Queue-based head-end advertisement scheduling method and apparatus

摘要

A method and apparatus for scheduling and inserting advertisements into a plurality of presentation channels in a communications network in which the presentation channels contain the same programming, but different advertisements. A single programming channel is split into a plurality of presentation channels. Different advertisements are inserted into the different presentation channels. The advertisements to be inserted into advertising avails are they are detected are determined by utilizing queues stored in memory corresponding to each presentation channel. Each queue comprises an ordered list of advertisement resource locators (ARLs), in which the order dictates which advertisement is to be inserted in the next advertising avail and in which the ARLs indicate at least the location from which the advertisement can be retrieved.

主权项

1. A method of transmitting television programming and advertisements from a head end to subscribers at a plurality of subscriber nodes, the method comprising:
defining a plurality of subscriber groups, members of the subscriber groups being based on at least one characteristic of the subscribers, the at least one characteristic being relevant to advertising; assigning each subscriber node to one of the plurality of subscriber groups, wherein the assigning includes creating an advertising group map disclosing an advertising group to which each subscriber belongs and transmitting the advertising group map to said subscriber nodes; receiving at the head end at least one programming channel of television programming, the at least one programming channel including programming content and a plurality of advertising avails representing temporal breaks in the programming content, each advertising avail having a beginning point and an ending point; receiving at the head end a request from at least one of the subscriber nodes for programming content; forming a plurality of presentation channels, each presentation channel corresponding to one of the subscriber groups, by replicating the at least one programming channel, each presentation channel including the programming content of the at least one programming channel and advertisements having an advertising play time that corresponds to a particular avail, wherein the advertisements replace previously scheduled advertisements within the particular avail having a scheduled play time equal to the advertising play time; and transmitting each of the presentation channels to the at least one subscriber node in said subscriber group corresponding to said presentation channel.