摘要 |
Methods and devices for implementing real-time advertisement customization and selection. A video program has associated avail metadata, separate from the video program itself, and which is generated to define the avails for the video program. The avail metadata may contain fields specifying the duration, insertion point and type of each avail, and may also specify characteristics of the video program. An avail metadata encoder is configured to customize the avail metadata based on a request to view or play the video program. The customization may be specific to a client device and may reflect various characteristics, including details of the client device, an associated subscriber profile, geographic information, etc. Advertisements are then dynamically selected using the customized avail metadata and links to the advertisements are placed in the customized avail metadata. A splicer, which may reside in the client device, obtains the selected advertisements and inserts them into the video program during playback at the points and in the manner specified by the avail metadata. |