# US 12,003,812 B2 · Content-modification system with feature for controlling viewer exposure to spoilers in advertisements > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,003,812 B2 - Document ID: US12003812B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/831,806 - Filed: 2022-06-03 - Published: 2022-09-15 - Granted: 2024-06-04 - Earliest claimed: 2021-02-11 - Assignees: Roku, Inc. - Applicants: Roku, Inc. - Inventors: Matthew Grover - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12003812B2 ## CPC - H04N 21/44016: {involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip} - H04N 21/25891: {being end-user preferences (retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18)} - H04N 21/44008: {involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59)} - H04N 21/44204: {Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31)} - H04N 21/44222: {Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33)} - H04N 21/4532: {involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18)} - H04N 21/6581: {Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application} - H04N 21/6582: {Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number (arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38)} - H04N 21/812: {involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02)} - H04N 21/8456: {by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments} - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION ## Abstract In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request for supplemental content for use by a content-presentation device in performing a content-modification operation relative to a modifiable content-segment that the content-presentation device is scheduled to receive. The method also includes determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises a promotional advertisement for a content series. The method also includes identifying content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series. The method also includes based on historical content consumption data associated with the content-presentation device, determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than a predefined threshold amount of the identified content. The method also includes in response to determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content, performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with supplemental content. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: receiving a request for supplemental content for use by a content-presentation device in performing a content-modification operation relative to a modifiable content-segment that the content-presentation device is scheduled to receive as part of a linear sequence of content segments on a channel to which the content-presentation device is tuned; determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises a promotional advertisement for a content series; in response to receiving the request for supplemental content by the content-presentation device in performing the content-modification operation relative to the modifiable content-segment and further in response to determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises the promotional advertisement for the content series, identifying content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series; in response to identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series, and based on historical content consumption data associated with the content-presentation device, determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than a predefined threshold amount of the identified content; and in response to determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content, performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with supplemental content. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving promo metadata associated with the promotional advertisement, wherein the promo metadata comprises a content series identifier for the content series, wherein determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises the promotional advertisement for the content series comprises identifying, based on the content series identifier of the promo metadata, the content series that the promotional advertisement is advertising. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the content-presentation device satisfies each condition in a condition set associated with a presentation of the content series, wherein identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series is performed in response to determining that the content-presentation device satisfies each condition in the condition set associated with the presentation of the content series. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the condition set comprises a condition that the content-presentation device has presented at least a threshold number of episodes of the content series. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the condition set comprises a condition that the content-presentation device has presented content from the content series for a total amount of time that exceeds a threshold total time. ### Claim 6 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the condition set comprises a condition that the content-presentation device has presented content from the content series within a predefined time-window from a current time. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series comprises identifying one or more episodes of the content series that the promotional advertisement spoils. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, wherein determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content comprises determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than all of the identified one or more episodes. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the historical content consumption data comprises one or more episode identifiers, each corresponding to a respective episode of the content series that the content-presentation device has presented, the method further comprising: receiving promo metadata associated with the promotional advertisement, wherein the promo metadata comprises one or more episode identifiers, each corresponding to a respective episode of the content series that the promotional advertisement spoils, wherein determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content based on the historical content consumption data comprises determining that the one or more episode identifiers of the historical content consumption data match less than a predefined threshold number of the one or more episode identifiers of the promo metadata. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: based on the historical content consumption data, identifying one or more portions of the content series that the content-presentation device has not presented, wherein performing the action comprises performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with an alternative promotional advertisement for the content series that does not include the one or more portions of the content series that the content-presentation device has not presented. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein performing the action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with the alternative promotional advertisement for the content series that does not include the one or more portions of the content series that the content-presentation device has not presented comprises transmitting, to the content-presentation device, a link for use by the content-presentation device to retrieve the alternative promotional advertisement. ### Claim 12 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by at least one processor, cause performance of a set of operations comprising: receiving a request for supplemental content for use by a content-presentation device in performing a content-modification operation relative to a modifiable content-segment that the content-presentation device is scheduled to receive as part of a linear sequence of content segments on a channel to which the content-presentation device is tuned; determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises a promotional advertisement for a content series; in response to receiving the request for supplemental content by the content-presentation device in performing the content-modification operation relative to the modifiable content-segment and further in response to determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises the promotional advertisement for the content series, identifying content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series; in response to identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series, and based on historical content consumption data associated with the content-presentation device, determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than a predefined threshold amount of the identified content; and in response to determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content, performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with supplemental content. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the set of operations further comprising: receiving promo metadata associated with the promotional advertisement, wherein the promo metadata comprises a content series identifier for the content series, wherein determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises the promotional advertisement for the content series comprises identifying, based on the content series identifier of the promo metadata, the content series that the promotional advertisement is advertising. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the set of operations further comprising: determining that the content-presentation device satisfies each condition in a condition set associated with a presentation of the content series, wherein identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series is performed in response to determining that the content-presentation device satisfies each condition in the condition set associated with the presentation of the content series. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the condition set comprises a first condition that the content-presentation device has presented at least a threshold number of episodes of the content series, a second condition that the content-presentation device has presented content from the content series for a total amount of time that exceeds a threshold total time, and a third condition that the content-presentation device has presented content from the content series within a predefined time-window from a current time. ### Claim 16 (depends on 12) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series comprises identifying one or more episodes of the content series that the promotional advertisement spoils. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content comprises determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than all of the identified one or more episodes. ### Claim 18 (depends on 12) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the historical content consumption data comprises one or more episode identifiers, each corresponding to a respective episode of the content series that the content-presentation device has presented, the set of operations further comprising: receiving promo metadata associated with the promotional advertisement, wherein the promo metadata comprises one or more episode identifiers, each corresponding to a respective episode of the content series that the promotional advertisement spoils, wherein determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content based on the historical content consumption data comprises determining that the one or more episode identifiers of the historical content consumption data match less than a predefined threshold number of the one or more episode identifiers of the promo metadata. ### Claim 19 (depends on 12) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the set of operations further comprising: based on the historical content consumption data, identifying one or more portions of the content series that the content-presentation device has not presented, wherein performing the action comprises performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with an alternative promotional advertisement for the content series that does not include the one or more portions of the content series that the content-presentation device has not presented. ### Claim 20 A computing system comprising: at least one processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the at least one processor, cause performance of a set of operations comprising: receiving a request for supplemental content for use by a content-presentation device in performing a content-modification operation relative to a modifiable content-segment that the content-presentation device is scheduled to receive as part of a linear sequence of content segments on a channel to which the content-presentation device is tuned; determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises a promotional advertisement for a content series; in response to receiving the request for supplemental content by the content-presentation device in performing the content-modification operation relative to the modifiable content-segment and further in response to determining that the modifiable content-segment comprises the promotional advertisement for the content series, identifying content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series; in response to identifying the content that the promotional advertisement spoils from the content series, and based on historical content consumption data associated with the content-presentation device, determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than a predefined threshold amount of the identified content; and in response to determining that the content-presentation device has presented less than the predefined threshold amount of the identified content, performing an action that facilitates the content-presentation device replacing the modifiable content-segment with supplemental content.