End user-based personalized ad insertion in broadcast-broadband hybrid terminals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9479801-B2
Application number	US-201414577204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2014
Priority date	Dec 19, 2014
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

A system and method for signaling timing and content of personalized ads to a hybrid terminal via a television broadcast/multicast network. The currently-present ad insertion markers in the transport stream of the broadcast/multicast content are replaced by a Service Information, SI, table that contains information corresponding to the replaced markers. The table-containing transport stream is then delivered to the hybrid terminal. The SI table may include a manifest to signal upcoming time slots for advertising. The manifest may provide information about sources from which the hybrid terminal can fetch personalized advertisements and may also identify available time slots in the transport stream for inserting the fetched ads. To enable the hybrid terminal to present personalized advertisements to its viewer, the SI table may identify an Ad Decision Server, ADS, from which the hybrid terminal can request targeted ads for playback to the viewer watching a broadcast/multicast TV program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of signaling interstitial programming to a terminal via a television broadcast network for playback to a viewer associated with the terminal, wherein the terminal is coupled to the television broadcast network and wherein the method comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network:
receiving broadcast content containing television programs;
creating a transport stream of the broadcast content;
preparing a table containing information corresponding to one or more ad insertion markers existing in the broadcast content and used solely in the creation of the transport stream;
replacing, in the transport stream, the existing ad insertion markers with the table; and
delivering the transport stream with the table to the terminal to manage placement of interstitial programming during playback of the television programs;
wherein the interstitial programming includes advertisements, and the table includes a server Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying a decision server in the television broadcast network that manages selection of advertisements to the terminal;
wherein the method further comprises:
the decision server receiving from the terminal, information individually identifying the viewer of the terminal;
the decision server obtaining information about one or more viewer-specific personalized advertisements to be retrieved by the terminal for playback to the viewer;
the decision server sending a result to the terminal, wherein the result identifies viewer-specific personalized advertisements to be retrieved by the terminal, information about a duration of each said viewer-specific personalized advertisement, and a respective content server for each said viewer-specific personalized advertisement;
wherein the table further includes an indication that notifies the terminal of one or more ad insertion slots available within the transport stream, thereby enabling the terminal to select from the result sent by the decision server, at least one viewer-specific personalized advertisement that is time-wise possible for a specific ad insertion slot within the transport stream.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the terminal is a hybrid terminal, and wherein the method comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network as part of delivering the transport stream:
delivering the transport stream with the table to the hybrid terminal using at least one of the following options:
terrestrial broadcast,
satellite broadcast, and
cable broadcast.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the terminal is an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) terminal, and wherein the method comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network as part of delivering the transport stream:
delivering the transport stream with the table to the IPTV terminal using IP multicast.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transport stream is a Motion Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG2) Transport Stream (TS), the table includes a first Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) System Information (SI) table, and the existing ad insertion markers are Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 35 (SCTE 35) ad insertion markers.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network as part of delivering the MPEG2 TS with the first DVB SI table to the terminal:
including one of the following in the first DVB SI table:
an MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (DASH) based manifest associated with the broadcast content, or
a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to the MPEG DASH based manifest,

wherein the MPEG DASH based manifest contains information about timing of upcoming ad insertion slots within the MPEG2 TS, and
wherein, for each ad insertion slot, the MPEG DASH based manifest further contains one or more of the following information:
identification of one or more sources available to supply respective advertising material for the duration of the ad insertion slot, and
for each identified source, a source-specific delivery format for the respective advertising material.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network as part of delivering the MPEG2 TS with the first DVB SI table to the terminal:
placing the server URL for the decision server in the first DVB SI table; and
providing the first DVB SI table to the terminal with a first indication that informs the terminal of the presence of the server URL, thereby enabling the terminal to contact the decision server for advertisements.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
the decision server receiving a request from the terminal, wherein the request includes the information individually identifying the viewer of the terminal; and
the decision server querying one or more databases to obtain the information about one or more viewer-specific personalized advertisements to be retrieved by the terminal for playback to the viewer;
wherein the result sent from the decision server to the terminal includes a respective ad-specific URL for each viewer-specific personalized advertisement, and
wherein each ad-specific URL identifies the respective content server from which a corresponding viewer-specific personalized advertisement is to be retrieved by the terminal.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the table further includes a second DVB SI table, and wherein the method further comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network:
preparing the second DVB SI table with a second indication that notifies the terminal of the one or more ad insertion slots available within the MPEG2 TS; and
delivering the second DVB SI table with the second indication to the terminal via the MPEG2 TS.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises performing the following by the television broadcast network:
receiving viewer-specific information from the viewer, wherein the viewer-specific information includes personal user preferences of the viewer along with the information individually identifying the viewer;
storing the received viewer-specific information; and
using the stored viewer-specific information to select the one or more viewer-specific personalized advertisements to be sent to the terminal for playback to the viewer.

10. A method of presenting interstitial programming on a terminal associated with a viewer, wherein the terminal is coupled to a television broadcast network that delivers broadcast television programs to the terminal, and wherein the method comprises performing the following by the terminal:
receiving a transport stream of the broadcast television programs from the television broadcast network, wherein the transport stream includes a table that contains timing information which is equivalent to the timing information conveyed by ad insertion markers that were previously present in the broadcast content prior to the receipt of the transport stream by the terminal;
processing the timing information in the table to identify time slots in the transport stream that are available for interstitial programming; and
managing placement of interstitial programming in the identified time slots during playback of the television programs on the terminal;
wherein the transport stream is a Motion Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG2) Transport Stream (TS), the table includes a first Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) System Information (SI) table, and the ad insertion markers are Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers 35 (SCTE 35) ad insertion markers;
wherein the interstitial programming includes adverti

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Higgs Paul
• Mitra Nilo

Classifications

• H04N21/8586

  by using a URL (processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02) · CPC title

• H04H60/45

  for identifying users · CPC title

• H04H60/63

  for services of sales {(data processing systems or methods specially adapted for electronic commerce G06Q30/00)} · CPC title

• H04N21/8455

  involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream · CPC title

• H04H2201/37

  via a different channel · CPC title