Method and apparatus for customized rendering of commercials

摘要

An entertainment system receives entertainment programming interposed with commercials. The entertainment system selectively renders the commercial in accordance with characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment programming. In one embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received versions of a commercial. In another embodiment, the entertainment system selectively renders a selected one among multiple received commercials.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving entertainment programming broadcast to a user at a user set-top box; receiving commercials broadcast to a user at a user set-top box, the commercials having characteristics; saving at least a portion of the broadcast commercials at the user set-top box for selectively rendering later; gathering user characteristics at the set-top box and associating them with a user of the set-top box; computing interest potential indices for the saved commercials at the set-top box by comparing the gathered user characteristics associated with the user against the characteristics of the respective commercial and adding up the number of matching characteristics, the total number of matching characteristics for a particular commercial and a particular user providing the interest potential index for that particular commercial and user combination; saving the computed interest potential indices for the user in association with each respective saved commercial at the user set-top box; selecting saved commercials in accordance with the saved computed interest potential indices; and rendering the entertainment programming broadcast interposed with the selected saved commercials to the user.