Abstract:
A computer-implemented system and method for incorporating advertising breaks across one or more broadcast networks. The system and method involve gathering information from several different data files, analyzing the same, making real-time logic decisions and exporting a new data file that can be imported into a traffic system of the type used to manage the placement of advertisements/commercials in television programs including normalized break windows, break counts, inventory allocations and break sequences.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for the placement of advertisements with content broadcast networks (e.g., Charter Cable®). 
     BACKGROUND 
     The business of placing local and regional ads on cable television is very complex requiring the handling of literally tens of millions of “available 30 second slots” per month in most major traffic systems. The current systems and methods that control the placement of commercials in these time slots are quite inefficient and inflexible relative to processing and handling data. For instance, the current systems and methods are based on the number of minutes in a 24 hour military clock wherein the first minute after midnight is designated as 00:01:00 through 24:00:00 (midnight). The national and regional cable networks (e.g., ESPN, TNT, A&amp;E) air national and/or regional commercials that are non-pre-emptible and also deliver inaudible electronic “cue tones” that tell the local traffic computer servers (“call traffic system”) to insert a local commercial at the time of the cue tones. Typically there are two to four 60 second cue tones per hour that are available into which the local traffic system may insert local commercials. Commercials typically are 30 seconds in length but can also be 15 seconds or 60 seconds in length. 
     Current systems and methods for the placement of advertisements with content broadcast networks tend to be inefficient and inflexible. 
     Thus, it would be advantageous to develop an efficient and flexible system and method for the placement of advertisements with content broadcast networks. 
     SUMMARY 
     The embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented system and method for gathering information from several different data files, analyzing the same, making real-time logic decisions and exporting a new data file that can be imported into a traffic system of the type used to manage the placement of advertisements/commercials in television programs including normalized break windows, break counts, inventory allocations and break sequences via a standalone web-based system. 
     Advantageously, the system and method detailed herein modify the data without affecting the underlying traffic system operating system (e.g., Eclipse (Plus) Traffic System). 
     Other variations, embodiments and features of the present invention will become evident from the following detailed description, drawings and claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of network of an advertising/traffic system of the type utilized or encountered with the embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of a terminal of the network of  FIG. 1  of the type utilized or encountered with the embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a flow chart detailing an advertising placement method according to the embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a block diagram of a procedure according to the embodiments of the present invention; and 
         FIGS. 5A-5D  illustrate screen shots associated with a methodology according to the embodiments of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended. Any alterations and further modifications of the inventive feature illustrated herein, and any additional applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated herein, which would normally occur to one skilled in the relevant art and having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered within the scope of the invention claimed. 
     Those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments of the present invention involve both hardware and software elements which portions are described below in such detail required to construct and operate a game method and system according to the embodiments of the present invention. 
     As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon. 
     Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), and optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. 
     A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied thereon, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electromagnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. 
     Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF and the like, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. 
     Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like or conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language, AJAX, PHP, HTML, XHTML, Ruby, CSS or similar programming languages. The programming code may be configured in an application, an operating system, as part of a system firmware, or any suitable combination thereof. The programming code may execute entirely on the user&#39;s computer, partly on the user&#39;s computer, as a standalone software package, partly on the user&#39;s computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on a remote computer or server as in a client/server relationship sometimes known as cloud computing. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user&#39;s computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). 
     Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram. 
     These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram. 
     The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagrams. As used herein, a “terminal” should be understood to be any one of a general purpose computer, as for example a personal computer or a laptop computer, a client computer configured for interaction with a server, a special purpose computer such as a server, or a smart phone, soft phone, tablet computer, personal digital assistant or any other machine adapted for executing programmable instructions in accordance with the description thereof set forth above. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a network  100  that provides an advertising system in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention. Network  100  includes Internet or Intranet  101  that connects various processing systems in network  100  to allow the exchange of data between the processing systems. One skilled in the art will recognize that processing systems are personal computers, system computers, routers, or other devices that can process digital data. 
     In network  100 , desktop computers  105 - 106  are connected to Internet/Intranet  101  via paths  107 - 108 . Laptop computers  110 - 113  are connected to Internet/Intranet via paths  114 - 117 . One skilled in the art will recognize that paths  107 - 108  and  114 - 117  may be telephone lines, Ethernet lines, or any other manner of connecting processing systems. One skilled in the art will also recognize that any number of processing units may be connected to Internet/Intranet  101 . 
     Information server  121  is connected to Internet/Intranet  101  via path  122 . Information server  121  is a router or other processing device that controls data transfers between processing systems connected to Internet/Intranet  101 . 
     Database server  131  is connected to Internet/Intranet  101  via path  132 . Database server is a processing system that maintains various databases that are accessed by the embodiments of the present invention. In network  100 , database server  131  maintains programming database  133 , promotions database  134 , demographics database  135 , client database  136 , billing database  137 , production database  139 , inventory database  140  and message database  138 . 
     Programming database  133  stores records for information about programs to be broadcast including time, length, and timeslots for advertisements. This information may compiled by an outside provider and the compiled information is used to populate the database. Promotions database  134  stores records containing information relating to pricing for timeslots and special offers on sales of time slots. Demographics database  135  stores records containing information related to ratings for broadcast programs and demographic information about viewers of the broadcast programs. Demographic information may come from a third party source. The demographics information from the third party source may be used to populate demographics database  135 . 
     Client database  136  is a database that stores client information. The client information stored in client database  136  includes client contact information, target areas for the client, demographic groups the client desire to reach and desired rates for timeslots. The client information may also include past time slots that the client has purchased including the programming into which the timeslot is inserted. This information may either be provided by the client directly or an account executive may collect the information and input the information into the system. 
     Billing database  137  is a database that stores client account records that stores accounting information for sales of time slots. Billing database  137  may be a well-known accounting application, or may be a custom made accounting application for use in the system in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention. 
     Message database  138  is an e-mail or other message system that stores messages generated by the system for account executives. The messages may include reminders about promotions or programming that may be of interest to an account executive. 
     Production database  139  stores programming content to be broadcast. The programming content may include the insertions of advertisements into appropriate timeslots in the broadcast. Inventory database  140  may store the advertisements that various clients have produced for insertion into the programming content when a timeslot is purchased. 
     Network  100  may also have a printer  142  or other output device connected to Internet/Intranet  101  via path  141 . Printer  142  prints either a screen or a document for permanent storage or for review by an account executive. Printer  142  is a standard printer that is common and well known in the art. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a processing system  200 . One skilled in the art will recognize that each device connected to network  100  in  FIG. 1  includes a processing system. However, the exact configuration and device connected to the processing system in each individual device in the network may vary. 
     Processing system  200  has a Central Processing Unit (CPU)  201 . CPU  201  is a processor, microprocessor, or any combination of processors and microprocessor that execute instructions stored in memory to perform an application. CPU  201  is connected to a memory bus  203  and Input/Output (I/O) bus  204 . 
     A non-volatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM)  211 , is connected to CPU  201  via memory bus  203 . ROM  211  stores instructions for initialization and other system commands of processing system  200 . One skilled in the art will recognize that any memory that cannot be written to by CPU  201  may be used for the functions of ROM  211 . 
     A volatile memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM)  212  is also connected to CPU  201  via memory bus  204 . RAM  212  stores instructions for all processes being executed and data operated upon by the executed processes. One skilled in the art will recognize that other types of memories such DRAM and SRAM may also be used as a volatile memory and that memory caches and other memory devices (Not shown) may be connected to memory bus  204 . 
     Peripheral devices including, but not limited to, memory  221 , display  222 , I/O device  223 , and network connection device  224  that are connected to CPU  201  via I/O bus  204 . I/O bus  204  carries data between the device and CPU  201 . Memory  201  is a device for storing data unto a media. Some examples of memory  221  include read/write compact discs (CDs), and magnetic disk drives. Display  222  is a monitor or display and associated drivers that convert data to a display. I/O device  223  is a keyboard, a pointing device or other device that may be used by a user to input data. Network device  224  is a modem or Ethernet “card” that connects processing system  200  to a network. One skilled in the art will recognize that exact configuration and devices connected to each processing system in network  100  may vary depending upon the operations that the processing system performs in the network. 
     The placement of local commercials or advertisements requires an external programming data feed  150  that informs the system/network  100 , via the programming database  133 , or other database, module or application of the system/network  100 , regarding which shows, movies and/or sports events are scheduled to run at particular times during each broadcast day on each channel. Included in the programming data feed  150  are the expected times that each broadcast network intends to deliver the cue tones for local commercials. The expected times are delivered to the traffic system along with the “windows” of time that the traffic system needs to ensure the cue tones are each received and advertisements played correctly. The external source file received via the programming data feed  150  is normally referred to as a break structure file  155 . 
     Entities providing services related to the placement of local commercials (and others) during television broadcasts (e.g., cable programming) are very limited. The method for placing such local commercials is well known and lacking in efficiencies and flexibility. Current methods are also labor intensive rendering the method more costly than necessary. The current method involves a computer-implemented system receiving Schout files (SFO) intended to communicate inventory between multiple organizations selling in the same “interconnected” market. An interconnected market may have sales and traffic commercial spot delivery geographies that encompass several different multiple system operators (MSO) owning cable properties that in combination may make up a Designated Market Area (DMA). Because each system owner has a right to a certain portion of the hourly inventory to sell, it is important that the break times and sequence be present in order to manage the commercial spots that air in different time slots. 
     Schout files (SFO, Schedule File Out) are an industry standard file structure and may include inventory allocations, break windows, break counts and break sequences but unfortunately the Schout files do not incorporate break times when the Eclipse and Eclipse Plus traffic system is operating in the Program Mode. The Program Mode allows for the break windows to be set based on the programming events even when off-the-clock. Off-the-clock relates to programming which does not necessarily begin or end on the top or bottom of the hour. Sporting events are well-known off-the-clock programs because the start and end times are not on top and bottom of the hour. Moreover, extra play (e.g., overtime, extra innings, etc.) alter even a projected end time. 
     Currently major cable and direct broadcast satellite operators have little choice in the traffic and billing systems that support multi-zone and complex interconnected systems. There are two major platforms on which to run traffic and billing. Viable traffic and billing systems comprise Novar and Eclipse/Eclipse Plus. The current Eclipse Traffic system (which is the predominant Traffic system in use) suffers drawbacks including an inability to incorporate scheduled commercial/advertising break times in the files used to transmit the inventory allocations, break windows and break counts and break sequence especially in a preferred Program Mode. The embodiments of the present invention seek to solve the drawbacks with the current system. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a flow chart  300  detailing a methodology according to the embodiments of the present invention. At  305 , a request is received. The request includes one or more Schout files that may contain inventory allocations, break windows and break counts and break sequence for a number of network instances over various time zones and/or various geographical areas. The request may be received in different ways including through digital form via a desktop, web portal or email. Once the request is received, at  310 , the Schout files are read one network instance at a time and the break times are inserted within the windows included in the received Schout file with confirmation that the break times are within the windows. At  315 , it is determined if the Schout file contains any local, non-interconnected network instances. If there are no local, non-interconnected network instances, at  320 , an updated Schout file containing updated break times is generated for every received Schout file. At  325 , the generated Schout file is transmitted to the customer. The transmission of the updated Schout file to the customer may be in the form of an attachment to an email or other digital form. At  330 , the method ends. If, at  315 , the received Schout file contains any local, non-interconnected network instances, at  330 , every local network instance is tested for break counts to determine if any of the break counts, associated with the non-interconnected local network instances, are mismatched compared to a break structure file for each non-interconnected network instance. If there is no mismatch, at  320 , an updated Schout file containing updated break times is generated for the received Schout file. At  325 , the generated Schout file is transmitted to the customer as detailed above. At  330 , the method ends. 
     If, at  330 , a break count mismatch is detected, at  335 , the break counts of non-interconnected local networks are updated to match the received Schout files. At  340 , a break structure file is generated for the non-interconnected local networks having the break counts updated/corrected in  335 . In one embodiment, the break structure file is an xml file. At  345 , updated Schout files are generated for all the non-interconnected network instances not having break count mismatches. At  350 , the break structure file generated at  340  and the Schout files generated at  355  are transmitted to the customer. Transmission of the break structure xml file and Schout file may be as attachments to an email. At  330 , the method ends. The updated Schout files transmitted to the customers may then be sent by the customers to the appropriate traffic system (e.g., Eclipse). 
       FIG. 4  shows a diagram  400  highlighting the process undertaken by the embodiments of the present invention. A request  405  including Schout files is received by a computer-implemented traffic system configured to manage content including advertisements. The computer-implemented system  410  according to the embodiments of the present invention generates updated Schout files with break times and/or break structure files. The updated Schout files and/or break structure files are then transmitted to the customer (e.g., advertiser)  415 . The customers may then transmit the compatible updated Schout files and/or break structure files to the traffic system. 
       FIGS. 5A-5D  show screen shots  500 - 503  associated with a methodology according to the embodiments of the present invention. Screen shots  500 - 503  relate to the Eclipse operating system.  FIG. 5A  shows screen shot  500  depicting a time-based Schout file preview having break times  505  defaulted to the break windows. That is, the start of the break times  505  correspond to the start of the open times of the break windows. As shown in screen shot  501  of  FIG. 5B , the more popular Program Mode Schout file preview is based on program windows. In the Program Mode, the break windows may be set based on the programming. However, in the Program Mode, instead of pulling the break time, the operating system inserts the window start time as the break time  510 . Once the file is imported into the operating system (e.g., Eclipse), the system creates its own break times.  FIG. 5C  shows an exemplary Schout file exported using program windows including the location where the break time  515  should appear, but instead the operating system inserts the window start time, namely at the zero minute (0:00) and one hour (1:00) marks.  FIG. 5D  shows an updated exemplary Schout file with break times  520  inserted at the 15 minute (0:15), 45 minute (0:45), one hour fifteen minute (1:15) and one hour forty five minute (1:45) marks. The system and method herein causes the exported Schout file to be manipulated such that the break times are correctly placed in lieu of the window start times. The updated Schout file may then be transmitted to the customer. The customer may then send the updated Schout file to the traffic system provider since the Schout file is compatible with the operating system utilized by the traffic systems. 
     While Schout files are the norm in the television broadcast industry, it is conceivable that other file forms may utilize the embodiments of the present invention. 
     Although the invention has been described in detail with reference to several embodiments, additional variations and modifications exist within the scope and spirit of the invention as described and defined in the following claims.