Patent Publication Number: US-2007101374-A1

Title: System and method for providing enhanced video programming to a user

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a system and method for providing enhanced video programming to a user.  
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART  
      Digital video and television broadcasts are well known in the art. In such broadcasts, it is typical to also broadcast short advertisements, generally no longer than 60 seconds, in segments of 3 to 4 minutes during the regular programming.  
      Users, or viewers, are more and more bypassing these advertisements, since the advertisements are not always relevant to the user. This is done, for example by using personal video recorders (PVRs), where the users record the regular programming and then view it, without the advertisements, at a subsequent time.  
      However, at one time or another, a user may be interested in a product or service that is advertised, but would like more in depth information than a 30- or 60-second clip. Thus, enhanced video programming, or long form advertisements have been developed. These are typically broadcast presently as “infomercials”, usually at low viewing hours, or on dedicated channels.  
      There has, in response to this desire by viewers, been developed systems and methods to provide interactive services for digital television, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0013942-A1 to Kim. In this system, background commercials (i.e. enhanced video programming), is broadcast at the same time as the regular programming, and the system is adapted to permit the user to view or save the background commercial. The system to Kim is further geared to providing incentives to the user to view the background commercials.  
      One of the disadvantages of the Kim system is that the background commercial is broadcast at the same time as the regular programming, which considerably increases the bandwidth required for the transmission of the regular programming. Also, should the user wish to save the background commercial for later viewing, the same is stored on the user&#39;s receiver, which takes up space that would otherwise be used for regular programming storage.  
      Another approach which has been taken is to provide each MSO (Multiple Service Operator) at the MSO head-end with the necessary hardware and software to provide interactive television services. Such a system is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0126611-A1 to Chernock et al. One of the disadvantages of such a system is that multiple MSOs cannot share the same equipment. Another disadvantage is that advertisers cannot control an advertisement campaign from a single or central location.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for providing enhanced video programming to a user, where bandwidth of the regular programming is not affected, and where delivery and tracking of the enhanced video programming is centrally effected.  
      In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for providing extended video programming to at least one user, comprising:  
      a remote management unit including an encoder for encoding into a short form advertisement a code related to said extended video programming, said short form advertisement being subsequently distributed by at least one MSO to a network of receivers associated with said MSO in a stream;  
      a server for storing said extended video programming associated with said code;  
      at least one receiver for receiving and decoding said stream, said receiver, upon receipt of said stream containing said short form advertisement and said code, displaying a visual indication that said extended video programming is available when said short form advertisement is displayed on a screen;  
      said receiver being further adapted, upon user selection, to: 
          (a) index said extended video programming by sending to said MSO information relating to indexing of said enhanced video programming and to said extended video programming for subsequent viewing by said user; or     (b) display said extended video programming by retrieving said extended video programming from said server; or     (c) do nothing; and 
 
 a client residing at said receiver for collecting information relating to actions taken by said users with said receivers in regard to said extended video programming and for transmitting the same to a reporting module. 
       

      In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for providing extended video programming to at least one user, comprising:  
      providing said extended video programming and storing said extended video programming on a server;  
      providing a short form advertisement;  
      encoding into said short form advertisement a code related to said extended video programming;  
      delivering said short form advertisement with said code in a stream to at least one MSO, each MSO having a network of receivers;  
      displaying a visual indication that said extended video programming is available when said short form advertisement is displayed on a screen by said receiver;  
      upon user selection, indexing said enhanced video programming for later viewing; recording said enhanced video programming at a later time; displaying said enhanced video programming; or doing nothing; or a combination thereof;  
      collecting information relating to actions taken by said users with said receivers in regard to said extended video programming and transmitting the same to a reporting module.  
      Yet another aspect of the invention provides a method for managing the delivery of extended video programming to a plurality of receivers associated with a respective MSO, said method comprising:  
      (a) providing said enhanced video programming to at least one MSO remotely selected;  
      (b) providing a short form advertisement to a broadcaster associated with said at least one MSO, said short form advertisement including a code related to said enhanced video programming;  
      (c) displaying a visual indication that said enhanced video programming is available for viewing with said receiver.  
      Still another aspect of the invention provides a remote management unit for controlling at least one advertisement campaign, said remote management unit including an encoder for encoding into a short form advertisement a code relating to an enhanced video programming; said remote management unit being in communication with a plurality of MSOs; said remote management unit, through a campaign manager, remotely selecting at least one MSO and transmitting said enhanced video to said at least one selected MSO for storage thereat and sending to at least one broadcaster said short form advertisement, wherein when said short form advertisement is received at receivers associated with said at least one selected MSO, a visual indication that said enhanced video programming is available for viewing. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The present invention and its advantages will be more easily understood after reading the following non-restrictive description of preferred embodiments thereof, made with reference to the following drawings in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic representation of the various components in which the present invention finds application;  
       FIG. 2  is a screen shot of a short-form advertisement;  
       FIG. 3  is a screen shot of the displaying of an icon;  
       FIG. 4  is a screen shot of the options available to a user in a cable, telephony or wireless video-on-demand context;  
       FIG. 5  is a screen shot of an enhanced video programming;  
       FIG. 6  is a representation of a digital code; and  
       FIG. 7  is a representation of a code. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION  
      Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is illustrated an environment in which the present invention finds application. The environment consists of a plurality of broadcasters  10 , multiple service operators  16 ,  18  (it should be understood that at least one MSO is required but that there may be a plurality thereof, even though only two are illustrated) and receivers  22 ,  24 . One MSO  16  controls receivers  22 , and MSO  18  controls receivers  24 . In the context of the present description, “controls” means that the receivers are legitimately registered with the appropriate MSO, and are programmed to decode the channels that the viewer or subscriber has paid for. The set of receivers that are controlled by the corresponding MSO forms a network. This is of course of particular use in digital television, whether delivered by cable or satellite, or by any other means. It will be understood that the present invention finds application in a video on demand environment, whether delivered by cable, telephone or wirelessly.  
      It will also be appreciated that presently, in order to have access to digital television, one must have a receiver, which takes the form of a set-top box (i.e. a separate unit). However, although they are not commercially available at this point, televisions which include the receiver will become available, and the present invention is not limited to set-top boxes.  
      As is well known, the various broadcasters  10  broadcast their programming, including short form advertisements, and the MSOs bundle the signals from a plurality of broadcasters and deliver the resulting stream to the corresponding receivers.  
      As mentioned previously, one of the aspects of the invention is to provide enhanced video programming to users. In this connection, an advertiser, say company A, prepares or has prepared a short form advertisement (as is presently being done). Company A also prepares or has prepared an enhanced video programming (viz. a long form advertisement).  
      The enhanced video programming is transmitted or sent to the MSO for storage on an MSO&#39;s server  28 ,  38 . It will be noted here that the bandwidth of the original video stream is not affected by the presence of the enhanced video programming, one of the advantages of the present invention. The servers  28 ,  38  are known in the art, and are being used presently to deliver video-on-demand (VOD) services. Of course, it will be understood that although a server is described, it could be more than one, and in fact some MSOs mirror the information on a central server to distributed servers in the network.  
      In one aspect of the invention, the system has a remote management unit  44 . The remote management unit, for reasons which will become apparent hereinafter, is preferably centrally located, although some elements may be decentralized. The remote management unit  44  is provided with an encoder  46  for encoding into the short form advertisement a code  60  which includes information relating to the enhanced video programming. The short form advertisement is then sent or transmitted to broadcaster  10 , and eventually arrives at MSO  16  or  18  for delivery to a receiver  22 ,  24 .  
      In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the code  60  that is placed in the short form advertisement is placed in the VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval). This is true in an analog world, which is the dominating technology presently in the area of television. However, as mentioned previously, as television sets become available which include the receivers, it is possible that television will switch to an all digital format, in which case the code would advantageously be delivered with the digital signal.  
      The receiver  22 ,  24  displays an icon  62  indicating to the user that enhanced video programming is available when said short form advertisement is received at said receiver  22 ,  24  (see for example  FIG. 3 ).  FIGS. 2-5  are screen shots of what appears on the screen of a user. Of course, a person skilled in the art will recognize that this icon  62  will only be displayed when a user is watching (in real time or time delayed) the channel that the advertisement is being broadcast on. Upon displaying of this icon  62 , the user can bookmark the enhanced video programming, watch the enhanced video programming, or do nothing (see  FIG. 4 ).  
      If the enhanced video programming is bookmarked, the receiver  22 ,  24  sends a signal to the database  52  back in data center indicating that the user of this particular receiver wants to bookmark the enhanced video programming. This information is stored on a server  52  at the data center. This provides the advantage of not storing any information locally on the receivers  22 ,  24 . This information can be later retrieved by the user for subsequent viewing of the enhanced video programming.  
      If the user selects to view the enhanced video programming, the receiver  22 ,  24  uses the information contained in the code  62  to contact the server  28 ,  38  and obtain the enhanced video programming from the server  28 ,  38 .  
      The user can also choose not to do anything, in which case the icon appears on the screen and then disappears once the short form advertising containing the code is finished.  
      A reporting module  58  is also provided, which is loaded as a client on each receiver  22 ,  24 . The reporting module  58  is operatively connected to each MSO. The reporting module  58  tracks whether each enhanced video programming has been stored or viewed, which data can be further used by advertisers for profiling purposes. It will however be understood that the data is sufficiently generic to comply with Privacy Acts, or similar legislation, which have been enacted in various jurisdictions.  
      Now that the invention has been described in broad terms, a more detailed description follows.  
      Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown remote management unit  44 , MSOs  16  and  18  and broadcaster  10 . It will be appreciated that MSOs and remote management unit are in communication with each other through a network  70 , preferably secured, which can be a public switched telephone network, or the internet, or by a radio link or any other means.  
      Each MSO includes many components but only those that are relevant to the present invention will be discussed. Thus, each MSO  16 ,  18  has or is provided with a receiver  24  for receiving the signal from the broadcaster  10  (which can be a satellite signal or a cabled signal, or any other type). Each MSO also includes at least one server  28 ,  30  for storing the enhanced video programming and for storing the bookmark information referred to previously.  
      Presently, since broadcasters use mainly the analog video and the MSO operate in a digital word, the code  60  that is included in the short form advertisement must be extracted from the advertisement, and converted into a digital format, before the stream is sent to the receivers. Consequently, the MSO also include a decoder  26  for decoding the stream. The decoder  26  is adapted to receive the stream and “look” for the code  60  in the VBI. When a code  60  has been received, it is extracted and sent over the network  70  to the remote management unit  70  data center  72 . The data center  72  unit converts the code  60  into a digital code  64 . The digital code preferably includes the location of the enhanced video programming, some text associated with the enhanced video programming (i.e. a description thereof), and the three choices to present to the user: bookmark, view now or do nothing (see  FIGS. 6 and 7 ). The digital code  64  is sent from the data center  72  back to the MSO to another server  30 . This server sends to the receivers  22 ,  24  the digital code along with the stream.  FIGS. 6 and 7  illustrate the type of information that may be contained in the code  60  and digital code  64 , although it will be appreciated that different information may be included to meet the needs of various operators of the system of the present invention.  
      Then, the receiver  22 ,  24 , when it receives the digital code  64 , displays an icon indicating to the user that enhanced video programming is available (see  FIG. 3 ). The user, using for example a remote control, would press a button such as the “select” button, which displays on the screen the text relating to the long form advertising, and presents the user with three choices: viewing now, bookmarking or do nothing (see  FIG. 4 ).  
      Alternatively, if the short form advertisement is originally in digital format, the code does not need to be converted, and would include the necessary information which could be extracted at the MSO head-end, or by the receiver itself.  
      In order to provide reporting capabilities, a client program  58  is loaded into each receiver  22 ,  24 . This client  58 , or reporting module, keeps track of what goes on at the receiver  22 ,  24 —which enhanced video programming has been watched, bookmarked, etc. This information is periodically sent back to the data center  72  to the promotions manager module  50 . The promotions manager module  50  publishes the data to the campaign manager  54 , which processes the data which is then exported to a billing system  48 .  
      Another aspect of the invention concerns the remote management unit  44  which is in communication with a plurality of MSOs in a large geographic area through network  70 . This enables central location to remotely select which MSO will receive the enhanced video programming, thereby enabling advertisers to centrally control ad campaigns. Thus, an advertiser can run a first campaign in, say Houston, which campaign is tailored to that particular market, and can run the same or different campaign in, say Montreal. Advertiser would then be billed and provided with profiling information on both campaigns at essentially the same time. This also enables advertiser to modify or adapt the campaign in view of the feedback provided.  
      Although the present invention has been explained hereinabove by way of a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be pointed out that any modifications to this preferred embodiment within the scope of the appended claims is not deemed to alter or change the nature and scope of the present invention.