GB2466820A

GB2466820A - Conditional video viewing apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2466820A
Application number: GB0900266A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jonathan Bowes
Original assignee: JFDI ENGINEERING Ltd
Current assignee: JFDI ENGINEERING Ltd
Priority date: 2009-01-08
Filing date: 2009-01-08
Publication date: 2010-07-14
Also published as: GB0900266D0

Abstract

The video content apparatus is arranged to direct a video signal to a video display device. The apparatus comprises a video control module, and an advertising memory. The video control module has a video content input for receiving video content, an advertising content input for receiving advertising content and a video output arranged to direct video content and advertising content to the display device. The advertising memory is arranged to store advertising credits which indicate the amount of advertising that has been viewed. The display of video content is restricted unless the advertising memory includes sufficient advertising credits which are earned from the display of advertising content. Remaining advertising credits may displayed in the form of time remaining for viewing video content 83, and the remaining duration of a programme may also be shown 84.

Description

INTELLECTUAL

. .... PROPERTY OFFICE Application No. GB0900266.8 RTM Date:24 September 2009 The following terms are registered trademarks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Gap

BMW

Budweiser Canon Microsoft Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.ipo.gov.uk Video Content Apparatus & Method The present invention relates to video content apparatus by which video content is delivered to a video display device, andto a method for delivering video content.

At the present time, video content, such as television programmes, short video clips and films, are delivered to a viewer in any one of a number of different ways. At this point, the most common means of delivering video content to a person is through broadcasts whereby a data signal containing the video content is transmitted to a number of people at the same time, for example, by satellite broadcast, cable broadcast, and terrestrial television broadcast. By "terrestrial broadcast", a traditional broadcast from a ground-based transmitter is meant, which transmits a broadcast signal to the surrounding area for reception via an aerial. The range of such transmissions is typically 20 to 100 miles, although this will depend on the topography of the land surrounding the transmitter. In the case of broadcasts, the programme is transmitted to everyone at the same time meaning that, if a film is broadcast at 9 pm, the receiver of each person's television apparatus will receive the signal at substantially the same time. Unless the programme is recorded, if the viewer wishes to view the programme, they must make sure that they are watching the television when the programme starts if they are not to miss the programme.

More recently, programmes have been made available "on demand", for example, via the Internet and cable television systems. In effect, when a person wishes to watch a particular programme, they make a request via the Internet or any other communications system for that programme to be viewed. A server will then send the programme in a data stream to the person who has requested the programme. In the case of the Internet, the video stream will be packetized in accordance with Internet Protocol, and reconstructed into a video stream once it has been received. Apart from being able to watch a programme when the person wishes to watch it rather than when it is broadcast, an on-demand system also permits pausing of live' programmes.

When a person wishes to pause the viewing of a programme, either the viewer interface on the computer or display device can be caused to pause the programme, perhaps while the programme continues itself to be downloaded from the Internet, or the downloading of the programme via the Internet can be paused by instructing the Internet server to pause the download. As data transmission speeds and compression technology improve, pausing the download will become less relevant, and pausing the viewer interface regardless of the extent to which the programme has been downloaded will become the appropriate mechanism for pausing a programme. In some places, such as parts of Japan and South Korea, it is already possible to download an entire high definition movie in a few minutes.

In addition, our International patent application published under number W02007/034206 discloses a tool by which a starting image is selected within an image stream by an iterative process, and the disclosure of that International patent publication is imported in its entirety by this reference. In this International patent application, a person is able to watch a television programme or film or other stream of images, and is able to search for a point within the image stream to start from. The source of the image stream might be a recording of a programme held within a suitable format, or one which is downloaded on demand. There are several reasons why a person would want to start viewing a video stream from a particular point. For example, if the person had been interrupted during their watching of a film, when they go back to the film at a subsequent time they will want to be able to find the point at which they finished watching it previously. Another reason for searching in this way is to skip a particular part of the image stream, for example a part which contains advertising. Viewers of a film or programme will often find it inconvenient to watch advertisements at a time which suits the producers or broadcasters of the film or broadcast, and would much rather skip them to avoid interruption.

The searching tool is initiated by pressing a button on the remote control. A searching screen is presented to the viewer which sets out nine windows, each showing an image from within the image stream being searched. In one mode of operation, nine equally spaced images are taken from the image stream at fixed time separations of, say, 40 seconds and placed into each of the windows. Depending on the arrangement, the viewer then selects the image which is closest to, but not before, the point at which he or she wishes to restart the playing of the image stream. That completes the first iteration. A second iteration commences by nine image being displayed in the nine windows on screen within the menu which correspond to the image stream between the image selected during the first iteration and the image immediately preceding it in the first iteration. In this way, the start point is significantly narrowed so that on making a second selection during the second iteration, a position will be identified quite close to the desired start point. Third and fourth iterations can be included, if required.

Mechanisms need to be in place to ensure that the creators, broadcasters and distributors of programmes are remunerated for the programmes that are made, and there are a number of different financial models used to achieve this. Programmes or chaimels are often made available only on payment of a subscription or on payment for viewing a specific programme (pay-per-view). Alternatively, or in addition to the subscription payment method, programmes are broadcast with breaks both between adjacent programmes and within a programme during which adverts are broadcast.

The amount that a broadcaster charges advertisers will depend on a number of factors including the number of people who are expected to watch the programme, their socio-economic and demographic profile, the time of day or night at which the advert is broadcast, which break during the length of the programme the advert appears in, and the position of the advert within an individual advertising break within the programme.

There are some disadvantages to inserting advertising breaks in broadcast programmes. Firstly, the advertising breaks appear at a time which is convenient for the broadcaster, but which might be inconvenient for the viewer. Additionally, since the adverts are -also broadcast, many of the people who will see them will be uninterested in the products or services which are being advertised. This means that at least a part of the advertising that a person must watch is irrelevant to that person, and the advertiser has to pay to display advertising to viewers, a significant proportion of whom are not interested in their product or service, and who might even be hostile to the advertisement.

Similar considerations apply to television programmes which are distributed on demand. Typically, programmes distributed on demand commence with an advert, and include advertising breaks within the programme so that, as you are watching the programme, advertising breaks appear within the programme, similar to a broadcast.

Again, the point at which the adverts appear is set by the broadcaster, which may be inconvenient for the viewer, and the advertising will be non-specific. In other words, in many cases, the advertising will be of no interest to the person viewing.

It is an aim of the present invention to improve the situation by delivering advertising that the viewer is interested in. In this way, advertisers will be prepared to pay more for targeted advertising, arid the broadcaster may be able to reduce the duration of the adverts to generate the same revenue. This would be a time saving benefit to the viewer too who will need to sit through adverts of shorter duration which will be less intrusive to the programme which is being watched.

It is also an aim of the present invention to improve the situation by delivering advertising to the viewer at a more convenient time.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, video content apparatus is arranged to direct a video signal to a video display device, the apparatus comprising: a video control module having a video content input for receiving video content, an advertising content input for receiving advertising content, and a video output being arranged to direct video content and advertising content to the display device; a memory arranged to store advertising credits indicative of the amount of advertising that has been viewed; wherein the video control module is arranged to have a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode); and wherein the video mode is restricted unless the advertising memory includes sufficient advertising credits which are earned from the display of advertising content in the ad mode.

By using this invention, the viewer is now able to decide when he or she watches advertisements rather than that decision being made by the creator of the programme or by the broadcaster or distributor of the video content. At the same time, the viewer is still under an obligation to watch a certain proportion of advertising. The invention does this by permitting the earning of advertising credits by watching advertisements which can be redeemed against the viewing of programmes or other video content.

The viewer might prefer to watch enough advertising before the video content is viewed so as to earn enough advertising credits to watch the whole programme, or the viewer can watch the programme in chunks with advertisements in-between them.

In some embodiments, the video content apparatus includes advertising storage in which advertising content is stored from which the viewer can select. In other embodiments, advertising content is streamed to the apparatus on demand.

Preferably, the number of advertising credits in the memory are reduced during display of video content in the video mode and the video control module may be arranged to reduce the number of advertising credits in the video mode. It will be appreciated that, where it is necessary to possess credits before watching video content, it must also be necessary to redeem them against the display of video content.

In this case, the credits gradually reduce as the content is displayed.

Advantageously, the video control module is arranged to include an ad clock in the output signal for display in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode, in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up. This makes it much easier for the viewer to see the credits that have been built up. Most conveniently, this can be done in the form of time credits, although a countdown' points based system or other similar system is also possible.

The video control module may be arranged to restrict the video mode by making video content unavailable unless the memory includes sufficient of the advertising credits.

This means that a person must build up advertising credits before viewing video content. Alternatively, the viewer might be given a small number of credits to enable them to see, perhaps, a few minutes of the video content before that video content is restricted.

The apparatus might further comprise an advertising detector arranged to detect the display of advertising content in the ad mode. The advertising detector might have an output to the memory by which advertising credits are accumulated based on the detected display of advertising content, and could be a part of the video control module.

The ad mode preferably includes an ad menu having a plurality of selectable items, the items corresponding to a plurality of different advertising types or adverts from different advertisers. Each selectable item might be a separate window within which an image or image stream is displayed indicative of the advertisement type, product being advertised or business being advertised. The items or windows could be arranged in at least one of the following ways: a) in a numbered array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the numbers 0-9 on a remote control; and b) in a coloured array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the coloured buttons on a remote control.

The ad menu might include at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d) a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; and e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been rated positively by other viewers, or which are most popular.

The ad menu is a viewer interface which makes it particularly easy for a viewer to select advertisements and to manage their advertising credits. The innovative use of the numbered buttons and coloured buttons on the remote control make it extremely easy and intuitive to select the advertisement or feature that is required from the on-screen menu. If the viewer can see both the ad clock and the video content clock, it is simple for the viewer to make decisions as to when he next watches advertisements.

He might decide to watch sufficient advertisements at this point to watch the video content without further interruption, or might decide to watch an advertisement later on, before the video content finishes.

Alternatively, other ways of selecting advertisements and features from the screen are possible. While the use of a remote control unit is a very good way of entering selections where the device is a standard television screen coupled to the video content apparatus, it is apparent that there is convergence taking place between televisions, computers, media players, smartphones and the like. Where the video content is being watched on a screen which is touch sensitive, such as on a smartphone, MP4 player, portable video player or the like, selections are likely to be made more easily by touching the screen either with a finger or a stylus, or alternatively using direction buttons to navigate between selectable items and an enter button. Where the video content is being watched on a device which has a mouse or other pointing device, on-screen selections can be made by moving the pointer about the screen to the item to be selected and then clicking.

The video content source will typically be at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content stored within the source; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; and c) a broadcast receiver, such as a cable, satellite, terrestrial or Internet Protocol broadcast TV receiver, by which video content can be received.

The apparatus of a) or b) above might further include a searching tool by which a point within the video content is searched for using an iterative process, each iteration displaying a plurality of images from the video content whereby the point being searched for is narrowed down by successive iterations; wherein the searching tool further includes at least one of the following: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a selectable item which initiates the ad mode; c) a selectable item which returns the apparatus to the video mode at the most recently accessed point; d) specific advertisements; e) information about future or available video content; and f) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content.

The apparatus also needs a source of advertising content, and this is supplied via the advertising content input. Advertising content can be supplied on demand, for example over a network such as the Internet or a cable television system, or, more preferably, can be recorded into a storage unit within the apparatus. Where it is recorded within the apparatus, a selection of advertisements will need to be received in a suitable way, for example by an on-demand system such as cable or the Internet, or by a broadcast system such as satellite, cable or terrestrial broadcast systems. It is likely that the selection of advertisements would need to be updated from time to time.

The apparatus preferably includes a remote control unit having an advertising mode button by which the advertising mode can be entered.

It also advantageous to include an advertising feedback module, which records the amount of advertising that is watched and sends that information back to the broadcaster or distributor of the video content. In this way, it is possible for the broadcaster or distributor of the video content to calculate how much advertising has been supplied to viewers, and to charge the advertisers accordingly. The feedback module will need to keep a record of what is watched and periodically send this back via a communication link. Thus, it might run on a batch basis, or alternatively, they could send this information back at the time the advertising is watched.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a method of directing a video signal to a video display device comprises: sourcing video content; sourcing advertising content; storing advertising credits indicative of the amount of advertising that has been viewed; and directing the video content and the advertising content to the video display device in a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which the video mode is unavailable unless there are sufficient advertising credits stored, the advertising credits being earned from the display of advertising content in the ad mode.

The second aspect of the invention has the same advantages as the first. Various advantageous features corresponding to this aspect are set out in the dependent claims and above in relation to the first aspect.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a video content apparatus arranged to direct a video signal to a video display device comprises: a video control module having a video content input for receiving video content, an advertising content input for receiving advertising content, and a video output being arranged to direct video content and advertising content to the display device; a video content source having an output connected to the video content input of the video control module, the source being arranged to supply the video content to the video control module; and an advertising content source having an output connected to the advertising content input of the video control module for supplying advertising content to the video control module; wherein the video control module is arranged to have a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which a choice of adverts or advert types are displayed for selection by a viewer.

By using this invention, the viewer is now able to choose which advertisements he or she watches rather than watch the advertisements which are supplied by the creator of the programme or the broadcaster or distributor of the programme. Since the viewer is likely to predominantly watch advertisements that he or she is interested in, the advertisements are likely to have a much greater impact than they currently have in their untargeted form. At the present time, advertisements tend to be supplied with a programme and tend to be directed towards those types of people who are most likely to be watching. Of course, other types of people will be watching the programme too, and will have to sit through advertisements which are of no relevance to them. By allowing the viewer to select the advertisements they wish to watch, they will automatically be targeted by the viewers themselves. Since the advertisements are more targeted, broadcasters and distributors of video content and programmes will be able to generate higher revenues, or alternatively, to generate the same revenues as previously, viewers will have to watch less advertising per hour of programme.

Ultimately, this leads to more effective advertising and advertising which is less time consuming for the viewer.

The ad menu might include at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d) a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; and e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been noted positively by other viewers, or which are most popular.

The ad menu is a viewer interface which makes it particularly easy for a viewer to select advertisements and to manage their advertising credits. The innovative use of the numbered buttons and coloured buttons on the remote control make it extremely easy and intuitive to select the advertisement or feature that is required from the on-screen menu.

Alternatively, other ways of selecting advertisements and features from the screen are possible. While the use of a remote control unit is a very good way of entering selections where the device is a standard television screen coupled to the video content apparatus, it is apparent that there is convergence taking place between televisions, computers, media players, smartphones and the like. Where the video content is being watched on a screen which is touch sensitive, such as on a smartpbone, MP4 player, portable video player or the like, selections are likely to be made more easily by touching the screen either with a finger or a stylus, or alternatively using direction buttons to navigate between selectable items and an enter button. Where the video content is being watched on a device which has a mouse or other pointing device, on-screen selections can be made by moving the pointer about the screen to the item to be selected and then clicking.

The video content source will typically be at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content stored within the source; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; arid c) a broadcast receiver, such as a cable, satellite or terrestrial TV receiver, by which video content can be received.

The apparatus also needs a source of advertising content, and this is supplied via the advertising content input. Advertising content can be supplied on demand, for example over a network such as the Internet or a cable television system, or can be recorded into a storage unit within the apparatus. Where it is recorded within the apparatus, a selection of advertisements will need to be received in a suitable way, for example by an on-demand system such as cable or the Internet, or by a broadcast system such as satellite, cable or terrestrial broadcast systems.

In this case, the credits gradually reduce as the content is displayed.

Advantageously, the video control module is arranged to include an ad clock in the output signal for display in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode, in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up. This makes it much easier for the viewer to see the credits that have been built up. Most conveniently, this can be done in the form of time credits, although a countdown' points based system or other similar system is also possible. If a video content clock displaying the duration of the video content from the current position to the end is included too, it is very easy for the viewer to make decisions about how much advertising content he or she wishes to watch in advance.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, a method of directing a video signal to a video display device comprises: sourcing video content; sourcing advertising content; and directing the video content and the advertising content to the video display device in a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which a choice of adverts or advert types are displayed for selection by a viewer.

The fourth aspect of the invention has the same advantages as the third. Various advantageous features corresponding to this aspect are set out in the dependent claims and above in relation to the first aspect.

A number of embodiments will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic drawing showing a system in accordance with the a first embodiment of the present invention in which an image stream is directed towards a video content apparatus which directs a video signal to a television set or other video display apparatus; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the video content apparatus shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a drawing showing a remote control unit for use with the apparatus shown in Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a screen view showing video content in accordance with one implementation of the first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 is a screen view showing video advertising content in accordance with the implementation of the first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 is a screen view showing video advertising content in accordance with the implementation of the first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 7 shows a computer system in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention; Figure 8 is a screen view showing what is displayed on the screen in the system of Figure 7; Figure 9 is a view of part of the screen from Figure 8.

Figure 1 shows the present invention in schematic form in which a number of video sources direct video content to a video content apparatus 1. The video content apparatus I includes a video output 2 which directs a video output signal to a video display device, in this case a television 3. The video content apparatus I may be controlled by a viewer using a remote control unit 4. The video content apparatus I includes one or more video inputs 5 which are arranged to receive video signals from one or more of the following sources: the Internet 6, satellite 7, cable 8, recorded media 9, such as DVDs, Blu-ray, personal video recorders, disk drives, solid-state memory and the like, and an aerial. There are four types of video content indicated in the drawing by way of example, rather than because all of them should be present. In addition, the video content apparatus 1 might also include video storage which can be delivered to the television 3.

Some of the types of video stream are broadcasts, and others supply content on demand. For example, most content is currently delivered to a viewer by broadcast via satellite 7, cable 8 and terrestrial broadcast. However, there is an increasing move to deliver video content on demand, and this is already available via the Internet 6 and cable 8, and to a lesser extent via satellite 7. As will be appreciated, recorded media 9 will almost always be available on demand since this has been recorded for viewing by a viewer at his or her convenience.

Figure 2 shows the video content apparatus 1 in more detail. The apparatus I includes a video content source 10 into which one or more video streams are directed, such as from the Internet 6, satellite broadcast 7, cable broadcast 8, cable on demand 8 and recorded media 9. The video content apparatus I also includes an advertising module 11 which receives video advertising streams from external sources, such as the Internet 6, satellite broadcasts 7, cable broadcast 8, on demand cable transmissions 8, recorded media 9 and the like. The advertising module 11 includes an advertising memory 12 in which streamed video advertising is stored.

Although Figure 2 shows the video content source 10 and advertising module 11 as separate items, in practice, these components could be constituted by a single component.

The video content apparatus I further includes a video control module 13 which takes the video streams from the video content source 10 and the advertising video streams from the advertising module 11 and directs them as appropriate to a video output module 14 which directs the signal to the television (not shown). The video content apparatus 1 further includes a video storage unit 15 from which it can also take video streams, if required, and to which video streams can be directed from either or both of the video content source 10 and the advertising module 11. In fact, advertising content might be stored more preferably in the video storage unit 15 rather than in an advertising memory 12. Additionally, the video content apparatus I includes a timer unit 16 which monitors the amount of video content which is output from the apparatus, and keeps track of the amount of advertising which is output. The video control module 13 acts as a detector of the output of advertising content and of video content, and advertising credits are kept track of in the timer unit. The video control module 13 also controls the redemption of the credits, and identifies the duration of the video content being watched.

Figure 3 shows a remote control unit 4 by which the video content apparatus I may be controlled. The remote control unit 4 includes a number of different types of buttons.

Ten numbered buttons 21 are included, primarily for channel selection, but as we shall see later on, buttons one to nine have an additional function. Four coloured selection buttons 22 are included for easy selection of items in menus, and are coloured red, yellow, green and blue. A search button 23 is included for entering the search mode, which will be discussed below. A backup button 24 is included to allow a viewer to go back a level in various situations, including channel selection and during the use of the search mode. It will be appreciated that the remote control unit 4 shown in Figure 3 is somewhat simplified and additional buttons and controls will normally be included for other functions.

A first embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figures 4, 5 and 6, and also with reference to Figures 1 to 3 because the apparatus of Figures 1 to 3 is used to execute the operations described with respect to Figures 4 to 6. In this embodiment, the viewer has recorded a television programme which shows the highlights of a number of soccer matches. The recorded programme could have been stored either on recorded media 9 or within the video storage unit 15 of the video content apparatus 1. In this case, I shall assume that it has been recorded in the video storage unit 15. The viewer wishes to view only one of the soccer matches shown during the programme, and uses the search method described in more detail in W02007/034206. The viewer begins either by pressing the search button 23 on the remote control unit 4 to cause the video control module 13 of the video content apparatus I to present a search menu screen on the television 3, or the search screen is automatically presented to the viewer to enable him to select where he would like to start watching from. The search screen is shown in Figure 4. Nine central images are presented to the viewer, each image being formed in a separate window numbered I to 9. The images displayed are taken from the recorded programme at 40 second separations, with the first image being the first image that was being displayed when the search mode was selected, and the ninth image being taken from a point 5 minutes and 20 seconds after the first image. The intermediate images are spread generally evenly in-between. Using the numbered buttons 21, the viewer can select the image closest to the point at which he wishes to start viewing the programme. The system is arranged such that the viewer selects the first image that he wishes to see rather than the last image that he does not wish to view.

If the viewer wishes to start at a position in the video stream beyond the last image, he or she can either press the down' arrow button on the remote control to choose from the next 5 minutes 20 seconds, or can increase the time separation between the images. Pressing the right arrow button on the remote control unit 4 doubles the image separation each time to 80s, 160s, 320s etc. Once a selection is made, the system then generates a new set of nine images taken from the image stream around the part of the programme which was selected in the previous step, or first iteration. Thus, in the second iteration, the images are spread through a period of time of the image stream of about one eighth of the 5 minute 22 second range shown in Figure 4. Subsequent iterations can also take place to narrow the start point for watching the video stream so as to get very close to the point at which the viewer wishes to begin watching the programme.

The search screen shown in Figure 4 includes a series of images numbered I to 9 visible for selection by the viewer. In addition to the numbers, the time separation between the separate images is shown.

Also shown in the left and right hand borders are six other windows. The top two windows on each side are advertising windows 32, each of which has a coloured border, red, yellow, green and blue so that the viewer can select an advertisement for watching instead of selecting one of the search windows 31. For example, if the viewer selects the red coloured selection button 22 on the remote control 4, an advertisement for Gap will be selected, if the yellow button is selected, an advertisement for BMW is selected, green selects an advert for Budweiser and blue, an advertisement for Canon.

At the bottom left hand corner of the screen is an ad clock which indicates the amount of time that the viewer has remaining to watch the programme before he must watch an advertisement. In this case, he has only five minutes and thirteen seconds before he will be blocked from watching the television programme. In the bottom right hand corner of the screen is a video content clock 34 which indicates the duration of the video content from the current position to the end. Since the viewer knows from the video content clock 34 that the programme that he wants to watch will last for more than five minutes 13 seconds, in this case, 27 minutes and 49 seconds, he decides that it would be better to view an advertisement now rather than to interrupt the game.

Since the selection screen gives him a choice of four types of advertisement, the viewer will select the advertisement which is most relevant or of greatest interest and enter the ad mode. If the viewer is interested in children's clothing, the viewer will press the red coloured selection button 22 on the remote control unit 4 and the advertisement for Gap will be shown. Once the advertisement has ended, a menu is displayed, as is shown in Figure 5, the ad menu. The clock 33 is updated to increase the amount of time remaining before the viewer must watch another advertisement.

Five minutes has been added to the time to display 10 minutes and 13 seconds. The viewer may now select a return to the television programme, or might decide to watch another advertisement. Nine windows are displayed showing different advertisements which can be watched simply by pressing one of the numbered buttons 21. Since an advertisement has already been viewed for children's clothing, many of the advertisements which are now selectable from the screen are of the same genre. A small number of advertisements from different genres are also selectable. Other advertising selections can also be made by using the coloured selection buttons. As well as being able to select advertisements through the use of the coloured selection buttons, it might also be possible to select previews of programmes which are available, or which will be broadcast soon.

If the viewer does not like any of the advertisements presented to him in the ad menu, pressing the down arrow button will scroll the screen downwards to present a new selection of available advertisements.

If, instead of selecting the Gap advertisement in the ad menu of Figure 4 the viewer had selected the yellow coloured selection button, the viewer would have entered the ad mode and watched an advertisement for a BMW vehicle. Once that advert had been watched, the ad menu screen shown in Figure 6 would be displayed. It will be clear that, in view of the different genre of advertisement selected from the menu of Figure 4, the genre of advertisements in Figure 6 is very different to that of Figure 5.

Thus, the system seeks to make advertisements available to the viewer which are most appropriate to that viewer, and which are most likely to be of interest to them.

The advertisements are supplied to the advertising module 11 where they are either stored in the ad memory 12 or in the video storage unit 15. When the ad mode is selected, thumbnail images from some of the stored advertisements are placed in the windows for selection, as described above. Alternatively, instead of the advertisements being stored within the video content apparatus, they may be streamed directly from a remote server, perhaps via the Internet, another type of network, or cable.

Therefore, it will be understood that, if the video content apparatus is not connected to a network via a two-way link, for example, satellite television, broadcast systems or a player of recorded video content, then advertising material will normally be downloaded or installed at the same time as the video content which is to be viewed is loaded on to the apparatus.

Different video content might require different amounts of advertising to be viewed before it can be watched. For example, the first viewing of a film or an exclusive interview with a reclusive film star may require the viewer to watch more advertising than a repeat of a 20-year-old film, or an interview with a less well-known celebrity.

Additionally, if a viewer has previously watched a programme or a film and wishes to review it again, the subsequent viewing might be permitted free from advertising, or might require less advertising to be viewed since the consumer has previously watched the requisite amount of advertising to view the film the first time.

A viewer might be required to watch an amount of advertising which is linked to the relevance of the content to that viewer. If the viewer is an avid watcher of detective films, that viewer might have to watch an increased amount of advertising to view such films, but a small amount of advertising to watch video content which is of less interest to him or her.

If the viewer already has a subscription for the video content or for related video content, that viewer may be entitled to view the video content without watching any advertising, or with a reduced level of advertising compared with someone who is not a subscriber to that video content.

The viewer might have to watch a quantity of advertising which relates to the quantity of the video content the consumer actually views. For example, a viewer might watch a single interview from within a chat show, or the whole show. The amount of advertising that is viewed would normally be proportional to the quantity of content viewed.

It will be appreciated, therefore, that different video content will have different advertising weighting, with some requiring the watching of more advertisements than others.

The owner of the content, broadcaster or distributor of the video content is able to ascribe to each piece of video content the amount of advertising that must be watched by a person, and its relevance. However, the viewer is able to control when, how much, and what advertising they are exposed to.

The content owner, broadcaster or distributor of the video content can ascribe a weighting to the video content that gives the viewer an idea of the amount of advertising that the viewer will be expected to watch in order to view the video content. Newer, more popular content might be rated more highly than an old repeat so that, for each hour of content, the most popular content might require the watching of 10 minutes of advertising, whereas older or less popular programmes might require the viewer to watch only a couple of minutes of advertising per hour.

In addition, the content owner, broadcaster, distributor of the video content, or the advertiser, can ascribe a weighting to the advertisements that are offered to the viewer for watching. Advertising for more popular brands or products might be weighted to such that, for a thirty second advertisement, more or less advertising credits are accumulated by the viewer compared with a similar length advertisement for a lesser-known brand of goods or services. Alternatively, the weighting of the advertisement might be linked to be cost of the advertising to the advertiser. If the advertiser is prepared to pay a greater charge to the broadcaster or content distributor, the viewer may be entitled to acquire advertising credits at a greater rate by watching their advertisements than for advertisements for the products or services of a business which pays less for their advertisements. This might offer an incentive to the viewer to watch the advertisements of the advertiser who pays more since the viewer needs to sit through less advertising to accumulate the same number of advertising points.

By offering the viewer a choice of advertising to be viewed, the consumer is likely to choose what is most relevant to him or her. If the viewer has already seen one of the advertisements which is offered as a choice to view again, he or she is less likely to watch the game if it has no relevance to him or her, saving the advertiser unnecessary cost in trying to reach an unreceptive or even inappropriate viewer.

The amount of advertising that a viewer watches, and exactly which advertisements are watched should be recorded. This may be done within the video content apparatus 1, for example within the video storage unit 15, or might be collected and stored remotely via a two-way network connection, such as the Internet or cable connection.

It is important to collect this information since the broadcaster, or video content distributor must be able to invoice the advertiser based on what is watched by the viewer. If the advertising viewing data is collected and stored in the video content apparatus 1, it is necessary to transfer that information back to the broadcaster or distributor of the video content, perhaps on a scheduled batch basis.

Additionally, by monitoring the types of advertisements which are watched by the viewer, it is possible to customise the types of advertisements which are available to the viewer in future. For example, if a viewer tends to watch advertisements relating to fashion and clothing, a higher proportion of advertisements of that type can be made available to the viewer for watching in future. An algorithm can be used to calculate what selection of advertisements should be offered to the viewer based on the viewers previous selection of advertising. It is also useful to be able to include the location of the viewer to permit customisation of advertising. There is little point in supplying advertisements for a sporting event occurring in London to a viewer located in Seattle. On the other hand, if you live in London and are watching video content while staying in Las Vegas, advertisements can be directed to you for things to do and see in Las Vegas.

The data recording the advertisements chosen by a viewer may include the order in which the advertisements were selected, the content that was being watched when they were selected, the brands which were selected by the viewer, and the time of day when the advertisements were selected.

One save viewer has accumulated enough credit to watch the currently playing, or about to be played video content, the content owner, broadcaster or distributor may decide that watching further advertising with a crew advertising credits at a reduced rate. In other words, you can watch as many advertisements as you want, but after a certain point, you will accumulate fewer or no advertising credits.

The system also includes the facility to create a list of favourite advertisements. Thus, an advertisement which is enjoyed by a viewer, or which he or she wishes to return to at a later date, may be bookmarked her future viewing. Further information on and advertise products can also be requested, and advertisement can be forwarded to friends or contacts, and advertisements can be rated as goodlbadlaverage. Feedback from lots of different viewers can then be collected and supplied to viewers to help them make future advertisement selections. This might be done using the coloured remote control unit buttons, example the red button allowing the addition and deletion of an advertisement from the favourites list, the blue button enabling the request or cancellation of a request for further information from an advertiser, the yellow button permitting the rating of an advertisement by talking between gratings categories, and the green button permitting the selection or deselection of fording of an advertisement to a friend.

In this way, the broadcaster, owner of the content or distributor of the video content is able to present to the viewer advertising that is both more relevant and less obtrusive to the viewer.

In the embodiment described with respect to Figures 1 to 6, a remote control unit is used to make selections. Other ways of selecting advertisements and features from the screen are also possible. While the use of a remote control unit is a very good way of entering selections where the device is a standard television screen coupled to the video content apparatus as in this embodiment, it is apparent that there is convergence taking place between televisions, computers, media players, smartphones and the like.

Where the video content is being watched on a screen which is touch sensitive, such as on a smartphone, MP4 player, portable video player or the like, selections are likely to be made more easily by touching the screen either with a finger or a stylus, or alternatively using direction buttons to navigate between selectable items and an enter button. Where the video content is being watched on a device which has a mouse or other pointing device, on-screen selections can be made by moving the pointer about the screen to the item to be selected and then clicking.

As will be appreciated, there are a wide range of different devices to which this invention can apply. For example, the video content apparatus could be made so as to be integral with the television so that a separate set top box is not required.

Alternatively, the video content apparatus depicted in the first embodiment might be replaced with a computer which carries out the functions and includes the structural features to be able to carry out the same operations as the apparatus described in the first embodiment. As mentioned above, the computer is likely to include a mouse or similar pointing device by which a cursor or pointer can be moved about the screen to make selections. Making such selections might be in addition to or instead of a remote control unit.

The video content apparatus and television of the first embodiment might be combined into a portable video content player, such as an MP4 player or smartphone with video content playing capability. Since the screen size will be rather smaller, fewer selectable items are likely to be located on the screen than with the full-sized television of the first embodiment. However, the principle is the same, and selections can be made by touching the screen as mentioned above.

A computer implemented embodiment is shown in Figure 7 in which a computer system 60 is shown including a PC 61, a computer screen 62, a keyboard 63, a remote control unit 69 and a mouse pointing device 72. It will be appreciated that any suitable drive might be included, or the PC's hard drive could be used as a source of the video content. Additionally or alternatively, the video content could be received from any one of a number of other suitable sources including the Internet 70, satellite broadcast 73, cable television system 74, and terrestrial TV system 75. Executing on the PC 61 is an operating system 65 on which is running a video content player program 66, such as Microsoft's Media Player, and a plug-in 67 which implements this invention on the computer. The advertising system plug-in 67 is a piece of software in addition to the video player program, although, it could be incorporated within the video content player program 66 itself, forming part of the player software itself. Thus, the plug-in 67 can be supplied as independent software or can be incorporated within the video content player program 66, as required. The combination of the video content player program 66 and the plug-in 67 operating together means that, during the use of the video content player program 66 to display video content, the plug-in 67 can be invoked so as to utilise the advertising functionality which will be described below. The remote control unit 69, keyboard 63, buttons available on a touchscreen 62 or a mouse or other pointing device 72 can be used to make on-screen selections.

The operation of this embodiment will now be described with a particular focus on its general operation, and on features which differ from the embodiment described in Figures 4 to 6. Much of what is described in relation to the embodiment of Figures 4 to 6 also apply to this embodiment, and so some of those features are not repeated here.

In this embodiment, video content is supplied to the PC 61 on demand via the cable television network 74. Figure 8 shows the computer screen 62 from Figure 7. When a viewer is watching the video content normally, the entire screen 62 will be filled with the video content being watched. At any point, the viewer may select the advertising mode by means of the advertising mode button on the remote control unit 69, by pressing a particular key on the keyboard 63, by clicking on the mouse 72, or where the screen 62 is touch sensitive, by touching the screen. This causes the system to enter the advertising mode, which is shown in Figure 8. The displayed screen includes a central picture area 80 and an array of advertising windows 82 in the left and right hand margins. The margins also include in the bottom left-hand corner the ad clock and in the bottom right-hand corner the video content clock. There are four advertising windows 82, each of which is bordered with a colour corresponding to the four coloured buttons on the remote control unit 69, permitting easy selection of a chosen advertising window 82 by pressing the appropriate coloured key. The ad clock 83 operates in the same way as in the first embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 6 in that it shows the time remaining before the viewer must watch the next advert. The video content clock 84 displays the amount of time remaining if the viewer watches the remainder of the video content from the current position to the end. In this case, 28 minutes and 15 seconds remain of the video content, but the viewer can only watch 4 minutes and 18 seconds before advertising must be viewed.

The central picture area 80 can either be filled with additional windows giving a choice of advertisements to be watched, in the same way as in the first embodiment, and in particular Figure 5, or alternatively can display a choice of points within the video content to start watching the video content again. This is similar to the view shown in Figure 4 of the first embodiment. Figure 9 shows an array of display windows within which a selection of advertisements or images from the video content can be displayed, Alternatively, the video content could continue to be played in the central picture area 80 until an advert is selected by the viewer. If the viewer wishes to return to the video content, the advertising mode button can simply be pressed again. The buttons toggle the device between advertising and video modes.

In the advertisement mode, each selectable advertisement can be shown in the form of a thumbnail that displays something about the advert which can be selected. This may be a still image from the advertisement, a video extract from the advertisement, some text, or other means to indicate the content of the advertisement to the viewer, perhaps including the advertiser's logo. If the advertisement is location-based to the extent that it is relevant to the current location of the viewer, then an icon or other means of identification may appear in or around a thumbnail. If there are advertisements for local restaurants, a knife and fork icon might be used. The apparatus might detect the location by GPS, celiphone mast triangulation, proximity to wireless base station, or being at the known endpoint of a wired network or other network, or by any other

suitable means.

In the first embodiment, reference was made to advertisements having different weightings. This is also the case in this embodiment, and an icon is included (not shown) on the screen within or around the thumbnail window to indicate the weighting that a particular advertisement has. In this way, certain heavily weighted advertisements will provide the viewer with a greater advertising credit than watching other advertisements, and this will incentivise a viewer to watch that advertisement over the others which are available.

Since the system is connected to a cable television network, advertisements may be streamed through the network to the computer as required, or might be stored within the computer for serving locally. The advertisement itself may take the form of a video, an audio recording, static or scrolling text, or a combination of these forms.

When the viewer selects one of the advertising selections from within the ad menu, for example by pressing one of the coloured buttons on the remote control unit 69 corresponding to one of the coloured advertising windows 82 on-screen, the corresponding advertisement is displayed on the screen 62. Alternatively, if the viewer selects one of the advertising windows 82 prior to the end of a piece of video content that they are currently committed to watch, then the advertisement can be arranged only to stop playing once the end of the video content or portion of the video content has been reached.

Figure 9 shows the central picture area with nine windows which can be used either to display a selection of advertisements for selection by a viewer or for selecting a start point to watch the video content from if the viewer does not wish to watch it from the position that he last watched it from. Once the viewer has run out of advertising credits, the central picture area will show an array of images relating to advertising, if no advertising is selected within a certain period of time, or if the viewer presses the down arrow button on the remote control unit, a further nine windows of advertisements are displayed for the viewer to choose from. Alternatively, if no selection has been made within a certain period of time, the system will automatically select an advertisement to be played. Since the viewer has not made any selection, and may no longer be watching the screen, the advertiser will be charged a lesser amount for this advertising to be displayed. This is similar to the current method of inserting advertising within content: there is every chance that the advertising is not relevant to the viewer, and that the viewer may not watch it. Regardless, the advertiser has to pay for it to be played, although at a lower rate.

The advertisement will be displayed in full screen mode, but once it ends, the advertising mode will return to the advertising menu.

If the viewer wishes to stop viewing the advertisement part way through, requires further information on the product or service being advertised, wishes to save the advertisement for future viewing, wishes to tell a friend about the advertisement, or wishes to rate the advertisement, these options can be selected. If the viewer re-watches an advertisement, the second viewing of the advertisement will carry a reduced advertising credit weighting.

Once the viewer has gained enough advertising credits to watch the video content currently playing, or about to be played, the advertising credits will accrue at a reduced rate, with a lower weighting.

More details of some of these features, as well as other relevant features are described with respect to the first embodiment of Figures 1 to 6. Likewise, most of the functions and operations of the first embodiment are also applicable to the second embodiment of Figures 7 to 9.

The present invention is also applicable to live broadcasts. During a live broadcast, particular time periods are specifically allocated to the showing of advertising. In the computer system of Figures 7 to 9, when watching the live video content, such as the television programme, when an advertising break appears, the system enters the advertising mode, as with the above embodiment, and the viewer can select the advertisement or advertisements which he wishes to watch. The viewer can only rejoin the programme at the end of the advertisement break if an advertisement has been watched. It is necessary, however, to monitor the length of the advertising break to ensure that only advertisements which end before the advertising break ends can be selected by the viewer. The systems may display this information. Alternatively you may only allow selection of advertisements of a length which ensure a smooth transition back to the live broadcast.

During an advertising break in a live broadcast, the currently playing advert is displayed in the central portion 80 of the screen permitting the viewer to scroll through other advertisements in the margins to see if there is anything else which is relevant or interesting to them. The selection of advertisements which are available to the viewer could be decided by analysing the advertisements previously selected by the viewer, or by analysing the selections of other viewers who have selected similar advertisements previously. In this way, the viewer can watch advertisements which are most relevant to him or her.

Claims

Claims 1. Video content. apparatus arranged to direct a video signal to a video display device, the apparatus comprising: a video control module having a video content input for receiving video content, an advertising content input for receiving advertising content and a video output being arranged to direct video content and advertising content to the display device; an advertising memory arranged to store advertising credits indicative of the amount of advertising that has been viewed; wherein the video control module is arranged to have a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode); and wherein the video mode is restricted unless the advertising memory includes sufficient advertising credits which are earned from the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of advertising credits in the advertising memory are reduced during display of video content in the video mode.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the video control module is arranged to reduce the number of advertising credits in the video mode.
4. The apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the video control module is arranged to include an ad clock in the output signal for display in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up.
5. The apparatus of any one of claims I to 4, wherein the video control module is arranged to restrict the video mode by making video content unavailable unless the memory includes sufficient of the advertising credits.
6. The apparatus of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising an advertising detector arranged to detect the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, the advertising detector having an output to the memory by which advertising credits are accumulated based on the detected display of advertising content.
8. The apparatus of claim 6 or 7, wherein the advertising detector is part of the video control module.
9. The apparatus of any of the preceding claims, wherein the ad mode includes an ad menu having a plurality of selectable items, the items corresponding to a plurality of different advertising types or adverts from different advertisers.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each selectable item is a separate window within which an image or image stream is displayed indicative of the advertisement type, product being advertised or business being advertised.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 or 10, the items or windows being arranged in at least one of the following ways: a) in a numbered array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the numbers 0-9 on a remote control; and b) in a coloured array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the coloured buttons on a remote control.
I 2. The apparatus of claim 9 or 11, wherein the ad menu includes at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d) a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been rated positively by other viewers, or which are most popular; f) a selectable item which adds an advertisement to a list of favourites; g) a selectable item which sends an advertisement or a link to an advertisement to a friend; h) a selectable item which operates to permit a viewer to rate an advertisement; and i) a selectable item which operates to send a request for more information on the advertised product or service.
13. The apparatus of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the video content source is at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content stored within the source or a connected storage device; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; or c) a broadcast receiver, such as a cable, satellite or terrestrial TV receiver, by which video content can be received.
14. The apparatus of claim 13a) or b), further comprising a searching tool by which a point within the video content is searched for using an iterative process, each iteration displaying a plurality of images from the video content whereby the point being searched for is narrowed down by successive iterations; wherein the searching tool further includes at least one of the following: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a selectable item which initiates the ad mode; c) a selectable item which returns the apparatus to the video mode at the most recently accessed point; d) specific advertisements; e) information about future or available video content; and f) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content.
15. The apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a remote control unit having an advertising mode button by which the advertising mode can be entered.
16. A method of directing a video signal to a video display device comprising: sourcing video content; sourcing advertising content; storing advertising credits indicative of the amount of advertising that has been viewed; directing the video content and the advertising content to the video display device in a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which the video mode is unavailable unless there are sufficient advertising credits stored, the advertising credits being earned from the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the number of stored advertising credits are reduced during display of video content in the video mode.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the number of advertising credits is reduced in the video mode.
19. The method of claim 17 or 18, further including displaying an ad clock in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up.
20. The method of any one of claims 16 to 19, further comprising restricting the video mode by making video content unavailable unless sufficient advertising credits are stored.
21. The method of any one of claims 16 to 20, further comprising detecting the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the detected display of advertising content is stored by which advertising credits are accumulated.
23. The method of any of claims 16 to 22, wherein the ad mode displays an ad menu having a plurality of selectable items, the items corresponding to a plurality of different advertising types or adverts from different advertisers.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein each selectable item is a separate window within which an image or image stream is displayed indicative of the advertisement type, product being advertised or business being advertised.
25. The method of claim 23 or 24, the items or windows being arranged in at least one of the following ways: a) in a numbered array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the numbers 0-9 on a remote control; and b) in a coloured array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the coloured buttons on a remote control.
26. The method of any one of claims 23 to 25, wherein the ad menu includes at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d) a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been rated positively by other viewers, or which are most popular; f) a selectable item which adds an advertisement to a list of favourites; g) a selectable item which sends an advertisement or a link to an advertisement to a friend; h) a selectable item which operates to permit a viewer to rate an advertisement; and i) a selectable item which operates to send a request for more information on the advertised product or service.
27. The method of any one of claims 16 to 26, wherein the video content is sourced from at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; or c) a broadcast, such as a cable, satellite or terrestrial TV broadcast, by which video content can be received.
28. The method of claim 27a) or b), further comprising searching for a point within the video content using an iterative process, each iteration displaying a plurality of images from the video content whereby the point being searched for is narrowed down by successive iterations; wherein the searching step further includes at least one of the following: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a selectable item which initiates the ad mode; c) a selectable item which returns the apparatus to the video mode at the most recently accessed point; d) specific advertisements; e) information about future or available video content; and a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content.
29. The method of any one of claims 16 to 28, further comprising selecting an advertising mode button on a remote control unit by which the advertising mode can be entered.
30. Video content apparatus arranged to direct a video signal to a video display device, the apparatus comprising: a video control module having a video content input for receiving video content, an advertising content input for receiving advertising content and a video output being arranged to direct video content and advertising content to the display device; wherein the video control module is arranged to have a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which a choice of adverts or advert types are displayed for selection by a viewer.
31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the ad mode includes an ad menu having a plurality of selectable items, the items corresponding to a plurality of different advertising types or adverts from different advertisers.
32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein each selectable item is a separate window within which an image or image stream is displayed indicative of the advertisement type, product being advertised or business being advertised.
33. The apparatus of claim 31 or 32, the items or windows being arranged in at least one of the following ways: a) in a numbered array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the numbers 0-9 on a remote control; and b) in a coloured array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the coloured buttons on a remote control.
34. The apparatus of any one of claims 31 to 33, wherein the ad menu includes at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d)a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been rated positively by other viewers, or which are most popular; f) a selectable item which adds an advertisement to a list of favourites; g) a selectable item which sends an advertisement or a link to an advertisement to a friend; h) a selectable item which operates to permit a viewer to rate an advertisement; and i) a selectable item which operates to send a request for more information on the advertised product or service.
35. The apparatus of any one of claims 30 to 34, wherein the video content source is at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content stored within the source; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; or c) a broadcast receiver, such as a cable, satellite or terrestrial TV receiver, by which video content can be received.
36. The apparatus of claim 35a) or b), further comprising a searching tool by which a point within the video content is searched for using an iterative process, each iteration displaying a plurality of images from the video content whereby the point being searched for is narrowed down by successive iterations; wherein the searching tool further includes at least one of the following: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a selectable item which initiates the ad mode; c) a selectable item which returns the apparatus to the video mode at the most recently accessed point; d) specific advertisements; e) information about future or available video content; and f) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content.
37. The apparatus according to any one of the claims 30 to 36, further comprising a remote control unit having an advertising mode button by which the advertising mode can be entered.
38. The apparatus of an one of claims 30 to 37, wherein the number of advertising credits in the memory are reduced during display of video content in the video mode.
39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the video control module is arranged to reduce the number of advertising credits in the video mode.
40. The apparatus according to claim 38 or 39, wherein the video control module is arranged to include an ad clock in the output signal for display in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up.
41. The apparatus of any one of claims 37 to 40, wherein the video control module is arranged to restrict the video mode by making video content unavailable unless the memory includes sufficient of the advertising credits.
42. The apparatus of any one of claims 30 to 41, further comprising an advertising detector arranged to detect the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
43. The apparatus of claim 42, the advertising detector having an output to the memory by which advertising credits are accumulated based on the detected display of advertising content.
44. The apparatus of claim 42 or 43, wherein the advertising detector is part of the video control module.
45. A method of directing a video signal to a video display device comprising: sourcing video content; sourcing advertising content; directing the video content and the advertising content to the video display device in a video content viewing mode (video mode) and an advertising viewing mode (ad mode) in which a choice of adverts or advert types are displayed for selection by a viewer.
46. The method of claim 45, wherein the ad mode displays an ad menu having a plurality of selectable items, the items corresponding to a plurality of different advertising types or adverts from different advertisers.
47. The method of claim 46, wherein each selectable item is a separate window within which an image or image stream is displayed indicative of the advertisement type, product being advertised or business being advertised.
48. The method of claim 46 or 47, the items or windows being arranged in at least one of the following ways: a) in a numbered array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the numbers 0-9 on a remote control; and b) in a coloured array so as to be selectable by a viewer pressing one of the coloured buttons on a remote control.
49. The method of any one of claims 46 to 48, wherein the ad menu includes at least one of: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content to the end; c) a selectable item which commences the video mode; d) a selectable item which initiates the display of recently watched advertisements; e) a selectable item which initiates the display of advertisements which have been rated positively by the viewers, or which are most popular; f) a selectable item which adds an advertisement to a list of favourites; g) a selectable item which sends an advertisement or a link to an advertisement to a friend; h) a selectable item which operates to permit a viewer to rate an advertisement; and i) a selectable item which operates to send a request for more information on the advertised product or service.
50. The method of any one of claims 45 to 49, wherein the video content is sourced from at least one of the following: a) a recording of the video content; b) a data network connection, such as an Internet or on-demand cable connection, by which video content can be received on demand; or c) a broadcast, such as a cable, satellite or terrestrial TV broadcast, by which video content can be received.
51. The method of claim 50a) or b), further comprising searching for a point within the video content using an iterative process, each iteration displaying a plurality of images from the video content whereby the point being searched for is narrowed down by successive iterations; wherein the searching step further includes at least one of the following: a) an ad clock showing the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up; b) a selectable item which initiates the ad mode; c) a selectable item which returns the apparatus to the video mode at the most recently accessed point; d) specific advertisements; e) information about future or available video content; and a video content clock showing the amount of time it will take to watch the remainder of the video content.
52. The method of any one of claims 45 to 51, further comprising selecting an advertising mode button on a remote control unit by which the advertising mode can be entered.
53. The method of claim 16, wherein the number of stored advertising credits are reduced during display of video content in the video mode.
54. The method of claim 53, wherein the number of advertising credits is reduced in the video mode.
55. The method of claim 53 or 54, further including displaying an ad clock in at least one of the ad mode and the video mode in which the ad clock shows the time remaining before the advertising credits are used up.
56. The method of any one of claims 52 to 55, further comprising restricting the video mode by making video content unavailable unless sufficient advertising credits are stored.
57. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising detecting the display of advertising content in the ad mode.
58. The method of claim 57, wherein the detected display of advertising content is stored by which advertising credits are accumulated.