APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVE INSERTION AND PRICING OF MEDIA DATA INTO A MEDIA DATA STREAM

摘要

A method for a media provider in a media-on-demand network to selectively insert media items into a media stream consists of determining a subscriber's preferences for inserted content, determining suitable positions in the transmitted stream for insertion of other media items, and inserting items into a stream being transmitted to a subscriber. The inserted items can be commercial advertisements from advertisers (170), or other items as selected by either the provider or subscriber, and can be interactive items of indeterminate duration. The media provider utilizes the subscriber's preferences to selectively insert media items into a media stream at the previously determined suitable positions. Advertisers (170) can monitor the delivery frequency of advertisements to subscribers and adjust the price of an ad to change the ad's delivery frequency. The media service provider maintains an ad queue for each user and can order ads in the queue based on the price of each ad.