U.S. patent application number 14/180691 was filed with the patent office on 2014-06-12 for systems and methods for episodic advertisement tracking.
This patent application is currently assigned to ROVI GUIDES, INC.. The applicant listed for this patent is ROVI GUIDES, INC.. Invention is credited to Michael L. Craner, Michael Feldman.
Application Number | 20140164078 14/180691 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50391919 |
Filed Date | 2014-06-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140164078 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Craner; Michael L. ; et
al. |
June 12, 2014 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR EPISODIC ADVERTISEMENT TRACKING
Abstract
Methods and systems for an interactive media guidance
application to prevent a user from experiencing an episodic
advertisement out of order. Each episodic advertisement includes a
plurality of advertisements intended to be viewed in an ordered
sequence, and each advertisement of the sequence is part of a story
that the episodic advertisement tells. The interactive media
guidance application determines whether the user's viewing activity
may cause the user to experience a particular advertisement of an
episodic advertisement out of order, identifies an alternative
advertisement of the episodic advertisement to present in place of
the particular advertisement, and presents the alternative
advertisement so as to prevent the user from experiencing the
particular advertisement out of the ordered sequence of
advertisements.
Inventors: |
Craner; Michael L.; (Chester
Springs, PA) ; Feldman; Michael; (Newton,
PA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
ROVI GUIDES, INC. |
SANTA CLARA |
CA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
ROVI GUIDES, INC.
SANTA CLARA
CA
|
Family ID: |
50391919 |
Appl. No.: |
14/180691 |
Filed: |
February 14, 2014 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12005641 |
Dec 26, 2007 |
8694396 |
|
|
14180691 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.4 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/4316 20130101;
H04N 21/44204 20130101; H04N 21/47 20130101; H04N 21/4753 20130101;
H04N 5/44591 20130101; H04N 21/44016 20130101; H04N 21/482
20130101; H04N 5/445 20130101; H04N 21/485 20130101; G06Q 30/0241
20130101; H04N 21/812 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.4 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20060101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1-20. (canceled)
21. A method for storing episodic advertisements together, the
method comprising: monitoring information associated with an
advertisement generated for display to a user; detecting a portion
of the information indicates that the advertisement is part of a
series of advertisements that when viewed in order tell a story;
and in response to detecting the portion of the information
indicates that the advertisement is part of a series of
advertisements, storing the advertisement in a location designated
for storage of the series of advertisements.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the portion of the information
includes a data field indicating that the advertisement is part of
the series of advertisements.
23. The method of claim 21, further comprising: receiving a user
request to access the location; and in response to the user
request, generating for display a list of the series of
advertisements.
24. The method of claim 21, further comprising generating for
display an option to access a different advertisement, wherein the
different advertisement is subsequent to the advertisement in the
series of advertisements.
25. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining a length
of time the user viewed the advertisement.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the advertisement is selected
for display to the user in response to determining that the user
has viewed a previous advertisement, wherein the previous
advertisement precedes the advertisement in the series of
advertisements.
27. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing the
advertisement in response to a user request.
28. The method of claim 21, further comprising comparing the
information to a user preference.
29. The method of claim 21, further comprising: detecting the user
has partially viewed the advertisement; in response to determining
the user has partially viewed the advertisement: accessing a first
data field, wherein the first data field indicates an amount of
time that the user viewed the advertisement; and accessing a second
data field, wherein the second data field indicates a total length
of the advertisement; comparing the amount of time that the user
viewed the advertisement to the total length of the advertisement;
and based on the comparison, determining whether to update a
viewing progress associated with user relative to the series of
advertisements.
30. The method of claim 21, further comprising indicating the
viewing progress associated with the user in response to the user
accessing the location.
31. A system for storing episodic advertisements together, the
system comprising: control circuitry configured to: monitoring
information associated with an advertisement generated for display
to a user; and detecting a portion of the information indicates
that the advertisement is part of a series of advertisements that
when viewed in order tell a story; and storage circuitry configured
to: store the advertisement in a location designated for storage of
the series of advertisements in response to the control circuitry
detecting the portion of the information indicates that the
advertisement is part of a series of advertisements.
32. The system of claim 31, wherein the portion of the information
includes a data field indicating that the advertisement is part of
the series of advertisements.
33. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: receive a user request to access the
location; and in response to the user request, generate for display
a list of the series of advertisements.
34. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to generate for display an option to access a
different advertisement, wherein the different advertisement is
subsequent to the advertisement in the series of
advertisements.
35. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to determine a length of time the user viewed
the advertisement.
36. The system of claim 35, wherein the advertisement is selected
for display to the user in response to determining that the user
has viewed a previous advertisement, wherein the previous
advertisement precedes the advertisement in the series of
advertisements.
37. The system of claim 31, wherein the storage circuitry is
further configured to store the advertisement in response to a user
request.
38. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to compare the information to a user
preference.
39. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to detect the user has partially viewed the
advertisement; in response to determining the user has partially
viewed the advertisement: access a first data field, wherein the
first data field indicates an amount of time that the user viewed
the advertisement; and access a second data field, wherein the
second data field indicates a total length of the advertisement;
compare the amount of time that the user viewed the advertisement
to the total length of the advertisement; and based on the
comparison, determine whether to update a viewing progress
associated with user relative to the series of advertisements.
40. The system of claim 31, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to indicate the viewing progress associated with
the user in response to the user accessing the location.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/005,641, filed Dec. 26, 2007, (now
allowed), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its
entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention is directed to approaches for
presenting episodic advertisements. Episodic advertisements are
advertisements made up by a plurality of advertisements intended to
be viewed in an ordered sequence. The entire sequence tells a
story, and each advertisement of the sequence is part of the story
(i.e., each advertisement of the sequence is an episode within the
episodic advertisement). Episodic advertisements may provide a
higher level of entertainment than conventional advertisements, and
thus spark a high level of interest in the product or service being
advertised. One illustrative episodic advertisement chronicled the
adventures of Jerry Seinfeld and Superman as they used a particular
credit card.
[0003] In current viewing environments, a user may experience an
episodic advertisement out of order. The user could, for example,
begin watching an episodic advertisement in the middle of the
ordered sequence. Or, a user could miss viewing an advertisement of
the sequence while channel surfing. In each of these situations,
the user misses part of the story told by the episodic
advertisement. As a result, the episodic advertisement may become
less effective in promoting the product or service being
advertised.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] Systems and methods are provided for preventing a user from
experiencing an episodic advertisement out of order. The episodic
advertisement includes a plurality of advertisements intended to be
viewed in an ordered sequence, and each advertisement of the
sequence is part of the story that the episodic advertisement
tells. The episodic advertisements include video, audio, and/or
graphics. For purposes of clarity, and not by way of limitation,
the present invention may sometimes be described in the context of
an interactive media guidance application. It will be understood,
however, that the invention may be used in any other suitable type
of application, or it may be a stand-alone application.
[0005] The interactive media guidance application determines that a
user's viewing activity may cause the user to experience an
episodic advertisement out of order. This determination may be
made, for example, in response to detecting the display of an
advertisement, in response to a user input (such as a channel
change command), or in response to an advertisement being selected
for display on a guidance application display.
[0006] In response to the determination, the interactive media
guidance application may identify an advertisement to present in
place of the particular advertisement that would have caused the
user to experience the episodic advertisement out of order. For
example, when the interactive media guidance application determines
that the user has not viewed any of the advertisements of the
episodic advertisement, the selected advertisement may be the first
advertisement of the episodic advertisement. Or, the interactive
media guidance application may select, based on the last-viewed
advertisement of the episodic advertisement, which advertisement
the user should be presented next. In embodiments where multiple
users are supported, the selection is based on the identified user.
Alternatively, household-based viewing patterns may be used.
[0007] In some embodiments, the replacement advertisement may be
selected from a different episodic advertisement. This may be
useful when, for example, the appropriate advertisement of the
first episodic advertisement is unavailable.
[0008] Once the replacement advertisement is selected, it may be
presented to the user so as to prevent the user from experiencing
an advertisement of the episodic advertisement out of order. In one
embodiment, the subsequent advertisement is provided on a
video-on-demand (VOD) or switched digital video (SDV) stream. In
another embodiment, advertisements are stored locally on the user's
equipment and played back. The interactive media guidance
application may determine whether the subsequent advertisement is
readily available and present a non-episodic advertisement to the
user if the subsequent advertisement is not readily available.
[0009] In some embodiments, a startover or lookback mechanism may
be available. These mechanisms may be engaged by the media guidance
application to facilitate the proper sequencing of episodic
advertisements whether or not they are actively or consciously
engaged by a user. Startover and lookback are mechanisms that store
broadcast programs as aired (including their advertisements) on a
video server for playback by a user up to the end of the airing
period for the program (startover), and up to a specified number of
hours after the airing of the program (lookback). For example,
consider the situation where a user views the Nth advertisement of
an episodic advertisement on channel A and then tunes (i.e. changes
the channel) to channel B, wherein channel B has a program already
in progress, that program is available for viewing via startover or
lookback, and the program is imminently going to break for a
commercial featuring the (N+2)th advertisement of the episodic
advertisement. However, viewing channel B would cause the user to
miss the (N+1)th advertisement. Assuming that channel B had earlier
aired the (N+1)th advertisement, the media guidance application may
engage the startover or lookback mechanism to replace the imminent
display of the (N+2)th advertisement with the (N+1)th advertisement
of the episodic advertisement, thereby maintaining the proper
sequencing of the episodic advertisement across tunes. In some
embodiments this mechanism is combined with other mechanisms, such
as advertisement insertion from the local hard drive, to prevent
advertisements being viewed out of their intended sequence.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The above and other features of the present invention, its
nature and various advantages will be more apparent upon
consideration of the following detailed description, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
[0011] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an illustrative interactive media
system in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention;
[0012] FIG. 2 is an abstract representation of two illustrative
episodic advertisements in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention;
[0013] FIG. 3 is a diagram of illustrative advertisement metadata
in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a diagram of illustrative user viewing data in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen showing a first
advertisement of an episodic advertisement in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0016] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative display screen showing an
advertisement of an episodic advertisement and an accompanying
product advertisement in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention.
[0017] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative display screen in which the
viewer indicates interest in an episodic advertisement in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
[0018] FIG. 8 shows an illustrative display screen showing an
interface for adjusting episodic advertisement options in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
[0019] FIG. 9 shows an illustrative display screen showing an
interface for identifying a user in accordance with one embodiment
of the present invention.
[0020] FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out
of order in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention.
[0021] FIG. 11 shows a more detailed view of a flow chart of an
illustrative process for preventing a user from experiencing an
episodic advertisement out of order in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0022] FIG. 12 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
detecting the display of an advertisement of an episodic
advertisement in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention.
[0023] FIG. 13 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
selecting another advertisement that will cause the user to
experience the episodic advertisement in its intended order in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
[0024] FIG. 14 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out
of order based on receiving a user input in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0025] FIG. 15 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
selecting an episodic advertisement in response to a received user
input in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention.
[0026] FIG. 16 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out
of order based on receiving a user indication of interest in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
[0027] FIG. 17 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out
of order by storing advertisements on user storage equipment in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
[0028] FIG. 18 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
storing advertisements on user storage equipment in accordance with
one embodiment of the present invention.
[0029] FIG. 19 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process for
preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out
of order by identifying the user in accordance with one embodiment
of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0030] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative interactive media system 100 in
accordance with one embodiment of the invention. User equipment 110
receives media in the form of signals from media source 120 over
communications path 122. In practice there may be multiple media
sources 120 and user equipment 110, but only one of each has been
shown in FIG. 1 to avoid over-complicating the drawing.
[0031] Media source 120 may be any suitable media source such as,
for example, a cable system headed, satellite media distribution
facility, media broadcast facility, internet protocol television
(IPTV) head end, on-demand server (e.g., VOD server), website, game
service provider (e.g., for online gaming), switched digital video
(SDV) system (e.g., comprising SDV manager, edge-resource manager,
and edge-QAM subsystems), startover or lookback manager, or any
other suitable facility or system for originating or distributing
media. Media source 120 may be configured to transmit signals over
any suitable communications path 122 including, for example, a
satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, an Internet path,
or any other suitable wired or wireless path. The signals may carry
any suitable media such as, for example, television programs,
games, music, news, web services, video, or any other suitable
media. In some embodiments, media source 120 may include control
circuitry for executing requests from a trick-play client or an
interactive media guidance application implemented in, for example,
user equipment 110 or a VOD server.
[0032] User equipment 110 may include any equipment suitable for
providing an interactive media experience. User equipment 110 may
include television equipment such as a television, set-top box,
recording device, video player, user input device, or any other
device suitable for providing an interactive media experience. For
example, user equipment 110 may include a DCT 2000, 2500, 5100,
6208 or 6412 set-top box provided by Motorola, Inc. In some
embodiments, user equipment 110 may include computer equipment,
such as a personal computer with a television card (PCTV). In some
embodiments, user equipment 110 may include a home theatre consumer
electronic device such as, for example, a gaming system (e.g.,
X-Box, PlayStation, or GameCube) or a portable consumer electronic
device, such as a portable DVD player, a portable gaming device, a
cellular telephone, a PDA, a music player (e.g., MP3 player), or
any other suitable home theatre or portable device.
[0033] In the example of FIG. 1, user equipment 110 includes at
least control circuitry 116, display device 112, and user input
device 114 which may be implemented as a separate device or as a
single device. User equipment 110 may optionally include recording
device 118 which may be implemented as a separate device or as a
single device. An interactive media guidance application may be
implemented on user equipment 110 to provide media guidance
functions to the user for media displayed on display device 112. In
some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application may be
or include an interactive television application, a trick-play
client, or any other application for providing media features to
the user.
[0034] Display device 112 may be any suitable device such as, for
example, a television monitor, a computer monitor, or a display
incorporated in user equipment 110 (e.g., a cellular telephone or
portable music player display). Display device 112 displays the
media transmitted by media source 120 over path 122, and the
displays of the trick-play client. Display device 112 may also be
configured to provide for the output of audio.
[0035] User input device 114 may be any suitable device for
interfacing with the interactive media guidance application. For
example, user input device 114 may be a remote control, keyboard,
mouse, touch pad, touch screen or voice recognition interface. User
input device 114 may communicate with user equipment 110 and
control circuitry 116 using any suitable communications link. For
example, user input device 114 may use an infra-red (IR),
radio-frequency, Bluetooth, wireless (e.g., 802.11), wired, or any
other suitable communications link. The information received by
user input device 114 may either be classified as a source
selection command or a guidance application navigation command. A
source selection command may include a channel change selection,
video-on-demand selection, digital-video-recorder selection, or any
suitable selection that causes the user to view content different
than the content the user is currently viewing. The content the
user is currently viewing may be defined as content that is
currently being displayed on the display device 112. A guidance
application navigation command may include any suitable command
that allows the user to change the information displayed in the
interactive media guidance application.
[0036] Control circuitry 116 is adapted to receive user inputs from
input device 114 and execute the instructions of the interactive
media guidance application. Control circuitry 116 may include one
or more tuners (e.g., analog or digital tuners), encoders and
decoders (e.g., MPEG decoders), processors (e.g., Motorola 68000
family processors, or MIPS family processors), memory 117 (e.g.,
RAM and hard disks), communications circuitry (e.g., cable modem
circuitry), input/output circuitry (e.g., graphics circuitry),
connections to the various devices of user equipment 110, and any
other suitable component for providing analog or digital media
programming, program recording, and interactive media guidance
features. In some embodiments, control circuitry 116 may be
included as part of one of the devices of user equipment 110 such
as, for example, part of display 112 or any other device (e.g., a
set-top box, television and video player). Control circuitry 116
may also include advertisement selection circuitry to prevent the
user from experiencing an episodic advertisement out of order. In
some embodiments, memory 117 may store user viewing data that
includes a user's history of viewing advertisements.
[0037] In some embodiments, control circuitry 116 may include a
processor (e.g., a microcontroller or microprocessor) that is used
to receive and execute interactive media guidance application
instructions. These instructions may perform various determinations
to ensure that the user is not presented an advertisement of an
episodic advertisement out of the correct order. Control circuitry
116 may include memory such as random-access memory for use when
executing applications. Nonvolatile memory may also be used to
store a boot-up routine or other instructions. In other
embodiments, interactive media guidance application instructions
may be executed in other suitable stand-alone hardware.
[0038] Recording device 118 may be a personal video recorder (PVR),
digital video recorder (DVR), video cassette recorder (VCR),
DVD-recorder, compact disc recorder, or any other suitable
recording device or storage device. In some embodiments, recording
device 118 may be a storage device for storing or recording content
or data recorded or provided by other components of interactive
media system 100 (e.g., a storage device for caching live
television programs to enable trick play functions). Recording
device 118 may include one or more tuners, and may be configured to
cache media as the user receives it with user equipment 110 (e.g.,
cache the currently tuned channel) to provide trick-play functions
for the user. In some embodiments, recording device 118 may include
circuitry to determine which advertisements should be recorded
using recording device 118.
[0039] A hard disk and other storage in recording device 118 may be
used to support databases (e.g., a database of media guidance
information for recorded programs, or a database of advertisement
information for recorded or cached advertisements). A hard disk or
other storage in recording device 118 may also be used to record
media such as television programs or video-on-demand content or
other content provided to recording device 118.
[0040] In some embodiments, recording device 118 may include IR
communications circuitry or other suitable communications circuitry
for communicating with a remote control (e.g., with user input
device 114). Recording device 118 may also include dedicated
buttons and a front-panel display. The front-panel display may, for
example, be used to display the current channel to which the
recording device is tuned.
[0041] In some embodiments, recording device 118 may be a network
recording device that is located outside of user equipment 110. In
some embodiments, the network recording device may be incorporated
in content source 120 (e.g., at the head-end of a cable plant),
data source 124, VOD server 140, user equipment 110 (e.g., as a
second recording device, or a hard drive on a home computer), an
Internet server (not shown), or any other suitable device. In some
embodiments, the network recording device may be a stand alone
device (e.g., a commercial network recording device, or a DVR
device in a home or neighborhood network). The network recording
device may receive instructions to perform recordings from the
interactive media guidance application implemented on any of a
plurality of instances of user equipment 110.
[0042] In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance
application may provide features to the user with a client/server
approach. There may be one server for each instance of user
equipment 110, one for multiple instances of user equipment 110, or
a single server may serve as a proxy for each instance of user
equipment 110.
[0043] Any suitable number of users may have equipment, such as
user equipment 110, connected to media source 120, data sources 124
and advertisement generator 140. A single user may also have
multiple instances of user equipment 110. But for the clarity of
the figure, the equipment of only a single user is shown. The
equipment of the plurality of users may be connected to media
source 120, data sources 124 and advertisement generator 140 using
a cable television network, a satellite television network, a local
area network (LAN), a wireless network, the Internet (e.g., using a
DOCSIS modem), or any other suitable means. In some embodiments,
the equipment of the plurality of users may be connected to each
other using any suitable means.
[0044] User equipment 110 may receive interactive media guidance
application data from one or more data sources 124. Data sources
124 may provide data for a particular type of media or for a
particular application. For example, one data source 124 may
provide data for non-on-demand media (e.g., non-pay and
pay-per-view programs), and another may provide data for on-demand
media (e.g., VOD programs). Or, for example, a single data source
may provide both of these types of data. For example, one data
source 124 may provide data for an interactive media guidance
application. Another data source 124 may, for example, provide data
for another interactive application (e.g., a home shopping
application, and real-time data such as sports scores, stock
quotes, news data and weather data). In some embodiments, data
sources 124 may provide data to the interactive media guidance
application using a client/server approach. There may be one server
per data source, one for all sources or, in some embodiments, a
single server may communicate as a proxy between user equipment 110
and various data sources 124. In such embodiments, data source 124
may include control circuitry for executing the instructions of the
online media guidance application.
[0045] In some embodiments, data source 124 may provide episodic
advertisements (e.g., individual text, graphics and video
advertisements that collectively form an episodic advertisement) to
the interactive media guidance application. The advertisements may
be provided by a dedicated data source, or the advertisements,
along with other advertisement metadata, may be provided by one or
more data sources. Alternatively, advertisements may be provided in
part or in whole by the VOD server, lookback or startover server,
or by a switched digital video service or from a combination of
these or other sources.
[0046] Data source 124 may provide guide data to the interactive
media guidance application. In one embodiment, the guide data
provided by data source 124 may be periodically downloaded in part
(e.g., updated) or in whole to memory 117 of control circuitry 116.
The guide data may include program listings, ad presentation
schedules, or any other suitable guide data. The guide data may
include information defining "advertisement metadata" for
particular episodic advertisements. The information may be used to
retrieve a substitute advertisement to be presented to the user,
e.g., the substitute advertisement may be retrieved and presented
to the user so that the user does not view an episodic
advertisement out of order, or the substitute advertisement may be
retrieved and presented based on the particular user, e.g., the
advertisement may be targeted to the particular user based on his
profile.
[0047] Data source 124 may provide advertisement metadata about the
episodic advertisements using any suitable technique. For example,
this data may be distributed in conjunction with transmitted
episodic advertisements (e.g., incorporated in-band with the
episodic advertisements), distributed separately from the
transmitted episodic advertisements (e.g., out-of-band in a data
stream that accompanies the stream of episodic advertisements), as
part of the guidance application data, or by any other suitable
distribution means. In such an approach, the interactive media
guidance application may process the in-band or out-of-band media,
or process the data stream to obtain the data (e.g., extract an
identifier, or instructions from a data component within an MPEG-2
transport stream).
[0048] "Band" is understood by one skilled in the art to refer to
any primary digital or analog conduit for transmission including a
channel, stream, tunnel, socket, circuit, virtual circuit, or path
whether wired or wireless, switched or dedicated. In-band
advertisement metadata would thus be understood to be data that is
carried in the same channel, stream, tunnel, socket, etc., as the
episodic advertisement for which it is associated. An example of
in-band carriage of advertisement metadata in an IP stream would be
opening an IP socket between a sending application and a receiving
application that is used to carry the advertisement metadata in
addition to a primary content stream (e.g., the video stream of the
episodic advertisement). An example of out-of-band carriage of
episodic advertisement metadata in an MPEG-2 system would be the
carriage of the advertisement metadata in a digital stream that is
carried on an analog carrier at a first frequency and the carriage
of the advertisement itself on a carrier at a second frequency,
different from the first. In MPEG-2, a single service transport
stream (that may be part of a multiple service transport stream) is
composed of multiple components including a primary video
component, a primary audio component and then one or more data
components. If the episodic advertisement metadata is carried in
one of the primary or secondary video, audio, or data streams, it
is considered in-band to the service; if not, it is considered
out-of-band to it.
[0049] In an MPEG-4 system, in-band episodic advertisement metadata
may be carried in a separate video object plane. For ATSC digital
video, the concept of the analog vertical blanking interval (VBI)
has been expanded to include a digital data in-band VBI equivalent.
More information can be found in the International Standard for
Organization ISO-13818 standard, entitled Information Technology
Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information,
and the Consumer Electronic Association CEA-708B standard, entitled
Digital Television (DTV) Closed Captioning, each incorporated
herein by reference in its entirety.
[0050] The interactive media guidance application may distinguish
an advertisement of an episodic advertisement from regular
television programming by comparing the advertisement metadata to
an episodic advertisement metadata schema. The episodic
advertisement metadata schema may define the minimum fields that
characterize advertisement metadata for a particular advertisement
of an episodic advertisement.
[0051] The interactive media guidance application may also obtain
advertisement metadata associated with a particular advertisement
of an episodic advertisement by monitoring user activity such as,
for example, the channel that the user is viewing. The interactive
media guidance application, using this information (e.g., channel
information) and the current time, may access a database (e.g.,
guide information in data source 124) that contains advertisement
metadata for the channels and programs that are available to the
user to obtain the advertisement metadata for a particular
advertisement. For example, when the user is viewing an episodic
advertisement on channel five, the interactive media guidance
application may check the database and, from the guide data
associated with channel five, and the time of day, determine which
episodic advertisements are scheduled to be displayed and the
advertisement metadata associated with those advertisements of
particular episodic advertisements (e.g., to identify substitute
episodic advertisements to display on channel 5).
[0052] In some embodiments, data source 124 may provide
advertisement metadata associating an individual advertisement with
an episodic advertisement. The advertisement metadata may include
any suitable identifiers such as, for example, a name for an
advertisement, the advertisement's position in the sequence of the
episodic advertisement, the length or duration of an advertisement,
an expiration time stamp, or any other suitable identifier.
[0053] In some embodiments, interactive media system 100 may
include video-on-demand (VOD) server 140. VOD server 140 may
provide episodic advertisements to be presented to the user on user
equipment 110. User equipment 110 may retrieve an advertisement of
an episodic advertisement from VOD server 140 in lieu of receiving
the episodic advertisement from data source 124.
[0054] User equipment 110 may retrieve an episodic advertisement
from VOD server 140 by initiating a VOD session. During the VOD
session an advertisement of an episodic advertisement may be
requested, the availability the requested advertisement on VOD
server 140 may be determined, and if the requested advertisement is
available, the length of the advertisement may be examined. The
length of the advertisement may be examined to determine whether
the advertisement can be presented in the current broadcast on user
equipment 110. If the advertisement is not of an appropriate
length, VOD server 140 may add or remove data, such as video
frames, from the advertisement. Alternatively, the broadcast
program can be buffered (e.g., in a local DVR-like buffer) and
delayed and played back in greater than real-time to catch up or
truncated.
[0055] FIG. 1 shows media source 120, data sources 124, and VOD
server 140 as separate elements. In practice, their functionality
may be combined and provided from a single system at a single
facility, or multiple systems at multiple facilities. For example,
a separate data source 124 may be associated with each of a
plurality of television broadcasters and may provide data that is
specific to those broadcasters (e.g., advertisements for future
programming of the broadcasters, or logo data for displaying
broadcasters' logos in interactive media guidance application
display screens). As another example, data source 124 and VOD
server 140 may be combined to provide substitute episodic
advertisements when the interactive media guidance application
determines that a user will experience an episodic advertisement
out of order. As still yet another example, data source 124 and VOD
server 140 may be combined to provide substitute episodic
advertisements when the interactive media guidance application
determines that a user expresses interest in a particular episodic
advertisement.
[0056] FIG. 2 shows an abstract representation of two illustrative
episodic advertisements in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention. Data for episodic advertisement 210 and episodic
advertisement 220 may be received by the interactive media guidance
application from data source 124 (FIG. 1), VOD server 140 (FIG. 1),
or a combination of the two. Episodic advertisement 210 and
episodic advertisement 220 may be labeled with titles 211 and 221,
and unique IDs 212 and 222. Titles 211 and 221 may be descriptive
as to the product being advertised, characters in the episodic
advertisement, plotline of the episodic advertisement, or any other
suitable subject matter. For example, episodic advertisement 210
may have a title reading "Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex", which indicates an
episodic advertisement for the American Express card starring
comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Unique IDs 212 and 222 may uniquely
identify the episodic advertisement from other episodic
advertisements. Unique IDs 212 and 222 may be a string of
characters, a number, or any other suitable identifying means.
These unique IDs allow the interactive media guidance application
to distinguish a particular episodic advertisement from all other
locally stored advertisements, e.g., those stored on user equipment
110 (FIG. 1), all remotely stored episodic advertisements, e.g.,
those available on VOD server 140 (FIG. 1), or any other episodic
advertisements accessible to the interactive media guidance
application. For example, episodic advertisements 210 and 220 may
be locally stored, and have the unique IDs "367" and "394,"
respectively.
[0057] Episodic advertisement 210 and episodic advertisement 220
may contain any number of individual advertisements. In the
abstract representation in FIG. 2, episodic advertisement 210
contains 5 advertisements and episodic advertisement 220 contains 4
advertisements. Each individual advertisement within episodic
advertisement 210 and episodic advertisement 220 tells part of a
linear story. For example, episodic advertisement 210 may tell a
story about an adventure of Jerry Seinfeld and Superman in New York
City, while episodic advertisement 220 tells the story of an
upcoming episode of the television series Lost. In addition,
episodic advertisement 210 and episodic advertisement 220 each
advertise a particular product or service. For example, episodic
advertisement 210 may generally advertise the services of the
American Express card, while episodic advertisement 220 may entice
the viewer to watch an upcoming episode of the television series
Lost.
[0058] FIG. 3 is a diagram of illustrative advertisement metadata
300 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
Advertisement metadata 300 may be generated at data source 124
(FIG. 1), advertisement generator 140 (FIG. 1), or a combination of
both. Advertisement metadata 300 may be stored in memory 117 of
control circuitry 116, or in recording device 118 (FIG. 1). Each
row of the diagram in FIG. 3 represents the advertisement metadata
for a singular advertisement within an episodic advertisement. Each
singular advertisement may have a number of metadata fields, where
each metadata field conveys a particular piece of information about
the advertisement. For example, advertisements 371, 372, 373, 374,
375, and 376 may have a name field 310, an unique ID field 320, a
sequence ID field 330, an advertisement length field 340, an active
advertisement field 350, and an advertisement expiration field 360.
Each metadata field may be a character string, an integer, a
Boolean, or any suitable data structure. These metadata fields are
illustrative in that an advertisement may include any number of
suitable metadata fields, including 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, or
more than 50 metadata fields. In addition, advertisement metadata
300 may include metadata for any number of advertisements,
including 1, 2 10, 20, 50, 100, 400, or more than 400
advertisements.
[0059] Name field 310 may be descriptive as to elements of the
story in the particular advertisement, the advertisement's position
in the order of the episodic advertisement, or any suitable
descriptive subject matter. For example, advertisement 373 is named
"Jerry_Street" and depicts a scene of Jerry Seinfeld and Superman
talking while walking through the streets of New York city. Unique
ID field 320 may be substantially similar to unique IDs 212 and 222
(FIG. 2). Unique ID field 320 may indicate what particular episodic
advertisement an advertisement is part of. For example,
advertisement 373 has an unique ID of "367", indicating that it is
part of episodic advertisement 210 titled "Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex"
(FIG. 2). Sequence ID field 330 indicates an advertisement's
position in the order of the episodic advertisement indicated by
the advertisement's unique ID field. For example, advertisement 373
has a sequence ID of "1", indicating that it is the first
advertisement in the order of advertisements for episodic
advertisement "367" (episodic advertisement 210 in FIG. 2).
Advertisement length field 340 may indicate the running time of an
advertisement. For example, advertisement 373 has an advertisement
length field of "30", indicating that it is 30 seconds long. Active
advertisement field 350 may indicate whether an advertisement is
available to be presented to the user, e.g., readily available in a
video or data stream, or available on a user's recording device 118
(FIG. 1). For example, advertisement 373 has an active
advertisement field of "1", indicating that it is available to be
presented to the user on recording device 118 (FIG. 1) of the
user's user equipment. Advertisement expiration field 360 may
indicate the time and date that an advertisement will become
unavailable to be viewed by a user, e.g., deleted from the user's
recording equipment 118 (FIG. 1) or no longer valid (e.g., in the
case of an episodic advertisement for a sale which has a specific
end date). For example, advertisement 373 may be an advertisement
for a sale that has a specific end date of Oct. 12, 2007 at 5 PM.
Thus, advertisement 373 has an advertisement expiration field of
"10/12/07 5:00 PM", indicating that at 5 PM on Oct. 12, 2007 the
advertisement will be deleted from recording device 118 of the
user's user equipment.
[0060] FIG. 4 shows a diagram of illustrative user viewing data 400
in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. User
viewing data 400 may be collected and stored in memory 117 of
control circuitry 116 (FIG. 1). Portions of user viewing data 400
may be generated from advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3). Each row
of the diagram in FIG. 4 separated by bold lines contains metadata
corresponding to particular episodic advertisements viewed by a
user. For example, first user 461 has viewed the advertisements
named "Jerry_Street", "Jerry_Subway", "Jerry_Park", and
"Jerry_Apt", while second user 462 has viewed the advertisements
named "Lost_Tease1", "Lost_Tease2", and "Jerry_Street". Each user
461 and 462 may have a user ID field 410, an ad viewed field 420,
an unique ID field 430, a sequence ID field 440, and a time viewed
field 450. Each metadata field may be a character string, an
integer, a Boolean, or any suitable data structure. These metadata
fields are illustrative in that a user may include any number of
suitable metadata fields, including 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, or
more than 50 metadata fields. In addition, user viewing data 400
may include metadata for any number of advertisements, including 1,
2, 10, 20, 50, 100, 400, or more than 400 advertisements.
[0061] User ID field 410 may identify a user who is using user
equipment 110 (FIG. 1). In some embodiments, the user ID field 410
is determined through a user identification process. For example,
first user 461 has been identified through a user identification
process as "Tim". Ad viewed field 420 may be substantially similar
to name field 310 (FIG. 3). Unique ID field 430 may be
substantially similar to unique ID field 320 (FIG. 3). Sequence ID
field 440 may be substantially similar to sequence ID field 330
(FIG. 3). Time viewed field 450 may indicate the time that a user
viewed an advertisement. In some embodiments, time viewed field 450
may indicate the time at which a user first viewed the
advertisement. For example, first user 461 may have first viewed
the advertisement named "Jerry_Street" on "10/9/07 5:10 PM", or on
5:10 PM on Oct. 9, 2007. In other embodiments, time viewed field
450 may indicate the last time at which a user viewed the
advertisement. For example, first user 461 may have last viewed the
advertisement named "Jerry_Street" on 5:10 PM on Oct. 9, 2007. In
some embodiments, if an advertisement was only partially viewed, a
percent viewed field may be used to indicate what percentage (or
amount of time) the advertisement was viewed by a user. This
percentage may reflect the portion of time the user has viewed the
advertisement compared to the full length of the advertisement.
This information may be used to decide whether this advertisement
should be presented to the user another time as opposed to
presenting a subsequent advertisement of an episodic advertisement
sequence.
[0062] FIGS. 6-10 show illustrative guidance application displays
of advertisements of episodic advertisements, and interfaces for
controlling the episodic advertisement options.
[0063] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen 500 showing an
initial advertisement of an episodic advertisement in accordance
with one embodiment of the present invention. Display screen 500
may include video region 510 in which an advertisement is displayed
and guidance application browse window 520. In display screen 500,
video region 510 is showing the advertisement "Jerry_Street" (see
advertisement 371 in FIG. 3). Guidance application browse window
520 is showing television listings for the current television
channel. In one embodiment, when the interactive media guidance
application displays advertisement "Jerry Street" in video region
510 control circuitry 116 (FIG. 1) may prevent a user from
experiencing this advertisement out of the order specified with its
associated episodic advertisement. The interactive media guidance
application may make this determination using advertisement
metadata and user viewing data, as will be described in FIGS.
11-20. In some embodiments, advertisements that are part of
episodic advertisements may provide the option of seeing the next
advertisement in the series. For example, the end of the
advertisement "Jerry Street" may say, "to see the next episode of
Jerry and Superman's adventures, press continue." Upon pressing
continue using an input device 114 (FIG. 1), the user may be
provided the next advertisement in sequence of the episodic
advertisement.
[0064] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative display screen 600 showing a
fifth advertisement of an episodic advertisement in accordance with
one embodiment of the present invention. Display screen 600 may
include video region 610, guidance application browse window 520,
and guidance application advertisement window 630. Video region 610
is showing the advertisement "Jerry Party", which is the fifth
advertisement in an episodic advertisement entitled
"Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex" (see episodic advertisement 210 in FIG. 2 and
advertisement 374 in FIG. 3). Advertisement "Jerry Party" tells the
story of how Jerry Seinfeld used his American Express card to buy
refreshments for a party he attends with Superman. Note that in
various examples used in this specification, the advertisements
used are full screen video advertisements. In practice, episodic
advertisements may include advertisements which are partial screen
videos, full or partial screen images, animated figures that dance
or move or walk and talk and cross the screen, combinations of the
aforementioned, or any suitable advertisement form.
[0065] In one example, the interactive media guidance application
may identify the advertisement "Jerry_Street" 373 (FIG. 3) to
present in place of another advertisement that had just been
displayed. For example, video region 610 may have just been showing
"Jerry_Park" 373, which is the third advertisement in the episodic
advertisement "Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex" 210 (FIG. 2) as indicated by
unique ID 320 (FIG. 3). The interactive media guidance application
may determine that the user watching display screen 600 has already
seen the advertisement "Jerry_Park" 373 by examining user viewing
data 400 (FIG. 4). Control circuitry 116 may then identify that
advertisement "Jerry_Apt" 372 (FIG. 3) is the next advertisement in
the episodic advertisement "Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex" 210 that the user
should experience. Control circuitry 116 may make this
identification by searching advertisement metadata 300 for the
episodic advertisement with the same unique ID 320 and a sequence
ID 330 (FIG. 3) that is incremented by one compared to the sequence
ID of advertisement "Jerry_Park" 373. Thus, control circuitry 116
may present the advertisement "Jerry_Street" to the user in video
region 610.
[0066] In some embodiments, an additional advertisement related to
an episodic advertisement may be displayed in guidance application
advertisement window 630. For example, in FIG. 6 an advertisement
containing a slogan for the American Express card is being
displayed along with an advertisement of the episodic advertisement
"Jerry_Seinfeld_Amex".
[0067] In one embodiment, a window in the guidance application
display may allow the user to indicate interest in an episodic
advertisement. The episodic advertisement may be related or
unrelated to the content that a user is currently viewing. When a
user indicates interest in the episodic advertisement, the
interactive media guidance application may present the user with
the episodic advertisement (e.g., the next advertisement in the
sequence of the episodic advertisement, a series of advertisements
from the sequence of the episodic advertisement, or the entire
episodic advertisement).
[0068] FIG. 7 shows an illustrative display screen 700 in which the
viewer indicates an interest in an episodic advertisement in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In display
screen 700, an episode of the television show "Arrested
Development" is playing in video region 710, and listings are
provided for television programming in guidance application browse
window 720. Display screen 700 also includes guidance application
advertisement window 730, which is an advertisement for an upcoming
episode of the television show "Lost". The advertisement entices
the viewer to watch scenes from the upcoming episode. This
particular type of advertisement in guidance application
advertisement window 730 may be known as a tickler. Guidance
application advertisement window 730 also includes episodic
advertisement interest button 740. The user may navigate to and
select episodic advertisement interest button 740 using an input
device 114 (FIG. 1).
[0069] In one embodiment, when a user selects episodic
advertisement interest button 740, the interactive media guidance
application may present an episodic advertisement to the user
associated with the advertisement in guidance application
advertisement window 730. For example, in display screen 700 when
the user selects episodic advertisement interest button 740, the
user will be presented with an episodic advertisement that includes
an ordered set of scenes from an upcoming episode of the television
show "Lost" (see episodic advertisement 220 in FIG. 2). In one
embodiment, the interactive media guidance application presents the
episodic advertisement to the user in place of an episodic
advertisement already being presented to the user.
[0070] In one embodiment, the interactive media guidance
application may present the user episodic advertisement options for
controlling the saving and viewing of episodic advertisements in
the interactive media guidance application. FIG. 8 shows an
illustrative display screen 800 showing an interface to adjust
episodic advertisement options in accordance with one embodiment of
the present invention. Display screen 800 includes episodic
advertisement options window 810, which the user may navigate to
using an input device 114 (FIG. 1). The user may use input device
114 to toggle between various options, and select a particular
setting of an option.
[0071] In one embodiment, episodic advertisement options window 810
may include episodic advertisement save option 820, which allows a
user to adjust how episodic advertisements are saved on his or her
recording device 118 (FIG. 1). Episodic advertisement save option
820 may allow a user to specify to the interactive media guidance
application that he or she wants to save episodic advertisements on
their recording device 118 until space is needed for recording
other content, until a specified date, or any other suitable user
specified time.
[0072] In one embodiment, episodic advertisement options window 810
may include episodic advertisement notification option 830, which
allows the user to specify if and when he or she would like to be
notified of upcoming episodic advertisements. These notifications
may appear in the guidance application advertisement window of the
interactive media video region (see guidance application
advertisement window 730 of FIG. 7). Episodic advertisement
notification option 830 may allow a user to specify to the
interactive media guidance application that he or she wants to be
notified of episodic advertisements a particular amount of time
before they are presented, such as 1, 2 5, 10, 15 more than 15
minutes, or any suitable length of time before the episodic
advertisement is displayed. Alternatively, episodic advertisement
notification option 830 may allow the user to specify that he or
she does not want to be notified of upcoming episodic
advertisements at all.
[0073] In one embodiment, episodic advertisement options window 810
may include purge ad history button 840, which allows the user to
delete their stored history of viewing episodic advertisements.
This stored history may be the same as user viewing information 400
(FIG. 4). In one embodiment, when purge ad history button 840 is
selected, all user viewing information for a particular user may be
deleted. In another embodiment, when purge ad history button 840 is
selected all user viewing information for all users is deleted. In
this fashion, users may clear their episodic advertisement viewing
history so that they may watch particular episodic advertisements
again.
[0074] In one embodiment, episodic advertisement options window 810
may include purge stored ad button 860, which allows the user to
purge all stored advertisements on his or her recording device 118
(FIG. 1). In one embodiment, when a user selects purge stored ad
button 860 all stored advertisements on his or her recording device
are deleted. In another embodiment, when a user selects purge
stored ad button 860 only selected ads are deleted, for example,
all of the ads of a particular episodic advertisement or all of the
viewed advertisements from one or more episodic advertisements. In
this fashion, users may free up more room to store content on their
recording device.
[0075] Once the user is finished adjusting options in episodic
advertisement options window 810, the user may navigate to and
select save and return button 850. Save and return button 850
allows the user to save the options he has adjusted and return to
what he or she was last viewing in the video region.
[0076] FIG. 9 shows an illustrative display screen 900 showing an
interface for identifying a user in accordance with one embodiment
of the present invention. Display screen 900 includes user logon
interface 910. User logon interface 910 may include name entry box
920 and password entry box 930. The user may enter his or her logon
credentials into entry boxes 920 and 930 using input device 114
(FIG. 1), and then navigate to and select authenticate button 940.
The interactive media guidance application may then authenticate
the user, or prompt the user for further logon credentials.
[0077] In one embodiment, once a user has been authenticated
through user logon interface 910, the interactive media guidance
application may monitor the user's viewing of episodic
advertisements. This may allow the interactive media guidance
application to build user viewing information similar to user
viewing information 400 (FIG. 4), and thus allow the interactive
media guidance application to prevent the user from viewing an
episodic advertisement out of order.
[0078] The following flow charts serve to illustrate processes
involved in some embodiments of this invention. The flow charts
describe processes primarily in the context of preventing a user
from viewing an episodic advertisement out of order. It will be
understood that each step in these flow charts may be carried out
by the interactive media guidance application by executing
instructions on control circuitry 166 (FIG. 1).
[0079] FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1000
for preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement
out of order in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention. Process 1000 begins at step 1002. At step 1002, the
interactive media guidance application determines that a user's
viewing activity may cause the user to experience a first
advertisement of an episodic advertisement out of the ordered
sequence of the episodic advertisement. The interactive media
guidance application may perform this determination using
advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3), user viewing data 400 (FIG.
4), and information from input device 114 (FIG. 1). In particular,
the interactive media guidance application may obtain the
advertisement metadata for the advertisement that is being
displayed in the video region and compare it to the user viewing
information for the user currently watching the advertisement. The
determination made from the comparison may then be used in step
1004.
[0080] In step 1004, a second (i.e., alternative) advertisement of
the episodic advertisement is identified to present in place of the
first advertisement. In one embodiment, the interactive media
guidance application may perform this identification using
advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3), user viewing data 400 (FIG.
4), and recording device 118 (FIG. 1). In particular, the
interactive media guidance application may compare the
advertisement metadata and user viewing data to choose the next
advertisement or an advertisement of a different episodic
advertisement to present in place of the first advertisement. In
some embodiments, this may require examining the advertisements
stored on user recording device 118.
[0081] In step 1006 the second advertisement identified in step
1004 is presented to the user in lieu of the first advertisement.
The interactive media guidance application may perform the
operations of process 1000 in part making use of advertisement
metadata such as advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3). In
particular, the interactive media guidance application may
determine whether the second advertisement is readily available for
presentation using active advertisement field 350 (FIG. 3) of the
particular advertisement. If the second advertisement is not
readily available (e.g. has the value `0`), the interactive media
guidance application may wait for the second advertisement to
become readily available before presenting the second
advertisement. If the second advertisement is readily available
(e.g. active advertisement field 350 has the value `1`), the first
advertisement may be immediately replaced by the second
advertisement. The interactive media guidance application may
achieve this immediate replacement with a channel change, a video
buffer swap, access to a locally stored copy of the advertisement,
initiation of a VOD session with VOD server 140 (FIG. 1) or any
other suitable video replacement means. The result is that the
first advertisement is not experienced by the user, if it is one
that has already been experienced or simply one that is out of the
proper viewing sequence for the user based on what the user may
have already seen or not seen. In one embodiment, when the second
advertisement is not readily available the interactive media
guidance application may wait while preventing the user from
experiencing the first advertisement. For example, the interactive
media guidance application may wait for the second advertisement to
become readily available while presenting non-episodic
advertisements. For example, the interactive media guidance
application may present non-episodic advertisements while it is
waiting, or present alternative content, or display a message such
as "one moment please." Once the second advertisement has been
presented, process 1000 ends at step 1008. Process 1000 is
described in more detail in process 1100 (FIG. 11).
[0082] In certain situations, it may not be possible at steps 1004
and 1006 to identify a second advertisement of the episodic
advertisement in time to present the second advertisement in place
of the first advertisement. In such situations, a second
advertisement of the episodic advertisement is identified to be
presented to the user after they view the advertisement of the
episodic advertisement out of order so as to minimize the impact of
the user having viewed the wrong advertisement. For example, if a
user inadvertently viewed the third advertisement of an episodic
advertisement without having first viewed advertisements one and
two of the sequence, he may then be presented with the first and
second advertisements before being presented either with the any
advertisements subsequent to the third advertisement, or he may
then be presented again with the third advertisement, the fourth
advertisement, and so on. As another example, the advertisements
subsequent to the third advertisement of the sequence will be
displayed to the user but interspersed with the missed episodes
(one and two) in order.
[0083] FIG. 11 shows a more detailed view of a flow chart of an
illustrative process 1100 for preventing a user from experiencing
an episodic advertisement out of order in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention. Process 1100 may also be used
to correct a user's viewing of an episodic advertisement after they
have already viewed a particular advertisement in an order contrary
to the intended order of the sequence of the episodic
advertisement. Process 1100 begins with step 1102. At step 1102,
the interactive media guidance application detects the imminent
display of an episodic advertisement. Herein, detecting the display
of an episodic advertisement may typically refer to detecting the
display of a single advertisement of an episodic advertisement. For
example, the interactive media guidance application may check
incoming media from media source 120 or data source 124 to
determine the presence of advertisement metadata. If advertisement
metadata is present, the interactive media guidance application may
process the advertisement metadata to determine if it has the
characteristic metadata fields of an advertisement in an episodic
advertisement or a non-episodic advertisement (e.g. standard
commercial form). If advertisement metadata is absent, the
interactive media guidance application may determine that the media
is non-advertisement television programming, or may assume that it
is a non-episodic advertisement. The process involved in this step
is described in more detail in process 1200, FIG. 12.
[0084] In another example, at step 1102 the interactive media
guidance application detects the imminent display of an episodic
advertisement by monitoring the display of advertisements to the
user. The interactive media guidance application may monitor the
data encoded in the VBI or side band of broadcast information
related to the media displayed in the guidance application display
(e.g., inband data) for advertisement metadata. If the
advertisement metadata matches that of an episodic advertisement,
the interactive media guidance application may determine that an
episodic advertisement is about to be displayed.
[0085] Once the interactive media guidance application has detected
the imminent display of an episodic advertisement, it determines at
step 1104 whether presenting the advertisement will cause the user
to experience the corresponding episodic advertisement in an order
contrary to the intended order of the sequence of the episodic
advertisement. For example, the interactive media guidance
application may make this determination by searching the
advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3) of the advertisement and also
considering the user's user viewing data 400 (FIG. 4). In one
embodiment, the interactive media guidance application may search
the user's user viewing data with the unique ID 320 (FIG. 3) of the
advertisement. If the unique ID of the advertisement is found in
the user's user viewing data, the interactive media guidance
application knows that the user has watched an advertisement of the
same episodic advertisement in the past. The interactive media
guidance application can then examine the sequence ID 330 (FIG. 3)
of all advertisements that have the unique ID in the user's user
viewing data to determine which advertisement in the episodic
advertisement was last viewed by the user. The interactive media
guidance application may then compare the sequence ID of the
advertisement with the sequence ID of the last advertisement of the
episodic advertisement viewed by the user. This allows the
interactive media guidance application to know whether presenting
the advertisement will cause the viewer to experience the episodic
advertisement out of order.
[0086] In one example, if the advertisement that will be presented
is the third advertisement of an episodic advertisement and the
last advertisement of the episodic advertisement viewed by the user
is the first advertisement of the episodic advertisement, the
interactive media guidance application determines that presenting
the third advertisement will cause the user to experience the
episodic advertisement out of order. In another example, if the
advertisement that will be presented is the third advertisement of
an episodic advertisement and the last advertisement of the
episodic advertisement viewed by the user is the fourth
advertisement of the episodic advertisement, the interactive media
guidance application determines that presenting the third
advertisement will cause the user to experience the episodic
advertisement out of order.
[0087] In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance
application may compare the sequence ID of the advertisement with
the sequence ID of all of the advertisements of the episodic
advertisement viewed by the user. This allows the interactive media
guidance application to correct a user's viewing of an episodic
advertisement after they have already viewed a particular
advertisement in an order contrary to the intended order of the
sequence of the episodic advertisement. In an example of such an
embodiment, if the advertisement that will be presented to the user
is the third advertisement of an episodic advertisement and the
only other advertisement of the episodic advertisement that has
been viewed by the user is the second advertisement of the episodic
advertisement, the interactive media guidance application may
determine that presenting the third advertisement will cause the
user to continue to experience the episodic advertisement out of
order.
[0088] If, at step 1104, the interactive media guidance application
determines that presenting the advertisement will cause the user to
experience the episodic advertisement in an order contrary to the
intended order of the sequence of the episodic advertisement,
process 1100 moves to step 1106. At step 1106, another
advertisement will be selected that will cause the user to
experience the episodic advertisement in accordance with the order
of the episodic advertisement. The process involved in this step
will be described in more detail in process 1200 (FIG. 13). Once
another advertisement has been selected at step 1106, process 1100
moves to step 1110.
[0089] If, at step 1104, the interactive media guidance application
instead determines that presenting the advertisement will not cause
the user to experience the associated episodic advertisement in an
order contrary to the intended order of the episodic advertisement,
process 1100 moves to step 1108. At step 1108, the advertisement of
the episodic advertisement is itself selected to be presented to
the user, and process 1100 moves on to step 1110.
[0090] At step 1110, the selected advertisement is presented to the
user. In particular, the active advertisement field 350 (FIG. 3)
may be examined to determine if the advertisement is readily
available to be presented. This use of active advertisement field
350 may be substantially similar to that described in step 1006.
Process 1100 then ends at step 1112.
[0091] FIG. 12 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1200
for detecting the display of an advertisement in an episodic
advertisement in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention. Process 1200 begins at step 1201. At step 1201,
advertisement metadata is processed. This advertisement metadata
may be related to an advertisement of the episodic advertisement
that will be displayed in the guidance application display in the
future, or an advertisement of the episodic advertisement that has
just begun in the guidance application display. In particular, the
interactive media guidance application may receive advertisement
metadata that is data encoded in the VBI or side band of broadcast
information, data retrieved from a data stream that was recorded
with an advertisement previously received and stored, data acquired
by tuning to and receiving a data stream containing an
advertisement identified from a link or address for a data stream,
or any other suitable means for receiving advertisement metadata.
The advertisement metadata may then be parsed. In one embodiment,
the interactive media guidance application may parse the received
metadata into metadata fields, such as those fields described with
respect to advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 4). This parsing may be
performed according to a metadata schema stored on the user
equipment 110 (FIG. 1), conveyed by data source 124, conveyed by
advertisement generator 140, or any other suitable data source. The
metadata schema may specify the particular metadata fields expected
in the received advertisement metadata.
[0092] At step 1204, the parsed metadata is used to determine
whether the advertisement is an episodic advertisement. In one
embodiment, this determination may be made on how closely the
parsed metadata matches an episodic advertisement metadata schema.
The episodic advertisement metadata schema may define the minimum
metadata fields necessary to prevent a user from experiencing an
episodic advertisement out of order. In one embodiment, the
episodic advertisement metadata schema may define the fields 310,
320, 330, 340, 350, and 360 detailed in advertisement metadata 300
(FIG. 3). If the necessary metadata fields are present in the
advertisement metadata, the advertisement may be determined to be
an advertisement of an episodic advertisement. Conversely, if the
necessary metadata fields are not present in the advertisement
metadata, the advertisement may be determined to be a non-episodic
advertisement.
[0093] If, at step 1204, the advertisement is determined to be an
episodic advertisement, process 1200 may end at step 1206. Step
1206 may execute process 1100 at step 1104 (FIG. 11), which
determines whether presenting the advertisement of the episodic
advertisement will cause the user to experience the episodic
advertisement contrary to the sequence of the episodic
advertisement. If, at step 1204, the advertisement is determined to
be a non-episodic advertisement, process 1200 may end at step 1205.
The interactive media guidance application may execute step 1205 by
executing process 1100 at step 1110, which will present the
non-episodic advertisement to the user.
[0094] FIG. 13 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1300
for selecting another advertisement that will cause the user to
experience the episodic advertisement in its intended order in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Process
1300 begins at step 1302. At step 1302, the next advertisement of
the episodic advertisement that the user should view is determined.
In one embodiment, this determination is performed using
advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3) and user viewing data 400 (FIG.
4). For example, the user viewing data may be examined to determine
the last advertisement of the episodic advertisement the user
viewed. In embodiments where the interactive media guidance
application is preventing the user from experiencing the episodic
advertisement out of order, the next advertisement may be selected
as the advertisement with an unique ID matching the last
advertisement of the episodic advertisement the user viewed and a
sequence ID one value higher than the sequence ID of the last
advertisement of the episodic advertisement the user viewed. In
embodiments where the interactive media guidance application is
correcting the user's viewing of an episodic advertisement after
they have already viewed a particular advertisement in an order
contrary to the intended order of the sequence of the episodic
advertisement, the next advertisement may be selected as the first
advertisement of the episodic advertisement, thus causing the user
to view the episodic advertisement from the beginning.
Alternatively, in such embodiments the next advertisement may be
selected as the advertisement with an unique ID matching the last
advertisement of the episodic advertisement and a sequence ID one
value higher than the sequence ID of the last advertisement of the
episodic advertisement the user viewed, thus causing the user to
view the episodic advertisement in order from that point on. Once
the next advertisement has been determined, process 1300 moves to
step 1304.
[0095] At step 1304, the interactive media guidance application
determines whether the next advertisement is readily available. In
one embodiment, this determination may be made using active
advertisement field 350 (FIG. 3). The process by which the
determination is made may be substantially similar to that
described with respect to step 1006 (FIG. 10).
[0096] If, at step 1304, it is determined that the next
advertisement is not readily available, process 1300 moves to step
1306. At step 1306, the interactive media guidance application may
wait for the next advertisement to become readily available. This
wait may be performed by polling the active advertisement field 350
(FIG. 3) at a regular interval. During the wait, the interactive
media guidance application may attempt to retrieve the next
advertisement by initiating a VOD session with VOD server 140 (FIG.
1). When the active advertisement field 350 has a value of `1`,
interactive media guidance application may then retrieve the next
advertisement from the appropriate source. The appropriate source
may be VOD server 140, data source 124 (FIG. 1), recording device
118 (FIG. 1) or any other suitable source. While the interactive
media guidance application is waiting at step 1306 for the next
advertisement to become readily available, non-episodic
advertisements may be displayed. The non-episodic advertisements
may be from any suitable content source. Once the next
advertisement becomes readily available, process 1300 ends at step
1308. Step 1308 may execute step 1110 (FIG. 11), which will present
the next advertisement to the user.
[0097] If, at step 1304, it is determined that the next
advertisement is readily available, process 1300 may end at step
1305. The interactive media guidance application may execute step
1305 by executing step 1201 (FIG. 11), which will present the next
advertisement to the user.
[0098] FIG. 14 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1400
for preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement
out of order based on receiving a user input in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention. Process 1400 begins with step
1402. At step 1402, user input is received. The user input may be
any input from user input device 114 (FIG. 1). For example, user
input may be a channel change, an indication of interest, a
recording command, a scroll command, or any other suitable command.
The user input may be classified as a source selection command or a
guidance application navigation command as discussed with respect
to user input device 114 (FIG. 1). Once the user input is received,
process 1400 moves to step 1404.
[0099] At step 1404, an episodic advertisement is selected in
response to the received user input. In one example, a user may
enter a channel change command to change channels from a first
channel to a second channel. The particular episodic advertisement
that the user was watching on the first channel may have been
advertising a television show related to that channel, and thus it
would be not be appropriate for the user to later view
advertisements from that particular episodic advertisement on the
second channel. The interactive media guidance application would
then select an episodic advertisement meant to be shown on the
second channel in place of the episodic advertisement that the user
was viewing on the first channel. For example, if a user has been
presented an episodic advertisement about tires while watching the
racing channel, and then the user changes channels to the fishing
channel, he may subsequently be presented with an advertisement
related to fishing radar systems, rather than the next
advertisement of the tire episodic advertisement. Some episodic
advertisements may not be channel specific, for example, an
episodic advertisement about a food product such as cereal. In such
cases, in some embodiments, the episodic advertisement may be
sequenced across channels. In another example, a user may be
browsing television listings and viewing a listing for a particular
television show. The interactive media guidance application might
select an episodic advertisement related to the particular listing
instead of an episodic advertisement that the user is watching. In
yet another example, a user may execute a command to record a
particular television show. The interactive media guidance
application may then select an episodic advertisement scheduled to
be broadcast during the recorded television show, and allow the
user to experience the episodic advertisement instead of an
episodic advertisement the user is watching. The process involved
in step 1404 will be discussed in further detail in process 1500
(FIG. 5). Once an episodic advertisement has been selected in step
1404, process 1400 ends at step 1406.
[0100] FIG. 15 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1500
for selecting an episodic advertisement in response to a received
user input in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention. Process 1500 begins at step 1502. At step 1502, it is
determined whether the user input will cause a user to view a
different episodic advertisement. In one embodiment, this
determination may be made using advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3)
and user viewing data 400 (FIG. 4). In particular, the
advertisement metadata of an episodic ad that is displayed after
the user input is received may be compared to the advertisement
metadata of the last advertisement the user experienced according
to the user viewing data. If the unique ID of the displayed
advertisement is different from the unique ID of the last
advertisement viewed, then the interactive media guidance
application knows that the user input has caused the user to view a
different episodic advertisement. If the unique IDs of the
advertisements match, then the interactive media guidance
application knows that the user input has not caused the user to
view a different episodic advertisement.
[0101] If, at step 1502, it is determined that the user input will
cause the user to view a different episodic advertisement, process
1500 executes step 1504. At step 1504, an advertisement from a
different episodic advertisement is selected. This advertisement
may be selected from the advertisements available on the VOD server
140, user recording device 118, or any other suitable source.
[0102] If, at step 1502, it is determined that the user input did
not cause the user to view a different episodic advertisement,
process 1500 executes step 1506. At step 1506, the next
advertisement of the same episodic advertisement is selected. This
selection may be substantially similar to that described with
respect to step 1302 (FIG. 13).
[0103] After an advertisement has been selected in step 1504 or
step 1506, process 1500 ends with step 1508. At step 1508, step
1406 (FIG. 14) may be performed, which returns to the end of
process 1400.
[0104] FIG. 16 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1600
for preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement
out of order based on receiving a user indication of interest in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Process
1600 begins at step 1602. At step 1602, a user indication of
interest in an episodic advertisement is received. The user
indication of interest may be similar to that described with
episodic advertisement interest button 740 (FIG. 7). User
indications of interest may also include recording programs,
viewing listings of programs, or any suitable user indication of
interest.
[0105] A different episodic advertisement may be selected at step
1604 based on the user indication of interest. In one example, if
the user indicated that he is interested in watching a teaser for
an upcoming episode of a television show, an episodic advertisement
advertising that show may be selected. In another example, if the
user records a particular genre of television shows, an episodic
advertisement advertising a movie of that same genre may be
selected. In yet another example, if a user is viewing listings of
television programs for a particular sport, an episodic
advertisement for a sporting event relating to that particular
sport may be selected. Once an advertisement has been selected,
process 1600 ends at step 1606.
[0106] FIG. 17 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1700
for preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement
out of order by storing advertisements on user storage equipment in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Process
1700 begins at step 1702. At step 1702, advertisements are stored
on user storage equipment. In one embodiment, the user storage
equipment is recording device 118 (FIG. 1). In particular,
advertisements may be stored on the user storage equipment based on
advertisement metadata 300 (FIG. 3). The process of step 1702 will
be described in more detail in process 1800 (FIG. 18). Once
advertisements have been stored on the user storage equipment, an
advertisement is identified from the stored advertisements at step
1704. This step may be part of step 1004 of process 1000 (FIG. 10),
step 1106 of process 1100 (FIG. 11), step 1304 of process 1300
(FIG. 13), step 1404 of process 1400 (FIG. 14), step 1504 of
process 1500 (FIG. 15), step 1506 of process 1500, step 1604 of
process 1600 (FIG. 16), or step 1904 of process 1900 (FIG. 19). The
identified advertisement may then be presented to the user, for
example, as part of step 1006 of process 1000 (FIG. 10) or step
1110 of process 1100 (FIG. 11). Process 1700 then ends at step
1706.
[0107] FIG. 18 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1800
for storing advertisements on user storage equipment in accordance
with one embodiment of the present invention. Process 1800 begins
at step 1802. At step 1802, advertisement metadata is processed.
This step may be performed substantially similar to step 1201 (FIG.
12). Advertisements are stored at step 1806 based on the parsed
advertisement metadata. In one embodiment, advertisements are
stored based on their unique ID 320 (FIG. 3), i.e. what particular
episodic advertisement they are a part of. For example, episodic
advertisements advertising sports may be stored, while episodic
advertisements advertising television may not be stored. In one
embodiment, advertisements may be stored based on their ad
expiration field 360 (FIG. 3). For example, only advertisements
which have not reached their expiration time may be stored, while
advertisements that are past their expiration time may not be
stored. On other embodiments, advertisements may be stored based on
their sequence ID 330, ad length 340, active advertisement field
350 (FIG. 3), or any other suitable criteria. Once all of the
designated advertisements have been stored, process 1800 ends at
step 1808, which may execute step 1704 of process 1700 (FIG.
17).
[0108] FIG. 19 shows a flow chart of an illustrative process 1900
for preventing a user from experiencing an episodic advertisement
out of order by identifying the user in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention. Process 1900 may be performed
as part of processes 10-18. Process 1900 begins at step 1902. At
step 1902, a user is identified. The user may be identified using
information from user input device 114 (FIG. 1). In one embodiment,
a user may be identified with a user logon interface displayed in
the video region, such as user logon interface 910 (FIG. 9). In
other embodiments, users may be identified using any suitable input
device coupled with any suitable logon interface. Once a user has
been identified, step 1904 is executed. At step 1904, an
advertisement is identified based on the identity of the user. This
identification may be based on the user viewing data 400
accumulated for the particular user. Once an advertisement is
identified, process 1900 ends at step 1906.
[0109] The above described embodiments of the present invention are
presented for purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and
the present invention is limited only by the claims which follow.
For example, this invention is described primarily in terms of an
interactive media guidance application. However, it may be embodied
within any other suitable type of application, such as a trick-play
application, a personal video recorder application, a
video-on-demand application, a program guide application, or any
other suitable application.
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