Patent ID: 7450647

Claim:
A method of compressing digital media advertisements for insertion into a statistically multiplexed digital transmission stream containing a plurality of digital program streams with a plurality of advertising opportunities, the method comprising: (a) determining a first bit rate profile for a first advertising opportunity; (b) determining a second bit rate profile for a second advertising opportunity; and (c) specifying a predetermined bit rate profile for compression of a first digital media advertisement and a second digital media advertisement, wherein the predetermined bit rate profile is based on the first and second bit rate profiles; (d) compressing the first digital media advertisement and the second digital media advertisement according to the predetermined bit rate profile, such that the predetermined bit rate profile provides a limit to the sum of the bit rates of the first and second digital media advertisements; and (e) inserting the compressed digital media advertisements into the statistically multiplexed digital transmission stream within the first and second advertising opportunities.