Patent ID: 8612310

Claim:
A method for providing a media asset and merchandise information for physical merchandise related to the media asset, comprising: receiving, using a communication circuit, a media asset request associated with a user equipment, wherein a requested media asset associated with the media asset request is associated with a merchandise information pointer; determining a current media asset time of the requested media asset; identifying, based on the merchandise information pointer, a table of merchandise information for a plurality of physical merchandise that is related to the current media asset time of the requested media asset; determining a location of the user equipment; accessing, using a processor, the table of merchandise information for the plurality of physical merchandise that is related to the current media asset time of the requested media asset and determining therefrom locations where the plurality of physical merchandise is available for purchase; determining, using the processor, relative locations of the user equipment to corresponding locations of where each physical merchandise of the plurality of physical merchandise is available for purchase; selecting, using the processor, at least one physical merchandise of the plurality of physical merchandise related to the current media asset time of the requested media asset to recommend based on the determined relative locations; and communicating, using the communication circuit, an advertisement associated with the selected at least one physical merchandise to the user equipment, wherein the advertisement associated with the selected at least one physical merchandise that is related to the current media asset time of the requested media asset is displayed during the current media asset time and includes an indication of the location of the at least one physical merchandise.