Time shifting of advertisements in digital content delivery services
AssigneeOpenTV, Inc.
InventorsJohn Michael TEIXEIRA, Nicholas FISHWICK
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Advertisements included in a stored digital video program are identified and indexed. A user can time shift the advertisements to play out at a different time position in the program or not play the advertisement at all. A user may incur an advertisement debt for skipping or fast forwarding an advertisement. The advertisement debt can be offset by viewing ads, trading the debt with other users or by paying for the debt in another form.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method of allowing a user to control playback of an advertisement, said method comprising:
- inputting, at a processor, a playback option for time-shifting the playback of the advertisement from a first playback time, corresponding to a time in which the advertisement is to be played during playback of a program, to a second playback time;
- determining, at the processor, whether time-shifting of the advertisement is allowable;
- and
- if it is determined that time-shifting of the advertisement is allowable, generating, at the processor, program content comprising the program and the advertisement wherein the advertisement is inserted into the content at the second playback time.
A content playback apparatus comprising:
- a processor programmed to manage playback of advertisements by:
- inputting a playback option for time-shifting the playback of the advertisements from an original playback time, corresponding to times in which the advertisements are to be played during playback of a program, to a second playback time;
- determining whether time-shifting of the advertisements is allowable;
- and
- if it is determined that time-shifting of the advertisements is allowable, generating program content comprising the program and the advertisements wherein the advertisements are inserted into the content at the second playback time.
A content playback apparatus comprising:
- a processor programmed to manage playback of stored content comprising static content and a time-shiftable content by:
- inputting a playback option for time-shifting the playback of the shiftable content from a first playback time to a second playback time that is different from the first playback time;
- determining whether time-shifting of the shiftable content is allowable;
- and
- if it is determined that time-shifting of the shiftable content is allowable, generating program content comprising the static content and the shiftable content with the shiftable content inserted into the content at the second playback time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.