Patent ID: 8560651

Claim:
A method for streaming one or more user-customized advertisements by a service provider, the method comprising: receiving, by a service provider, an Ad-insert control packet from a parent service provider, wherein the Ad-insert control packet contains information identifying one or more periods during which control of streaming will be transferred from the parent service provider to the service provider; and streaming, by the service provider, one or more user-customized advertisements during one or more periods that are determined on the basis of the Ad-insert control packet, wherein the one or more user-customized advertisements are customized to one or more users on the basis of one or more subject matter categories that have been selected by one or more users, and wherein the user-customized advertisements are streamed through a first multicast distribution tree, the first multicast distribution tree being formed on the basis of the one or more subject matter categories selected by the one or more users, and wherein the first multicast distribution tree is part of a second multicast distribution tree that is used by the parent service provider to stream a main content into which the user-customized advertisements are to be inserted.