Patent ID: 8856825

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, by a server, metadata associated with an advertisement in a transport signal stream from an encoder; determining, by the server, a length of the advertisement and a frame rate of in the transport signal stream based on the received metadata; dividing, by the server, the length of the advertisement into a plurality of time intervals; and instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a first set of markers into a first set of segments of the transport signal stream corresponding to a plurality of time intervals of the advertisement to create a first plurality of marked segments, each marker of the first set of markers indicative of a total percentage of the advertisement playable by a smart appliance, wherein, when the metadata received from the encoder by the server indicates a change in frame rate of the advertisement in the transport signal stream, instructing the encoder, by the server, to insert a second set of markers into a remaining set of segments of the transport signal stream beginning at a location in the transport signal stream corresponding to the change in frame rate of the advertisement, at least one marker of the remaining set of markers differing from a corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers but representing the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance; and grouping, by the server, the at least one marker of the remaining set of markers with the corresponding at least one marker of the first set of markers associated with a specific percentile but of different frame rates together for identifying the same total percentage of the advertisement playable by the smart appliance.