Patent ID: 8738787

Claim:
A media services platform for providing a content object with an in-stream ad unit inserted into the content object, wherein the content object is audio and/or video, the media services platform comprising: a computing system configured to: process indication of the in-stream ad unit from an ad server to insert into a slot of the content object configured for insertion of the in-stream ad unit, repeatedly and automatically place the in-stream ad unit into the slot of the content object to create a plurality of precoded object variants at a first location, each of the precoded object variants being associated with one or more types of content object players; and selecting one of the plurality of precoded object variants based on a characteristic of the content object player associated with the content request wherein the one of the plurality of precoded object variants is precoded before a content request for a content object is received; and a first interface configured to receive at the first location: the content request for the content object from the content object player, and location information that identifies where the content object can be retrieved; a second interface configured to send an ad request for the in-stream ad unit from the first location to the ad server at a second location, wherein: the second location is away from the first location on the Internet; and the selecting of the one of the plurality of precoded object variants is effected by an outcome of the ad request; and a third interface configured to facilitate download or streaming of the one of the plurality of precoded object variants from the first location with the in-stream ad unit placed into the slot.