual level.
[0037] Private data can also be amassed and can include specific
viewing habits or purchase records of the subscriber.
Alternatively, the subscriber may complete questionnaires and forms
that indicate lifestyle, product preference and previous purchases.
All the available private and public information is used by the
subscriber characterization module 108 for characterizing one or
more subscribers. The subscriber characteristics may be based upon
some known features. For example, it is known that the Nielsen data
tracks the number of households watching particular TV programming.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, such
information may be used to characterize one or more characteristics
of the subscribers.
[0038] The ad characterization module 102 has an advertiser
interface, e.g., a Web (browser) interface, that allows advertisers
to enter parameters which characterize their advertisement and are
used to form ad characterization vectors. The advertisers may
manually create ad characterization vectors by entering useful
information via the browser interface. In this case, the ad
characterization vector contains a simple deterministic value (0 or
1) for each category. Alternatively, the vectors may contain
probabilistic distributions and may allow advertisers to develop
more complex models for the target market. The principles of the
present invention are flexible and may operate with either simple
deterministic values or with complex models. Furthermore, heuristic
rules may be defined for generating ad characterization vectors.
These heuristic rules are logical rules or conditional
probabilities that aid in the formation of ad characterization
vectors. The heuristic rules in logic form allow the system to
apply generalizations that have been learned from external studies.
In the case of conditional probabilities, determinations are based
on statistical probabilities that define ad characterization
vectors.
[0039] Furthermore, the ad characterization module 102 supports
entry of the one or more parameters that are used by advertisers to
target the advertisement and create advertisement vectors. The
choices for these parameters may be presented as pull down
selections in a browser utilizing a graphical user interface (GUI).
In an exemplary case, the following categories may be used:
[0040] Advertisement duration: 10 s; 15 s; 30 s; 60 s
[0041] Minimum advertisement bandwidth: 2 Mb/s, 4 Mb/s, 6 Mb/s, 8
Mb/s, 10 Mb/s
[0042] Household Income: <$30K, $31K-$50K, $51K-75K, $76K-$100K,
>$100K, no preference
[0043] Household size: 1, 2, 3-4, 4-6, >6, no preference
[0044] Median household age: <25, 25-35, 36-45, 46-55, >56,
no preference
[0045] Ethnic group: Caucasian, African American, Hispanic,
Asian-Pacific, no preference.
[0046] In one implementation, when "no preference" is chosen, equal
weighting is given to each category within the particular
demographic parameter. For example, if no preference is selected
for household income, all categories within the household income
demographic are assigned a value of 0.2 (1 divided by the number of
choices, which in this case is 5). After weights have been assigned
to all the categories, one or more ad characterization vectors may
be generated based on weighted categories. These ad
characterization vectors assist in characterization of various
advertisements. An exemplary graphical representation of these
vectors is presented in FIGS. 4A-4D. Other categories based on
demographic factors, socio-economic factors, and consumption
factors (purchase information) may also be used.
[0047] The avail opportunities module 104 permits an operator or a
video programming manager an ability to list and organize the
particular avails in a programming stream. The avail opportunities
module 104 comprises an interface that may be used for manual entry
of data, or may be used for collection of avail data from network
or other content related databases. The avail data may include
specifics about the avail opportunities, such as duration,
broadcast time, etc. and may include demographic data pertaining to
the program the avail is associated with, such as household income,
ethnic group, etc. The avail data may be used for formation of one
or more avail characterization vectors. These avail
characterization vectors are correlated with the ad
characterization vectors to determine how avails should be
correlated with the ads. The result of this correlation (avail
correlation) is an enhanced measurement of how well the correlation
exists between an ad and an avail. One or more heuristic rules may
be defined for the generation avail characterization vectors. These
heuristic rules may be expressed in terms of logical rules as well
as conditional probabilities.
[0048] In an exemplary case, the avail opportunities module 104 may
have a GUI and the operator may be presented with the following
menus to assist in generation of the avail information:
[0049] Programming opportunity: fill-in line regarding the
programming in which the avail is located (e.g. Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, or Monday Night Football)
[0050] Avail duration: the exact time duration of the avail (e.g.
30s)
[0051] Initial bandwidth: the minimum bandwidth which is given to
the avail, and to which the initial advertisement is maximally
compressed. As an example, if an advertisement is initially placed
in a program stream which is compressed to 6 Mb/s, the initial
bandwidth of the avail is 6 Mb/s.
[0052] Initial scheduled broadcast time: the initial date/time
(Universal Standard Time, UST) at which the avail will appear.
[0053] Local preemption authorized: this checkbox indicates if an
avail can be substituted at the local level or if such substitution
is prohibited.
[0054] Household Income: <$30K, $31K-$50K, $51K-75K, $76K-$100K,
>$100K, not designated
[0055] Household size: 1, 2, 3-4, 4-6, >6, not designated
[0056] Median household age: <25, 25-35, 36-45, 46-55, >56,
not designated
[0057] Ethnic group: Caucasian, African American, Hispanic,
Asian-Pacific, not designated.
[0058] The subscriber characterization module 108 provides the
operator the ability to characterize the subscriber in Switched
Digital Video (SDV) mode or in non-SDV mode. The characterizations
of the subscriber are used to form a subscriber characterization
vector.
[0059] In a non-SDV mode, the operator is presented with a node
demographics interface that allows the operator to manually program
the node characteristics using pull-down menus, or to import the
data from a file. The node characteristics are determined from
information manually collected by the operator, or assembled using
agents that collect the information from publicly available
sources. The node demographics interface presents both an input
screen and a node characteristics screen, wherein the node
characteristics screen further includes a graphical representation
of the node demographics. Generally, a browser-based interface
allows the operator to analyze the input characteristics, and to
characterize the node. The characteristics that are input and
displayed include the following:
[0060] Household Income: <$30K, $31K-$50K, $51K-75K, $76K-$100K,
>$100K
[0061] Household size: 1, 2, 3-4, 4-6, >6
[0062] Median household age: <25, 25-35, 36-45, 46-55,
>56
[0063] Ethnic group: Caucasian, African American, Hispanic,
Asian-Pacific
[0064] The browser-based interface also permits the subscriber
characterization module 108 to fill in probabilistic values for
each of the parameters. A pull down menu may be utilized with
increments of 0.1, and a normalization error message may be
generated if the operator generates a series of values which when
summed exceed one. If the operator enters values that do not sum to
1.0, another normalization error message may be generated and
displayed. As an example, if the operator characterizes the node as
having equal probability of the household income being in any one
of the ranges shown above, the value that must be entered in each
category is 0.2.
[0065] In an SDV mode, the operator is presented with a subscriber
information interface. By utilizing this interface, the system is
capable of retrieving (based on a unique subscriber ID) demographic
and product preference characteristics for each
subscriber/household. Generally, to protect privacy, the subscriber
private information is not used in the subscriber ID, therefore the
subscriber is not identifiable by the ID. The demographic and
product preference characteristics may be stored locally or may be
stored in one or more network databases configured to directly
communicate with the AMS 100.
[0066] In an exemplary case, information for a limited number of
subscribers may be stored and may be retrievable and displayable on
the interface. The principal characteristics of the displayed
subscriber information include:
[0067] Household Income: <$30K, $31K-$50K, $51K-75K, $76K-$100K,
>$100K
[0068] Household size: 1, 2, 3-4, 4-6, >6
[0069] Median household age: <25, 25-35, 36-45, 46-55,
>56
[0070] Ethnic group: Caucasian, African American, Hispanic,
Asian-Pacific
[0071] The subscriber characteristics may be determined in a
plurality of ways including by utilizing previously described
public and private data. These characteristics may also be
determined based on probabilistic measures in an external
surfstream characterization module (not shown). The surfstream
characterization module monitors the subscriber viewing habits and
determines subscriber preferences by utilizing one or more
pre-determined heuristic rules.
[0072] The correlation module 110 correlates the ad
characterization vectors with the subscriber/node characterization
vectors to produce a demographic correlation, and also correlates
the ad characterization vectors with the avail characterization
vectors to produce an avail correlation. The correlation values may
be calculated for each ad characterization vector and the
corresponding subscriber/node characterization vector, as well as
for each ad characterization vector and the avail characterization
vectors. In one implementation, the correlations are generated by
multiplying corresponding elements of the vector and summing the
result (dot product). Different correlation values are normalized
such that the resulting correlation value is normalized to 1, with
a value of 1 indicating that the maximum correlation has been
obtained.
[0073] An exemplary case of a demographic correlation is
illustrated in FIG. 5. The calculation for the avail correlation
may be performed similarly. The average value (sum of correlations
divided by 2) of the demographic and avail correlations may be
calculated to produce an average correlation which is simply known
as the "combined correlation". An impact value may also be
calculated which is generally equal to the number of subscribers
(estimated viewership) multiplied by the combined correlation
value.
[0074] The avail sales/auctioning module 1 12 utilizes information
regarding the avail opportunities in conjunction with the results
of the correlation to match advertisements with avails and to
complete the transaction. Generally, the avail sales/auctioning
module 112 collects information about all avails matching the basic
time duration and bandwidth characteristics, along with the program
they are presently linked to, and the combined correlation between
the advertisement and the avail listed. FIG. 6 illustrates such
information in a tabular form.
[0075] Based on the collected information, the avail
sales/auctioning module 112 displays, in a graphical
representation, correlations between a proposed advertisement and
the various subscribers. FIG. 7 illustrates this information as a
bar graph and numeric indicator.
[0076] The avail sales/auctioning module 112 also calculates the
placement of the advertisements based on the degree of correlation
and a pricing scheme as described below. An exemplary case is
illustrated in FIG. 8. In this example, a simple pricing scheme is
utilized in which the price for placement of the advertisement
depends linearly on the correlation. Also, the degree of
correlation may be used to offer discounts on the pricing. Higher
correlation means lower discounts to the advertisers, e.g., a
correlation of 0.9 results in a 0% discount, and a correlation of
0.2 results in a 30% discount of the listed price.
[0077] The pricing scheme may further be utilized for the sale of
avails by ran king the correlations of the avails and the ads in
decreasing order as a function of the degree of correlation. When
multiple ads are used with an avail, the ad with the highest
correlation (and its corresponding price) is selected for placement
in the avail. If multiple ads indicate the same degree of
correlation, the first ad in the list is selected for placement in
the avail. Furthermore, the revenues may be optimized by announcing
avails to more than one advertiser, or by auctioning available
avails to various advertisers or ad sources.
[0078] FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary case wherein the avail
sales/auctioning module 112 announces the avail opportunities to
various advertisers and ad sources. This announcement may be made
via the Internet. Advertisers/ad sources receive the announcement
and respond with one or more ad characteristics that include
information regarding the product/service advertised, target market
characteristics, target programs, duration of the advertisement,
and minimum bandwidth required to transmit the advertisement.
[0079] Based on the received ad characteristics, the AMS 100
determines the characteristics of available slots, including an
estimated or exact number of viewers. The AMS 100 may report a real
time report on the viewing audience (i.e., the number of viewers at
that time). In CATV, the number of active viewers can be reported
back to the AMS 100 (in real time) by the use of a return path data
modem in the set-top. In SDV systems, such as those based on
Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL), Fiber-To-The-Curb (FTTC), and
Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) transmission technologies, the selection
of the video programming occurs at the central office, and it is
possible for the system to determine the number of active viewers
of a program at any given moment.
[0080] In an alternative implementation, the exact number of
viewers are not determined and statistical information such as
Neilsen data is reported to the advertisers. The statistical data
can be updated relatively frequently, such that the reports
received by the advertisers are based on monthly, weekly, or even
daily determinations of the approximate number of viewers of a
program.
[0081] Once information regarding the advertising opportunities has
been transmitted to the advertisers/ad sources, the advertisers/ad
sources may submit appropriate bid/bids for the advertisement. The
avail sales/auctioning module 112 receives the bids, and after
evaluation either accepts the bids or declines the bids. Multiple
rounds of bidding may be utilized to insure that the highest price
for the advertisement is received by the AMS 100.
[0082] Once the bidding process is complete, the avail
sales/auctioning module 112 transmits an acceptance notification to
the requesting advertiser/ad source. The advertiser/ad source then
transmits the actual contents of the advertisement. The contents
are then placed in a suitable format and sent to the ad insertion
module 114 for insertion into the actual program streams (set of
program signals). These program streams may be Internet web traffic
or television programming.
[0083] The ad may be multiplexed in a program stream (synchronously
or asynchronously), or may be carried as an in-band, or and
out-of-band advertisement channel. In either case, a dynamic
linking process is used to insert the advertisements in the program
streams.
[0084] FIG. 10 illustrates the method of dynamic ad linking. In
dynamic ad linking, one or more advertisements from an ad stream
not initially associated with a program stream can be inserted into
that program stream for viewing by the subscriber. As illustrated
in FIG. 10, six different program streams are multiplexed together,
and the advertisements (AD1-AD12) are carried on a separate
channel. In the dynamic linking process, the advertisements are not
pre-assigned to any program streams and are instead dynamically
linked based on the correlation results. For example, program
stream 1 can have AD3 inserted into the stream in real-time and be
viewed by the subscriber. Similarly, program stream 2 may have ad
AD7 dynamically associated with the program stream. The remaining
of the program streams may be assigned either of the
advertisements. The advantage of the dynamic linking technique is
that ads contained with a multiplexed stream can be selected and
directed to a viewer. Advertisements are no longer limited to the
ads initially associated with program stream.
[0085] The dynamic linking may be employed in a CATV system in
which a number of programs are multiplexed into a 27 Mbps data
stream. The advertisements may be dynamically linked to the program
streams simply by re-addressing one or more identifiers associated
with the advertisements at the time of synchronous ad insertion.
For synchronous systems, dynamic linking at the commencement of the
advertisement occurs when an ad to be selected from the program
stream is inserted into another program stream. As an example, a
viewer of program 1 can have an ad from ad stream AD7 directed at
the time of commencement of the advertisement.
[0086] Although the dynamic linking method has been described with
respect to a cable television system and the multiplexed stream
within a 6 MHz channel, its use is not limited to cable systems but
can be equally applied to other broadcast systems or switched
digital systems which transmit two or more programs.
[0087] Once the ad has been inserted in a program stream by the ad
insertion module 114, the ad is transmitted to the subscriber along
with the actual program stream for viewing. Once the advertisement
has been transmitted, the associated charges are billed to the
advertiser that in turn submits a payment. A billing module (not
shown) may be added to handle the charges and the payments. In one
embodiment, the charges and payment are transmitted electronically
over the Internet. In an alternate embodiment, traditional methods
of notification and payment (e.g. notification of charges via
invoices and payment via check) may be used.
[0088] In a preferred embodiment, the AMS 100 is implemented on
server based technology. As an example, processors provided by
Intel under the trademark PENTIUM can be used in a single processor
or multiple processor configuration. The operating system offered
by Microsoft Corporation under the trademark WINDOWS NT SERVER can
be used as the basis for the platform. The AMS 100 can be realized
in a software means in a number of programming languages including
but not limited to Java, C, and C++. In one embodiment the portions
of the system which interface to the Internet are based on Java and
Java scripts. The communications with advertisers can take place by
executing one or more Java scripts which exchange information
between the AMS 100 and the advertisers. The operations of the unit
may also be realized in C language.
[0089] At the subscriber side, the programming and the target
advertisements are received by a television, television set-top, or
personal computer that decodes the multiplexed video programming,
and displays it on a television or a monitor. The set-top can be
based on a cable receiver including a microprocessor, and an MPEG
video decompression device.
[0090] The program and ad signals are generally transported to the
subscriber over a variety of transmission systems including cable,
satellite, wireless, xDSL, FTTC or FTTH networks. At the subscriber
side of the transmission system, the set-top or personal computer
contains hardware for the reception of signals from the network and
can include multiple tuners for receiving video programming along
with advertisements as well as one or more microprocessors and
associated random access memory (RAM) which can be used for storage
of ads or video programming as required by the dynamic linking ad
insertion techniques. The information required to associate the ad
with the programming can be transmitted from the ad manager over
the same channel used to transmit the video. In one implementation,
the MPEG standard allows for the transport of data, however, it is
envisioned that alternate techniques are available to transmit data
to the set-top.
[0091] A number of other embodiments (implementation techniques)
are used to perform the dynamic advertisement linking, including
but not limited to substitution of a program identifier or other
identifier into the advertisement which is to be viewed, and
replacing the packets containing the original advertisements with
the substituted advertisement. Suitable identifiers include Virtual
Path Identifier/Virtual Channel Identifier (VPI/VCI) identifiers,
MPEG program IDs, or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) addresses. Methods of substituting the
identifiers and multiplexing in the substitute packets containing
the advertisements are well known to those skilled in the art.
[0092] In another embodiment, an interface is developed with
different system operators or content providers that may provide
descriptions of the avails including date/time of showing, program,
and minimum bandwidth requirements. In another embodiment, an
additional module termed Subscriber/Consumer Authorization Module
(not shown) indicating that a subscriber has enrolled for the
privacy safeguard features may be added. The subscriber/consumer
authorization module is compatible with generally known billing
systems to allow for the export of discount information to the
billing system. The subscriber/consumer authorization module is
capable of exporting records to other database systems (e.g. retail
store databases) indicating the discounts consumers are eligible
for based on their use of the system.
[0093] In another embodiment, the AMS 100 is configured to have the
ability to receive surfstream profiles from a SDV system. These
surfstream profiles will be in the form of subscriber/household
characterization vectors that are identified with a unique
subscriber ID. In order to protect privacy, no surfstream data is
passed from the SDV system to the AMS 100.
[0094] In another embodiment, the system is configured to have the
ability to utilize actual viewership information. In SDV systems,
this information is readily available from the switching system,
such as a Broadband Digital Terminal (BDT), which is typically
located in the telephone central office, but which may also be
located in the field. In traditional CATV systems, the viewership
information may be collected in the television set-top by
monitoring the channel to which the subscriber is tuned. This
information is subsequently transmitted to the head end to provide
the actual viewership information as opposed to the expected
viewership. The data channel as specified in the Data Over Cable
System Interface Specification (DOCSIS) can be used to transmit the
viewership information to the head-end or other location.
[0095] In another embodiment, the AMS 100 includes an ability to
capture particular ads (as described below) and to store those ads
for later display. Generally, the ability to access advertisement
databases is external to the AMS 100 and is maintained by the
advertisers themselves. These databases contain advertisement
characterization vectors in standardized formats. However, in this
implementation, an ability to extract avail information from MPEG
video streams to determine avail parameters is added within the AMS
100. In this implementation, the ability to deliver ads in
concatenated insertion systems and the ability to capture ads in
real time at insertion modules is also included within the AMS 100.
As an example, Coke may play a national ad on TNT and then want to
repeat it in regional or local markets. In accordance with this
implementation, there is no need to capture the ad and store it on
a server. Instead, the ad may be captured "on the fly" and be added
in the desired program streams.
[0096] In another embodiment, the ability to selectively capture
ads in each server, based on node/subscriber demographics or other
Artificial Intelligence (AI) criteria is also added. In this
implementation, the ads are automatically captured at a local
server, and are presented for subsequent auctioning. One set of
criteria that can be used is the correlation between the ad (based
on an ad characterization vector, possibly transmitted with the
advertisement) and the node/subscriber demographics. As an example,
the ads that are targeted for high income households may be stored
on local servers located in head-ends serving high income
areas.
[0097] In another embodiment, the ability to receive an "ad
channel" which serves as the source for ad segments is also added.
The "ad channel" would be implemented as a channel on a common
cable satellite, which provides cable programming and would contain
a continuous or quasi-continuous stream of ads.
[0098] In another embodiment, where a rate for the advertisements
is not constant over the duration of the ad, the AMS 100 specifies
the rate in terms of the number of Multi Program Transport Stream
(MPTS) packets per program transport stream packet. This can be
done on a time linear scale holding the last value until the next
value arrives.
[0099] The principles of the present invention are flexible and
permit the use of additional features. Additional features include
but are not limited to the ability to divide up "local ads" into
nodes, and the ability to handle non-constant bandwidth
advertisement profiles. These features allow for the "activation"
of regional and national versions of multiple ads in a downstream
inserter that modifies the program specific information (PSI) to
insert the desired ad. In this implementation, the profiles that
are supported include pre-defined avail profiles, with the
bandwidth varying during the course of the avail. The bandwidth
generally does not exceed a pre-determined limit.
[0100] The system as described in various ways may be represented
and modeled using primarily the Unified Modified Language (UML)
which is well known to those skilled in the art. The UML and other
diagrams together with the accompanying text can be used to
implement the AMS 100.
[0101] Although the embodiments described herein enable one of
ordinary skill in the art to implement (i.e. build) the AMS 100, it
in no way restricts the method of implementation. That is, the AMS
100 is capable of being implemented on a variety of
hardware/software platforms with a variety of development
languages, databases, communication protocols and frameworks as
will be evident to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, the
design represents only one set of business objects (classes) which
can be coordinated to carry out the functionality and requirements
of the AMS 100. Other designs comprising other sets of business
classes and their coordinations could be constructed that also
represent and conform to the requirements of the AMS 100 as will be
evident to those skilled in the art.
[0102] Although this invention has been illustrated by reference to
specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the
art that various changes and modifications may be made which
clearly fall within the scope of the invention.
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