AU2008201021A1 - Targeted TV commercial delivery system - Google Patents

Description

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TARGETED TV COMMERCIAL DELIVERY SYSTEM FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to systems for presenting television commercials which are targeted to the individual viewer.

(Ni SBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 00 10 The common practice of inserting commercial breaks into television broadcasts has hitherto been rewarding to the advertiser because of the large audience reached, however this methodology has certain drawbacks. In particular, it is very difficult to target advertising well, the opportunity to target being limited primarily to choice of program in which the commercial is placed. Geographical targeting is possible only to a very limited degree, for example different commercials can be inserted into a network feed in different regions.

Traditional commercial breaks also have the disadvantage of being annoying to viewers, in some part due to the poor targeting which results in their program being interrupted by a commercial which is of no interest to them.

The value of commercials has also been eroded with the proliferation of digital video recorders which make it easy to timeshift a program and skip the commercials.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide television advertising which is targeted according to the likely interests of a particular viewer.

It is another object of the invention to provide a television advertising method and system which offers the viewer the choice whether or not to view the targeted commercials.

00 0 In one aspect, the present invention provides a television advertising method 0 comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of television programs at a viewing premises; recording said programs; receiving a plurality of television commercials; recording said commercials; and creating a browsable menu of said recorded television programs and commercials.

_In another aspect, the invention further comprises the steps of selecting from said Nmenu a television program or commercial and playing the associated recording.

O 10 In some embodiments of the invention the menu comprises titles of both television programs and commercials. In other embodiments two menus are provided, one Nlisting the recorded television shows and the other listing the recorded commercials.

In another aspect the invention comprises the television advertising method described above including the further step of selecting which commercials are received according to the likely interests of the viewer. In some embodiments the likely interests of the viewer are determined by interests stated by the viewer. In other cases the likely interests are determined according to personal characteristics of the viewer such as age, sex, location, occupation and the like. In yet other cases the likely interests of the viewer are determined by the viewer's behaviours such as which TV shows are watched or recorded, which websites are visited, the time at which the program is being viewed, the occurrence of certain keywords in emails to or from the user, and the like.

The invention also consists in video reproducing means adapted to carry out the steps of the invention described above.

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0 PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention in which programs and commercials are conveyed by free-to-air broadcast; and Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention in which programs are conveyed by free-to-air broadcast and commercials are conveyed via Internet.

(Ni Referring now to Fig. 1, broadcast 101 comprising shows and commercials is 00 10 transmitted by transmitter 102. In this example, the broadcast comprises show 1 followed by show 2, then commercial 1 and commercial 2, then show 3, show 4, commercial 3, commercial 4, show 5, show 6 and so on. The broadcast is received by multiple users of the system in the example of Fig 1 two users user 103 and user 104 are illustrated.

In this example, user 103 has used remote control 108 to request that show 2, show 4 and show 6 be received by antenna 105 and recorded on Digital video recorder 106, using any of the familiar methodologies such as selecting from an on-screen program guide or by setting timers. Similarly, user 104 has requested show 1, show 3, show 5 and show 6 to be received by antenna 109 and recorded by using DVR 110 and remote control 112.

Accordingly, when the relevant show is broadcast, the DVRs capture the show and record it to their internal hard disk drive. As each show is recorded, its title is also saved in the usual manner, that is as part of the filename or as en entry into a database.

The invention is further adapted to also record commercials which have not been explicitly requested by the user. In the examples of Fig 1, DVR 106 records commercial 3 and DVR 110 records commercials 1 and 2. Any method for determining which commercials are recorded by a particular user's DVR can be used without departing from the inventive concept. For example, in some embodiments the commercials can be chosen by software which logs the user's recording or viewing habits and, based on the types of programs watched, 00 commercials of a particular type will be recorded. In other embodiments, the user supplies information defining their personal characteristics or interests, and this is used to select appropriate commercials. This selection of commercials results in ads being well targeted to the individual viewer. Many methods of targeting advertising have been developed in similar contexts, for example behavioural targeting used for web-based advertising, and any of these can also be used with good effect.

(-i SWhen user 103 wishes to view a prerecorded show, he uses remote control 108 to 00 10 cause DVR 106 to display a menu of recordings on TV monitor 107. This menu will 0 0 display a listing of recordings including the requested shows and certain commercials. This menu is shown in Fig 1 as recordings 113. When browsing this menu to choose a show to watch, the user is thereby exposed to the names of the captured commercials, and may choose to watch one of these if it interests them.

In some embodiments the menu is displayed as a list if titles in text form, in other embodiments the menu can comprise thumbnails, icons or a combination of these.

The menu can also include hyperlinks which take the user to web pages or submenus.

In some embodiments the commercials are distinguished from the shows by an indicator such as an icon, by distinctive physical formatting, or by segregation into a separate menu.

Referring now to Fig. 2, server 202 is a commercial server which stores and manages commercials which are to be served to users of the invention. In this example the commercials are provided by commercial source 201 but of course there may be many sources of commercials, including a system for recording commercials off-air. For clarity, this example shows the invention implemented with only two users (212, 213); in reality there would be many thousands of such users. Each user has a DVR (DVR 205, 209) controlled by remote controls 206, 210. The DVRs receive television broadcasts via conventional antennas (antenna 204, 208) and display the shows on TV monitors 107, 111. The DVRs are also connected to Internet 203, through which they communicate with Server 202.

00 O Consider now one user of the invention, user 212. User 212 watches and records TV shows using DVR 205 in the conventional manner. This results in recordings of Sbroadcasts to be stored on the hard-drive within DVR 205 for replay at a time convenient to user 212.

_From time to time, DVR 205 connects to server 202 and identifies itself as the particular device being used by user 212. Server 202 refers to a database which has previously been populated with profile information about each user, such as 0O 10 age, sex, income, place of residence, occupation, marital status, interests, and based on this user's profile sends selected commercials to DVR 205 via Internet 203. The commercials sent are selected by an algorithm designed to select from amongst all available commercials the ones which are most likely to be of interest to the user. In this way, each user's DVR holds a pool of commercials that are appropriate to the user while not wasting Internet bandwidth or DVR hard-disk space sending commercials that are less likely appropriate. In some embodiments the selection of commercials offered for a particular user can be based in the shows scheduled for recording or already recorded by that particular user's DVR.

In this case the relevant information is conveyed from the user's DVR to server 202 via Internet 303.

When user 212 wants to watch a prerecorded show, he uses remote control 206 to cause DVR 205 to display a menu of recordings on TV monitor 207. This menu will display a listing of recordings including the requested shows and certain commercials, in the manner described in relation to the embodiment of Fig 1, described above.

Similarly, when user 213 displays the menu of recordings, the menu will include the commercials targeted to him.

It will be understood that while the invention is described herein with reference to particular embodiments, these are presented by way of example only, and many variations can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

00 0 In some embodiments the invention is arranged so when a show is selected from Nthe menu of recordings, a minimum amount of a recorded commercial will play tbefore the show plays. Furthermore, a skip button can be provided so that once the commercial starts, the user can skip immediately to the show requested if he does not want to watch the commercial. The skip button may be inactive for a certain time at the start of each commercial, ensuring that the viewer has time to view enough of the commercial to decide whether to watch it or not, while still providing a means for skipping commercials very quickly if they are not wanted. When the commercials are finished the desired program starts playing.

(Ni 00 SIt is also possible to adapt the invention so that when the recording of a requested show is finished, further locally-stored commercials are played; again they can be skipped using the "skip" button or if the "stop" button is pressed they are terminated altogether.

The invention can be further enhanced by providing means of skipping commercials which form part of a recorded program using, for example a second skip button. Other more intelligent means of skipping ads are possible, for example the position of commercials within recordings can be bookmarked so that when recordings are played back the invention can cause them to be skipped automatically, with the result that the user sees only the more interesting locallycached commercials. Such bookmarking can be provided by the broadcaster by way of markers within the broadcast, provided by another source such as server 202, or any other method which identifies the location of the commercials within the broadcast. The bookmarking can index the start and/or end of individual commercials or index the start and/or end of the whole commercial break. In some embodiments it may be preferred to simply nominate the position of the end of the commercial break, as this is the ultimate point to be skipped to.

Many variations of the invention are anticipated for circumstances in which it is undesirable or impossible for users to answer a questionnaire to establish their profile for targeting commercials. For example, the viewer's television watching habits can be analysed to deduce a profile. In another example, the type of programs viewed or recorded can be used as an indicator of the viewer's interests, 00 0 age, sex and other characteristics. That is, if the user's DVR is frequently used to

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record children's programs, or if live viewing often occurs in the early morning and trarely at night, it can be assumed that the household has young children, and commercials likely to be of interest to such a household can be delivered in 5 preference to others.

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Such analysis can be extended to include other behavioural factors such as the a nature of movies or music downloaded or bought, games played, websites visited 0 and so on.

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0 While the embodiments of the invention above are described in terms of watching recorded or time-shifted TV shows, the invention can also be applied with good effect to watching TV in realtime. In this case, when a commercial break arrives, the viewer presses "skip" and the locally-stored ads are played out and skipped in the manner previously described. However in this case replay of the program cannot be commenced immediately after the commercials have been skipped, because the program being broadcast in realtime has not yet resumed, so an alternative strategy must be implemented. In some cases the invention is adapted so that after a preset number of commercials has been skipped, a notice is displayed saying something like "Waiting for program to resume", and display of the show resumes when the commercial break is completed. The notice itself can of course contain a commercial message.

When used in conjunction with realtime TV viewing, the invention can be adapted to download commercials, for example via the Internet, in anticipation of an impending commercial break, the commercial being chosen according to the program being viewed or by any of the methods described elsewhere.

Whereas the invention is described in relation to television viewing, it can be applied with good effect to other media. For example a similar methodology can be used with radio broadcasts and audio commercials. It can also be used to deliver targeted advertising with downloaded movies, music or podcasts and need not be utilised in conjunction with broadcast content at all.

00 Although the embodiments described herein refer to commercials being delivered to the user's premises via the Internet, it is of course possible to deliver the commercials by many other means such as through a broadcast medium, via cable, by selectively recording commercials off-air, by means of DVD or other recording media, and the like.

Although some of the examples of the invention above describe delivery of (targeted commercials as being triggered by the user pressing the "skip" button, it is anticipated that other triggers can be used with good effect. For example, when 00 10 watching live TV, changing channels can trigger play of a commercial. Similarly, pressing "mute", which is a typical behaviour during commercial breaks, can trigger playing of commercials which could be optimised for viewing silently.

The exemplary embodiments describe operation in relation to an individual user at each home. In practice of course there will often be multiple viewers in each home, and the invention can be extended to include a system of maintaining multiple identities and modifying the commercials displayed according to which identity or identities are activated at any time.

Furthermore, whereas the examples above discuss targeting commercials according to program viewing habits, it is also possible to analyse commercial viewing habits for the purpose of deducing viewer interests and hence targeting commercials. For example, if a viewer routinely skips all commercials except those for cars, it can be assumed that car-related commercials will be of high interest to that viewer.

In the foregoing description of preferred embodiments, the invention selects which subset of available commercials are loaded onto each user's DVR according to the user's individual characteristics, however it is also possible to transfer a larger set of commercials, which may include unsuitable ones, and perform the targeting selection at the user's premises.

Whereas the invention is described as introducing television commercials amongst requested viewing, it will be understood that the term should be broadly interpreted 00 to include other forms of unsolicited material such as movie trailers, advertorials, or any other material not requested.

Furthermore, although the exemplary embodiments describe the requested shows as being delivered by television broadcast, the invention can be equally well applied to other systems of delivering content. Some examples of other delivery _methods include cable, Internet or portable memory devices.

Whereas the invention is described herein as ustilising a DVR's hard disk drive for recording shows and commercials, the invention can also be applied to movie rental systems utilising a portable memory device to convey movies from a store to Nthe home, in which case the commercials are automatically loaded onto the portable memory device when loading the desired movies onto the memory device.

It will also be understood that the logic used for choosing ads can be performed by a device within the home or by a central server.

In some embodiments of the invention, in particular when Internet connection is available, the commercials are not recorded on the user's DVR. Instead, only the title, a thumbnail, an icon, a hyperlink, part of the commercial or some other smaller reference to the complete commercial is stored. From the user's point of view, the invention operates as described for other embodiments, however the commercial is only downloaded or streamed if the user selects it for playback.

It will also be understood that the way the commercials are represented in the menu of recordings can be varied without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, in certain embodiments their position within the menu can be determined by alphabetical sorting by title. In other embodiments the commercials are placed adjacent to the recorded shows that are of similar nature to the commercial.

Claims (14)

1. An advertising method comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of television programs at a viewing premises; recording said programs; receiving a plurality of television commercials; recording said commercials; and creating a browsable menu of said recorded television programs and commercials.

2. An advertising method comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of television programs at a viewing premises; recording said programs; 00 10 receiving a plurality of television commercials; recording said commercials; Sand creating a first browsable menu of said recorded television programs and a second browsable menu of said recorded television commercials.

3. The advertising method of claim 1 or claim 2 further comprising the steps of selecting from said menu a television program or commercial and according to said selection playing the associated recording.

4. The advertising method of claims 1-3 further comprising the step of selecting which commercials are received according to the likely interests of the viewer. The advertising method of claim 4 in which the likely interests of the viewer are determined by interests stated by the viewer.

6. The advertising method of claim 4 in which the likely interests of the viewer are determined according to personal characteristics of the viewer.

7. The advertising method of claim 4 in which the likely interests of the viewer are determined by the viewers' behaviours.

8. An advertising method according to claim 1 in which menu entries corresponding to commercials are distinguished from menu entries corresponding to television programs by visible indicia.

9. An advertising method according to claim 1-8 in which said menus include thumbnails images representing the content of the associated recording.

10.An advertising method according to claim 1-8 in which said menus include hyperlinks.

11. The advertising method of claim 1 or claim 2 further comprising the steps of selecting from said menu a television program to be played; playing a commercial; and playing the associated recording. 00 0 12. The advertising method of claim 11 further comprising the step of receiving Sa skip command; and on receipt of said command terminating the playing of said commercial, and immediately playing said associated recording.

13. The advertising method of claim 1 or claim 2 further comprising the steps of selecting from said menu a television program to be played; and, when playing the associated recording is completed or terminated by a viewer, playing a commercial.

14.An advertising method according to claim 4 further comprising the step of storing profiles of multiple viewers and the step of selecting commercials 00 10 which are likely to be of interest to the viewer is responsive to which viewer profile is currently applicable. advertising method according to claim 1-14 wherein said television commercials or said television programs can be received from broadcasts, unicasts, or multicasts.

16. An advertising method substantially as described with reference to the drawings.

17. Video recording means adapted to carry out the method of the invention substantially as described with reference to the drawings.