Systems and methods for advertising continuity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10009642-B2
Application number	US-201615079831-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2016
Priority date	Mar 24, 2016
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for generating content identification tiles, such as manifest files, for ensuring content and advertising continuity when changes occur during playback. A user device can request content at a particular bitrate, and a first manifest file comprising references to the content and selected associated content such as advertisements can be created in response to the request. While one of the advertisements is being displayed, the user device can request a change, such as for a different bitrate. A computing device, such as a manifest server can access the first manifest file to determine the content and the associated content, such the advertisements, that were intended for the user. The manifest server can then create a second manifest file in response to the request, where second manifest file can be created with the associated content, for example, the advertisements in the first manifest file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
requesting, by a first manifest server, one or more advertisements at a first bit rate associated with a user device;
in response to the request for the one or more advertisements at the first bit rate, receiving information comprising a plurality of references to the one or more advertisements at the first bit rate;
generating a first manifest tile and state information associated with the first manifest file, wherein the first manifest file comprises a reference to fragments of content at the first bitrate and a reference of the plurality of references to a first plurality of advertising fragments of the one or more advertisements at the first bit rate;
transmitting an identifier associated with the user device and the state information to a second manifest server;
receiving, by the second manifest server, a request for the content wherein the request comprises the identifier associated with the user device and a selection of a second bitrate;
determining, based on the identifier associated with the user device and the state information, the one or more advertisements; and
generating, based on the one or more advertisements, a second manifest file comprising a reference to fragments of the content at the second bitrate and a reference to a second plurality of advertising fragments of the one or more advertisements at a third bitrate, wherein at least one of the second plurality of advertising fragments is related to at least one of the first plurality of advertising fragments.

2. The method of claim 1 , herein the state information comprises one or more of an identifier associated with the content or an attribute of the content.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of advertising fragments comprises the same content as the second plurality of advertising fragments.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second bitrate is different from the third bitrate and the first bitrate is different from the third bitrate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first bitrate is the same as the third bitrate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request for the one or more advertisements at the first bit rate is in response to a request for the content from the user device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the first plurality of advertising fragments is an advertising fragment displayed based on the selection of the second bitrate.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second manifest file further comprises a reference to additional advertising fragments of one or more additional advertisements.

9. A method comprising:
transmitting, by a user device, a first request for content to a first manifest server, wherein the first request for the content comprises a selection of a first bitrate and an identifier;
receiving, from the first manifest server, a first manifest file associated with a first data stream comprising the content at the first bitrate and a plurality of advertisements at the first bitrate;
presenting, based on the first manifest file, the first data stream on a display device;
transmitting a second request for the content while an advertisement of the plurality of advertisements is displayed on the display device, wherein the second request for the content is received by a second manifest server, and wherein the second request for the content comprises the identifier and a selection of a second bitrate;
receiving, from the second manifest server, a second manifest file associated with a second data stream comprising the content at the second bitrate and the plurality of advertisements, wherein the second manifest file is based on state information stored separately from the first manifest file and the second manifest file; and
transitioning, based on the second manifest tile, from presenting the first data stream to presenting the second data stream while the advertisement is displayed on the display device.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising presenting the advertisement at the first bitrate after transitioning from presenting the first data stream to presenting the second data stream.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising presenting the advertisement at the second bitrate after transitioning from presenting the first data stream to presenting the second data stream.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising presenting the advertisement at a third bitrate after transitioning from presenting the first data stream to presenting the second data stream.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the transitioning from presenting the first data stream to presenting the second data stream while the advertisement is displayed on the display device further comprises:
determining a time point of the advertisement displayed at the moment of the transition; and
presenting, after the transition, the advertisement starting at the time point.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first data stream comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) stream.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the state information comprises one or more of an identifier associated with the user device, an identifier associated with the content or an attribute of the content.

16. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first manifest server, an identifier of a user device and an identifier associated with content at a first bitrate;
generating a first manifest file and state information, wherein the first manifest file comprises the identifier associated with the user device, a reference to the content at the first bitrate, and a plurality of references to a plurality of advertisements at the first bitrate, wherein the state information is stored separately from the first manifest file;
transmitting the first manifest file to the user device;
transmitting the identifier associated with the user device and the state information to a second manifest server;
receiving, by the second manifest server, the identifier associated with the user device and an identifier associated with the content at a second bitrate;
identifying, based on the identifier associated with the user device and the state information, the plurality of advertisements at the second bitrate;
generating a second manifest file wherein the second manifest file comprises the identifier associated with the user device, a reference to the content at the second bitrate, and a plurality of references to the plurality of advertisements at the second bitrate; and
transmitting the second manifest file to the user device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second manifest file comprises a plurality of references to additional advertisements, wherein the additional advertisements are associated with the state information.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the state information comprises one or more of the identifier associated with the user device, the identifier associated with the content, an attribute of the content, and the method further comprises, updating the state information based on the second manifest file.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second manifest file further comprises references to the plurality of advertisements at a third bitrate.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising transmitting the updated state information and the identifier associated with the user device to the first manifest server.

Assignees

• Theplatform Llc
• Comcast Cable Communications Man Llc

Inventors

• Ramaley Alan

Classifications

• H04N21/64322

  IP · CPC title

• H04N21/6373

  for rate control {, e.g. request to the server to modify its transmission rate (flow control in packet networks H04L47/10)} · CPC title

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/25825

  involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone (optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title

• H04L65/601

  Electricity · mapped topic