Patent ID: 8176512

Claim:
A method for enhancing viewership of advertisements in a digital video recorder (DVR) environment, comprising: recording, by the DVR, program material onto at least one storage device communicatively coupled to the DVR; receiving, by the DVR, advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement from an external source; storing, by the DVR, the advertisements along with characteristics of each advertisement on the at least one storage device; displaying, by the DVR, a list of program materials stored on the at least one storage device; in response to a viewer selecting a particular program material from the list, playing back, by the DVR, the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer; upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed before the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer before the playing back step begins to play back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer and/or upon determining that an advertisement is to be displayed after the particular program material is played back, the playing back step displays an advertisement selected from the at least one storage device to the viewer after the playing back step has completed playing back the particular program material from the at least one storage device to the viewer, a service provider configuring the playing back step whether to display an advertisement before the particular program material is played back and/or whether to display an advertisement after the particular program material is played back; prior to the playing back step displaying an advertisement and when the playing step has been configured by the service provider to display an advertisement, selecting, by the DVR, an advertisement from the at least one storage device to display based on characteristics of the advertisement and the viewer's viewing preferences and/or personal data; charging, by the service provider, advertisers for targeted advertising selected by the DVR that are targeted to the specific audience that the viewer is a part of.