US 2019/0098346 A1 · System for Providing Supplemental Content for Video Transport Stream

Abstract

A method and system to facilitate localized replacement of one or more commercials or other instances of base content in a video feed with replacement-media delivered in a separate broadcast TV transport stream. A local TV station that broadcasts to an area covering a video program distributor (VPD) includes supplemental content, such as replacement commercials, within its broadcast in a manner that standard broadcast-TV receivers would disregard but that a equipment at the VPD will receive and process. The equipment at the VPD thus receives the local broadcast from the TV station and extracts from the broadcast the included supplemental content. And equipment at the VPD inserts the extracted supplemental content in place of one or more instances of base content in a transport stream that the VPD receives separately from a video-program source, so as to establish a modified transport stream for delivery to end-user TV receivers.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A broadcast-TV station configured to provide supplemental media content to a video program distributor (VPD) to enable the VPD to insert the supplemental media content into a transport stream that the VPD outputs for transmission to customer premises equipment (CPE) receivers served by the VPD, the broadcast-TV station comprising:

a transmitter and antenna structure through which the broadcast-TV station is configured to broadcast, through terrestrial over-the-air transmission in a local market area, a broadcast-TV transport stream comprising a sequence of packets;
and
a first computing system configured to generate a combined transport stream that multiplexes together (i) a sequence of standard-media-content packets that carry standard media content and that are indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers and (ii) a sequence of supplemental-media-content packets that carry the supplemental media content and that are not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers but that are recognizable by a second computing system at the VPD as being packets that carry the supplemental media content,
wherein the broadcast-TV station is configured to modulate the combined transport stream and to broadcast the modulated combined transport stream for receipt by broadcast-TV receivers that are configured to receive terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcasts,
whereby upon receipt of the broadcast combined transport stream by the second computing system at the VPD, the supplemental-media-content packets can be recognized and processed by the second computing system to enable the second computing system to extract the supplemental media content from the supplemental-media-content packets and to insert the extracted supplemental media content into the transport stream that the VPD outputs for transmission to the CPE receivers served by the VPD.

2 more elements

a transmitter and antenna structure through which the broadcast-TV station is configured to broadcast, through terrestrial over-the-air transmission in a local market area, a broadcast-TV transport stream comprising a sequence of packets;
and
a first computing system configured to carry out operations including (i) receiving standard media content and packetizing the received standard media content into a first sequence of packets that are indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers, (ii) receiving supplemental media content and packetizing the received supplemental media content into a second sequence of packets that are not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers but that are recognizable by a second computing system at the VPD as being packets that carry the supplemental media content, and (iii) multiplexing the first and second sequences of packets together to generate a combined transport stream,
wherein the broadcast-TV station is configured to modulate the combined transport stream for radio-frequency transmission to broadcast-TV receivers,
whereby, upon receipt of the broadcast combined transport stream by the second computing system at the VPD, the packets of the second sequence can be recognized and processed to enable extracting of the supplemental media content and insertion of the extracted supplemental media content into the transport stream that the VPD outputs for transmission to the CPE receivers.

2 more elements

a transmitter and antenna structure through which the broadcast-TV station is configured to broadcast, through terrestrial over-the-air transmission in a local market area, a broadcast-TV transport stream comprising a sequence of packets,
wherein the broadcast-TV station is configured to include, in the broadcast-TV transport stream, standard-media-content packets that carry standard media content and that are indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers to enable standard broadcast-TV receivers to process the carried standard media content, and
wherein the broadcast-TV station is configured to include, in the broadcast-TV transport stream, supplemental-media-content packets that carry the supplemental media content and that are not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers but are recognizable by a computing system at the VPD as being supplemental-media-content packets, to enable the computing system at the VPD to extract the supplemental media content from the supplemental-media-content packets and to insert the extracted supplemental media content into the transport stream that the VPD outputs for transmission to the CPE receivers served by the VPD.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System for Providing Supplemental Content for Video Transport Stream

Life of this patent

System for Providing Supplemental Content for Video Transport Stream

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20