Storing and retrieving unused advertisements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12346938-B2
Application number	US-202318156854-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2023
Priority date	Feb 14, 2020
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

The exemplary embodiments relate to implementing a mechanism that is configured to select and insert a video advertisement into a video stream that is to be provided to a user device by a streaming service. This may include receiving a request for a video stream from a user device. In response to the request, transmitting a first portion of the video stream to the user device and determining that second a portion of the video stream is to include multiple video advertisements. One or more video advertisements may be selected from a database that includes a set of video advertisements that were previously removed from a further video stream. The one or more video advertisements may then be inserted into the video stream. The second portion of the video stream is then transmitted to the user device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
at a streaming service:
transmitting a first portion of a video stream to a user device in response to a request;
selecting one or more video advertisements to include in an ad pod of a second portion of the video stream from a database including a set of video advertisements that were previously removed from a further ad pod of a further video stream;
inserting the one or more video advertisements into the ad pod; and
transmitting the second portion of the video stream to the user device, the second portion of the video stream including the ad pod.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, prior to selecting, that the ad pod of the second portion of the video stream is scheduled to include multiple instances of the same video advertisement; and
removing, prior to selecting, one or more instances of the same video advertisement, wherein removing the one or more instance of the same video advertisement creates an empty ad slot within the ad pod of the second portion of the video stream.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the multiple instances of the same video advertisement are received from an ad provider.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising storing the one or more instances of the same video advertisement in the database.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more instances of the same video advertisement are selected by the streaming service to be included in the video stream that is to be provided to a further connected user device and wherein the user device and the further connected user device are associated with different users.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a duration of the second portion of the video stream, wherein selecting one or more video advertisements from the database is based on the duration of the second portion of the video stream.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first video advertisement of the set of video advertisements included in the database is associated with a set of data that indicates one or more of a duration of the first video advertisement, an expiry time, one or more ad beacons and a type of the user device.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining a set of parameters associated with the user device, wherein selecting the one or more video advertisements from the database is based on whether at least a portion of the set of parameters matches at least a portion of the set of data.

9. A server, comprising:
a communication interface configured to provide a video stream to a user device; and
a processor configured to perform operations, the operations comprising:
operating the communication interface to transmit a first portion of the video stream to the user device in response to a request;
selecting one or more video advertisements to include in an ad pod of a second portion of the video stream from a database including a set of video advertisements that were previously removed from a further ad pod of a further video stream;
inserting the one or more video advertisements into the ad pod; and
operating the communication interface to transmit the second portion of the video stream to the user device, the second portion of the video stream including the ad pod.

10. The server of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
identifying, prior to selecting, that the ad pod of the second portion of the video stream is scheduled to include multiple instances of the same video advertisement; and
removing, prior to selecting, one or more instances of the same video advertisement, wherein removing the one or more instance of the same video advertisement creates an empty ad slot within the ad pod of the second portion of the video stream.

11. The server of claim 10 , wherein the multiple instances of the same video advertisement are received from an ad provider.

12. The server of claim 10 , the operations further comprising storing the one or more instances of the same video advertisement in the database.

13. The server of claim 12 , wherein the one or more instances of the same video advertisement are selected by a streaming service to be included in the video stream that is to be provided to a further connected user device and wherein the user device and the further connected user device are associated with different users.

14. The server of claim 9 , the operations further comprising determining a duration of the second portion of the video stream, wherein selecting one or more video advertisements from the database is based on the duration of the second portion of the video stream.

15. The server of claim 9 , wherein a first video advertisement of the set of video advertisements included in the database is associated with a set of data.

16. The server of claim 15 , wherein the set of data indicates an expiry time for the first video advertisement.

17. The server of claim 15 , wherein the set of data indicates an ad beacon associated with the first video advertisement.

18. The server of claim 15 , wherein the set of data indicates a type of the user device associated with the first video advertisement.

19. The server of claim 15 , the operations further comprising determining a set of parameters associated with the user device, wherein selecting the one or more video advertisements from the database is based on whether at least a portion of the set of parameters matches at least a portion of the set of data.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including a set of instructions executable by a processor, when executed the set of the instructions cause the processor to perform operations, comprising:
transmitting a first portion of a video stream to a user device in response to a request;
selecting one or more video advertisements to include in an ad pod of a second portion of the video stream from a database including a set of video advertisements that were previously removed from a further video stream;
inserting the one or more video advertisements into the ad pod; and
transmitting the second portion of the video stream to the user device, the second portion of the video stream including the ad pod.

Assignees

• Viacom Int Inc

Inventors

• Shanson Spencer
• Gwiazda Jonathan
• Chiu Adrian
• Lebedev Nikolay
• Ghosh Indira

Classifications

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title

• H04N21/231

  Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion · CPC title

• H04N21/2393

  involving handling client requests (scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60) · CPC title

• G06F16/71

  Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures · CPC title

• H04N21/23424

  involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement · CPC title