Abstract:
A dynamic advertising insertion system automatically inserts advertisements in response to opportunities that arise in the course of content playback. For example, when a user hits a pause button, an advertising opportunity may be created and an appropriate advertisement may be inserted. One basis for determining which advertisement to insert is to enforce a predetermined agreement between a content provider and one or more distributors that sets forth a percentage of advertising opportunities that each entity will be afforded. Thus, the decision of what advertisement to insert may be based on a number of factors, including the type of content, the particular user&#39;s equipment, information about the user, and the need to adjust the playback of advertisements to enforce the percentage split between the advertising entities.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    This relates generally to the dynamic insertion of advertisements into entertainment content. 
         [0002]    An asset is video, rich media, audio, or graphic information that can be an advertisement or entertainment content. Content refers to any entertainment asset created by a content provider. Content is not used to refer to advertising assets. Content generally refers to an episode or a program, such as a group of episodes. A content provider is an organization responsible for the creation of content. 
         [0003]    In connection with broadcast television, content providers cannot reach audiences without distributors. Distributors are organizations responsible for distributing content to a viewing audience. A distributor is also known as an operator. A distributor includes a cable television supplier, a satellite distribution supplier, a web portal, local affiliate broadcaster, mobile communications systems, fixed and mobile WiMAX systems and telephone systems, and a provider of video information, to mention a few examples. Distributors and content providers are collectively called “sellers” herein. 
         [0004]    Advertisements sold by a content provider are generally national advertisements, while advertisements sold by a distributor are local advertisements. 
         [0005]    Currently, the splitting of advertising opportunities, called ad splits herein, is performed contractually and the inventory of advertisements is allocated and divided uniquely between content providers and distributors. 
         [0006]    In dynamic advertising insertion, ads are played for a given ad opportunity based on a client context. For example, any time certain user operations occur, an advertisement may be inserted. Examples of this include when the user begins play of content, when a user hits a pause icon, or when a period of time has passed, an advertisement may be inserted. Thus, the frequency of ad insertion, the number of ads that may be inserted, and the time when an ad is inserted may not be known in advance. In other words, the timing and number of advertising opportunities cannot be known in advance with dynamic advertising insertion. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a schematic depiction of a dynamic advertisement distribution system in accordance with one embodiment; 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart for the set up sequence for implementing an advertising split through an automated dynamic advertisement distribution system according to one embodiment; and 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart for the operation of an ad decision system according to one embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, a content provider may provide content to a content server for distribution to an audience. For example, a network television broadcaster may provide content to be broadcast by local television stations who act as distributors of the content. The content provider, in this case the national broadcaster, causes advertisements to be inserted into the content and provides the content to a large number of distributors in the form of local television broadcasters. Those local television broadcasters may also insert advertisements into the content. 
         [0011]    Similarly, content may be distributed over satellite distribution systems, cable distribution systems, the Internet, or in media, such as DVD disks. 
         [0012]    With dynamic advertisement insertion, advertisements are not simply inserted at fixed times or locations within content. Instead, the insertion of the advertisement depends on the particular context. For example, when certain things happen, advertisements may be inserted. Thus, advertisements may be inserted automatically in response to the beginning of play of content, the passage of time, a request for services, the selection of a pause feature to pause the playback of content, or any of a variety of other circumstances. Each of these circumstances may be difficult to predict and, therefore, no one may know the exact time when advertisements will be played, the exact demographics that may exist when the advertisements are played, the number of advertisements that may be played at any given time, or even the particular advertisements that may be played (which may be dependent on content as well). 
         [0013]    Instead, an intelligent system determines what advertisements to play, under what circumstances, in response to a request for advertisements automatically generated from a content playback device. The decision about what advertisement to play may involve complex heuristics that take into account the demographics of the audience, the time of day, the time of year, the available advertisement pool, the type of playback device being utilized, the particular distributor or content provider, and the nature of the particular content being played, to mention a few examples. 
         [0014]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , a dynamic advertisement decision system  10  may include a web application  12 . The web application  12  may be a software system accessible via a website by different users. These users can include content providers, distributors, and advertisers. The application suite may include a buyer application  20  that is used by advertisers to place or buy advertisements in the system for eventual insertion within content. It may also include a distributor application  22  for use by distributors to plan, create, and traffick an advertising campaign. 
         [0015]    Thus, the distributor may initially set up a possible advertising campaign using the application  22 . The distributor can later make that campaign accessible to others, such as advertisers. Finally, the distributor can commit to the campaign so that advertising opportunities set out on a website may be selected by advertisers. Finally, a content provider application  24  may be used by content providers to plan, create, and traffick advertising campaigns generally in the same way as the distributors. 
         [0016]    The web application  12  may run on a web server at a hosted site  14 . The hosted site  14  may be accessible to the various users over the Internet, as one example. The various users may access the hosted site through password protected portals or user interfaces. 
         [0017]    The web server may include a core server  26  which includes the ad rules manager  28 . The ad rules manager  28  compiles the ad campaign information and distributes it to the ad server  57 . The campaign information may be entered via a website by content providers and distributors in one embodiment. 
         [0018]    The core server  26  also runs a contract plan manager  32  that implements agreements with the various users of the system  10 . These contracts may include agreements between sellers of advertisements, such as content providers and distributors, for the distribution of revenues gained from advertisers in return for advertisement placements within content and the splitting of advertising opportunities, also referred to as spots or ad avails. 
         [0019]    An inventory manager  30  indicates what advertising opportunities are still unsold and available. 
         [0020]    The trafficking manager  36  is responsible for assigning the creative content references to the campaign advertisements. The user manager  38  keeps track of user logins and their respective application privileges. This information may be important from an historical context. 
         [0021]    An advertising audit engine  40  keeps track of whose advertisements got served and/or played. In other words, the engine  40  keeps track of who gets credit for the advertisements that were actually served and/or played. The credit may depend on the time when the advertisement is played, the targeting variables such as demographics of the audience to whom the content was played, or the particular content that was involved. All these circumstances may be collected or referenced by the audit engine  40 , in some embodiments. 
         [0022]    Also present within the hosted site  14  may be an application database and a reporting database. A title ingest interface  53  receives the titles that describe the content against which ads are to be placed against. These may be accessed from outside the hosted website  14  from a title database  52 . Similarly, an external billing system  50  may be accessed by a billing interface  51  to allow the free flow of billing information to the billing system  50  from the reporting database. 
         [0023]    A designated market area (DMA)/operator head end server or broadband network edge server that targets a dedicated market area  16  may receive ad campaign information for delivery to single DMA presentation or, in the case of a head end, may distribute to a number of DMAs. The head end or designated market area  16  may have an ad server  57  which includes an advertising rules execution engine  58 , an ad split module  67 , and an advertising auditing engine  60 . The advertising rules execution engine  58  applies a set of heuristics to determine when a particular advertisement, known to be available, is to be inserted within particular content, for a particular user, at a particular time. The ad split module  67  splits the ad opportunities among sellers. The output of the rules execution engine  58  is advertisement play instructions. The auditing engine  60  accounts for the placement of advertisements. 
         [0024]    A content playout interface  68  may interface to a playout device  70  in a content playout environment  18 . The playout device  70  may be any type of playout device, such as a digital television, a set top box, a personal computer, a media player, a cellular telephone, a cable box, a Video On Demand server (VOD), a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), or a satellite receiver, to mention a few examples. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , the set up sequence  74  may establish an advertising inventory split in software. The set up sequence  74  may be executed at the hosted site  14  and may run as software executed by the core server  26  or ad server  57 . The setup sequence can also be accomplished by the loading of a data file that contains the setup information, into the core server  26  or ad server  57 . The sequence  74  establishes the set up of the system  10  which will make the ad decisions against the pre-defined advertising split settings. 
         [0026]    Initially, at block  76 , the group of sellers are designated. A seller may be a content provider or a distributor. Content providers and distributors may access the hosted site  14  to enter data about themselves and to register with the system  10 . 
         [0027]    Then, the seller split of advertising opportunities may be entered, as indicated in block  78 . Generally, this is a percentage split which designates what percentage of the advertisement opportunities arising over a given period related to designated content would be provided to each of a selected group of designated sellers registered pursuant to block  76 . 
         [0028]    In block  80 , the ad avail opportunity is defined. The ad avail opportunity is an advertising unit type that is associated with content. For instance, a pre-roll is an ad avail type. A pre-roll is defined as a video advertisement that plays before the main content is started. A mid-roll is a video advertisement that plays somewhere in the middle of the programming content, and a post-roll is a video advertisement that plays after the programming content is finished. A user selected ‘pause ad’ is still another avail type. A pause ad is advertisement that plays when a user pauses programming content. Any avail types may be utilized against any programming content to create advertising avail opportunities. In any case, in order to implement a seller contract, the avail opportunity must be entered. This provides the system with information it needs to know about the circumstances under which particular advertisements may be inserted. 
         [0029]    Next, a distribution platform is selected at block  82 . The distribution platform describes how video content is delivered to the play out device  70 . For instance, distributors may distribute content on various application platforms, such as video on demand, broadband video, and digital broadcast television (cable or satellite), to mention a few examples. 
         [0030]    Then, the effective dates of the advertising opportunities are entered (block  84 ). These may be entered as a starting date for the advertising campaign and an ending date. Again, this is information that is needed to determine when to insert the advertisements. More complex data may also be utilized, such as blackout dates or recurrent dates that extend over extended time ranges. 
         [0031]    Also, time stamps may be entered, as indicated in block  86 . Each ad split entry may include a time stamp and an indication of who and when the entry was created, in some embodiments. 
         [0032]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , an ad decision sequence is indicated at  88 . The sequence  88  may be implemented in software. For example, the ad decision sequence  88  may be instituted by the ad rules execution engine  58  within the core server  26 . 
         [0033]    The seller marks the campaign to be executed (block  92 ). In one embodiment, this may involve transitioning the system  10  to indicate that the campaign is now in the committed state. Prior to the committed state, the campaign initially may be in open state where only the content provider or distributor can access the campaign on the website, for example to plan a campaign. Then, the seller can transition the campaign to “proposed” so that it can be reviewed by others, such as advertisers. However, the campaign is still not available for ad placement by a trafficker. Once the campaign is committed, it may be trafficked, meaning a trafficker may associate advertising creatives to specific campaigns by reference. 
         [0034]    Then, a seller or ad operator trafficks a campaign, as indicated in block  90 . To traffick the campaign means that the campaign is established within the host site  14  as described, for example, in connection with  FIG. 2 . 
         [0035]    Next, the sequence assigns a creative content reference to an ad avail opportunity(block  91 ). For example, a particular ad may get an identifier such as “12345=pre-roll.” This ad identifier corresponds to data in a table that is maintained by the core server  26  to identify a particular advertisement to be inserted at a particular situation. 
         [0036]    Next, as indicated in block  94 , the system  10  automatically takes the information and compiles ad delivery rules and distributes the rules to the ad decision system  10 . Alternatively, the same operations can be done manually. 
         [0037]    Thereafter, the system  10  trafficks the campaign and transitions to the ready state, as shown in block  95 . The campaign is compiled and distributed and then the system transitions to the live state, as indicated in block  93 . The system transitions to live where ads are actually placed, as indicated at block  95 . The system then receives the ad split setup information(block  97 ). 
         [0038]    When an ad request is made by a play out device  70 , as indicated in block  96 , the decision system  10  evaluates the request against the advertising campaigns that are live within the system  10  (block  98 ). 
         [0039]    The ad decision system  10  then responds to the client play out device  70  with a single or multiple ad asset identifiers, as indicated in block  100  (or with no assets if no matches are found). The play out device  70  uses the ad asset identifier information to retrieve the physical advertising asset from an ad content server (not shown) that presents the advertisement to the user at the appropriate time and play sequence, as indicated in block  102 . 
         [0040]    Once the play out of the advertisement is complete, a completion message is sent back to the advertising decision system, as indicated in block  104 . The decision system  10  then collects the ad decision&#39;s execution information and delivers the result to the reporting database, as indicated in block  106 . 
         [0041]    To this end, the reporting database  108  will contain the data that enumerates the advertisements which have been played according to the percentages designated between the sellers as defined by the ad split setup information. Then the billing invoices associated with the advertisements may be generated by the sellers via a billing system. 
         [0042]    As a result, in some embodiments, two different sellers can sell target traffick in an ad campaign against the same advertising opportunities. 
         [0043]    Among the basis for making a decision about what ad to play in a given play out context, will include the percentage ad split that was pre-agreed between the sellers. Thus, if one seller has already had his or her running proportionate share of advertisements played, the next insertion opportunity may go to the other seller so as to implement the percentage split that was already entered into the system  10 . 
         [0044]    Thus, the system maintains information about which ads have been played against a given campaign such that making an ad placement decision based on the ad split percentage allocation can be automatically implemented. This occurs despite the fact that it is not known which ads will by played when or under what circumstances. 
         [0045]    In some embodiments, the ad splits between two sellers may be based on specific targeting parameters such as demographic information. For example, the split percentage may be different, depending on the demographics of the viewing or listening audience. Additionally, ad split definitions may have a specific start and end date and, therefore, ad splits may change depending on the calendar date. 
         [0046]    As a specific example, a broadband split agreement is determined between a content provider and a distributor. The content provider then generates the content for the purpose of delivery over a broadband based, on demand, network. In this example, the content provider uses advertising to recover content production costs. The content provider chooses a sponsorship advertising package model consisting of a pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll associated to the content. The three ad types are sold as a bundle to an advertiser in this example. More specifically, a given content program may be “brought to you by” a specific advertiser such that all the advertising opportunities associated to the content TV series will be populated by this advertiser. 
         [0047]    The content provider then negotiates with a distributor and decides to make available a portion of the sponsorship avail opportunities to the distributor. The content provider and distributor agree to split ad inventory against the broadband content. Ultimately, this will allow the distributor to act as a second seller to sell a portion of the sponsorship package to a second advertiser. 
         [0048]    Next, the content provider creates an ad split file which, in one embodiment, may be a comma separated values (CSV) file. The content provider adds information to an entry within the system, including the content provider percentage, the distributor percentage, the avail opportunity, the distribution platform, the effective start date based on the agreement between the content provider and the distributor. 
         [0049]    Thereafter, the content provider submits the CSV file to the system  10 . The system  10  verifies that the ad split file was received. Once an ad split entry effective start date is reached, the ad split entry becomes active. The ad split entry may be included in a rules compilation package. The system then begins making advertisement insertion decisions for the distributor when viewing the associated content provider&#39;s content and enforces the specified advertising split. 
         [0050]    While an embodiment is described where the ad splits are flat, more than one splitting level may also be implemented. For example, two sellers may split ads in an agreed percentage (level 1) and then one of those sellers could split its percentage with two others (level 2), one of who may split its percentage with others (level 3). 
         [0051]    References throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one implementation encompassed within the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrase “one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be instituted in other suitable forms other than the particular embodiment illustrated and all such forms may be encompassed within the claims of the present application. 
         [0052]    While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention.