User controlled targeted advertisement placement for receiver modules

In a system that includes a display device on which broadcast programming and advertising content can be displayed, a method for displaying viewer specific advertising to a viewer, the method comprising:

• storing, at a receiver module, a category attribute defining one or more categories of advertising content to be displayed to the viewer upon the display device and a reward earned attribute defining the number of rewards earned by the viewer;
• receiving advertising content to be displayed to the viewer with the broadcast programming, the advertising content comprising category data defining a category of the advertising content;
• and
• upon comparing the category attribute against the category data for the advertising content, displaying the advertising content when the category data matches the category attribute and updating the rewards earned attribute to reflect the amount of the advertising content viewed by the viewer.

A computer program product for implementing, in system having at least one receiver module that has at least one processor and is capable of receiving broadcast programming and advertising content, a method for displaying advertising content to a viewer, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable medium carrying computer-executable instructions for implementing the method, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the acts of:
• storing, at a receiver module, advertising content specific for the viewer and a category attribute defining one or more categories of advertising content to be displayed to the viewer upon the display device;
• receiving other advertising content and broadcast programming to be displayed to the viewer, the other advertising content comprising category data defining a category of the other advertising content;
• and
• upon comparing the category attribute against the category data, retrieving the advertising content specific for the viewer and substituting the advertising content specific for the viewer when the category data of the other advertising content is different from the category attribute.

In a system that includes a display device on which broadcast programming and advertising content can be displayed, a method for displaying advertising content to a viewer, the method comprising:

• storing, at a receiver module, an ad content table defining category data for each of a plurality of available advertising content displayable upon the display device and a category attribute specific to the viewer and a rewards earned attribute defining the number of reward earned by the viewer;
• upon receiving the plurality of advertising content, storing the plurality of advertising content;
• and
• upon comparing the category attribute against the category data, displaying advertising content, having the category data matching the category attribute, upon the display device and updating the reward earned attribute to reflect the amount of the advertising content viewed by the viewer.

In a system that includes a processor and a display device on which broadcast programming can be displayed, a method for substituting advertising content associated with broadcast programming with advertising content associated with a viewer selected category, the method comprising:

• a step for defining one or more attributes specific for the viewer of the display device, the one or more attributes comprising at least one of a category attribute, a purchase code attribute, and a rewards earned attribute;
• a step for receiving a plurality of advertising content from an operator module, each of the plurality of advertising content comprising an identifier that matches the category attribute;
• a step for receiving a plurality of general advertising content from the operator module, at least one of the plurality of general advertising content comprising a general identifier;
• and
• upon comparing the category attribute against the general identifier, a step for retrieving one of the plurality of advertising content and substituting and displaying the one of the plurality of advertising content for one of the plurality of general advertising content when the general identifier is different from the category attribute.

In a system that includes a display device on which broadcast programming and advertising content can be displayed, a method for generating rewards for viewing advertising content, the method comprising:

• storing one or more viewer attributes unique to the viewer, the one or more viewer attributes comprising:
• a category attribute defining one or more categories of advertising content to be displayed to the viewer upon the display device;
• and
• a rewards earned attribute defining the quantity of rewards earned from viewing advertising content;
• receiving advertising content to be displayed to the viewer, the advertising content comprising a category identifier defining a category of the advertising content;
• upon comparing the category attribute against the category identifier, displaying advertising content for which the category identifier matches the category attribute;
• and
• upon displaying the advertising content to the viewer, updating the rewards earned attribute to include rewards associated with the length of time that the viewer viewed advertising content.