The present invention relates generally to broadcast content, and more particularly, to inserting commercials in time-shifted broadcast content.
It is known in the prior art to store commercials and inserting the same into a live broadcast stream by temporarily replacing the live stream by a playout of blocks from memory. Thus, commercial blocks in a live broadcast stream can be replaced by other commercial blocks that are of more interest to the user (e.g., local advertisements or commercials). In
It is also known in the art to delay a live television broadcast stream 100 by means of an additional memory to replace the commercials 1, 2, in the live broadcast stream 100 with longer length commercials 5 or shorter length commercials 6, as is shown in
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide methods and devices that overcome these and other disadvantages associated with the prior art.
Accordingly, a method for inserting replacement commercials into a data stream is provided where the data stream has program and commercial portions. The method comprising: detecting one or more of the commercial portions of the data stream; and replacing the detected one or more commercial portions with either more or less of the replacement commercial portions.
The method can further comprise storing the commercial portions in the data stream subsequent to the detecting. In which case the replacing can comprise selecting the replacement commercial portions from at least one of the stored commercial portions from the data stream and other commercial portions from an external source. The method can further comprise storing the other commercial portions from the external source.
The method can further comprise detecting one or more of the program portions of the data stream and storing the one or more detected program portions.
The replacing can comprise indicating one or more preferences of a user. The indicating can be a manual indication by the user. The indicating can be an automatic indication from a recommendation system that forms a user profile, the user profile indicating viewing preferences of the user. The one or more preferences of the user can be selected from a group consisting of preferred replacement commercial portions, a preferred frequency of the replacement commercial portions, and a preferred length of the replacement commercial portions.
The method can further comprise outputting an output data stream having the program portions and the replacement commercial portions. Where the replacement commercial portions are more than the detected commercial portions, the method can further comprise dividing at least one of the program portions into sub-portions having at least one of the replacement commercial portions there between. Where the replacement commercial portions are less than the detected commercial portions, the method can further comprise combining at least two of the program portions into a larger program portion.
Also provided is a device for inserting replacement commercials into a data stream where the data stream has program and commercial portions. The device comprising: a detector device for detecting one or more of the commercial portions of the data stream; and a scheduler device for replacing the detected one or more commercial portions with either more or less of the replacement commercial portions.
The device can further comprise a memory for storing the commercial portions in the data stream subsequent to the detecting.
The device can further comprise a memory for storing other commercial portions from an external source. In which case the device can further comprise a second tuner operatively connected to the detector for receiving a second data stream having the other commercial portions.
The detector can further detect one or more of the program portions from the data stream wherein the device can further comprise a memory for storing (alternatively referred to as “delaying”) the one or more detected program portions.
The device can further comprise a first tuner operatively connected to the detector for receiving the data stream.
The data stream can be a broadcast video data stream, an audio data stream, or a streaming video data stream.
Also provided are a computer program product for carrying out the methods of the present invention and a program storage device for the storage of the computer program product therein.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the apparatus and methods of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
Although this invention is applicable to numerous and various types of content, it has been found particularly useful in the environment of video content. Therefore, without limiting the applicability of the invention to video content, the invention will be described in such environment. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the methods of the present invention can utilize other types of content, such as audio content.
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In
The detector 416 also detects which parts (e.g., A, B, C) of the live broadcast data stream 100 are programs (e.g., television shows), and controls a time-shift memory 424 to record (or otherwise delay) those parts. The new-block memory 418 and/or time-shift memory 424 may also serve as the storage device discussed above. Furthermore, although shown separable, the new-block memory 418 and time shift memory 424 may be a single storage device with portions assigned to the new-block memory 418 and time-shift memory 424. The detector 416 furthermore indicates the boundaries between commercials and programs to a scheduler 426. The scheduler 426 determines which commercials to insert and when. To this end, it knows which commercial blocks are in the new-block memory 418.
The scheduler 426 can also take user preferences into account, which can be input through a suitable user interface concerning the preferred commercials and preferred frequency and length of insertion of the commercials. The scheduler 426 can also automatically take into account user preferences through a recommendation system that builds a user profile based on either the viewing (or listening) habits of a user and/or the explicit recommendations of the user. Such recommendation systems are well known in the art. The scheduler 426 effectuates a constructed schedule by controlling a selector 428 that chooses the proper stream at each moment in time, and by controlling read-out of either the time-shift memory 424 or the new-block memory 418 and outputs such stream 400 to the television 402 (or audio tuner). The television 402 processes the output signal 400 in a conventional manner to display a video portion to a user on the display screen 410 and an audio portion on the speaker 412.
The methods of the present invention are particularly suited to be carried out by a computer software program, such computer software program preferably containing modules corresponding to the individual steps of the methods. Such software can of course be embodied in a computer-readable medium, such as an integrated chip or a peripheral device.
While there has been shown and described what is considered to be preferred embodiments of the invention, it will, of course, be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be not limited to the exact forms described and illustrated, but should be constructed to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/IB04/52341 | 11/8/2004 | WO | 5/10/2006 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60518905 | Nov 2003 | US |