Patent ID: 8468561

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a predefined day-part schedule comprising a time period other than a day, including a plurality of advertisements scheduled for playing at a corresponding plurality of time slots, the plurality of advertisements including an advertisement that is available for preemption, wherein preemption includes replacing an advertisement that was previously scheduled for playing at a corresponding time slot with a different advertisement; receiving, by the computing device, rules for preempting advertisements, wherein the rules specify preemption criteria including a maximum number of the plurality of time slots available for preemption and a minimum price associated with a preempting advertisement; programmatically evaluating, by the computing device, an available inventory of preempting advertisements, each preempting advertisement included in the available inventory associated with a corresponding price, wherein each preempting advertisement is available to preempt an advertisement scheduled for playing at a corresponding time slot if the rules for preempting the advertisements are satisfied; determining: that a particular price associated with a particular preempting advertisement in the available inventory is greater than or equal to the minimum price specified in the rules for preempting, and that a quantity of the plurality of time slots included with the predefined day-part schedule that correspond to advertisements that have been preempted is less than the maximum number of the plurality of time slots available for preemption for the predefined day-part schedule; in response to the determining, preempting, by the computing device, the advertisement that is available for preemption with the particular preempting advertisement; and updating, by the computing device, the schedule to include the particular preempting advertisement.