Advertisement reconciliation system

Abstract

The apparatus and method of the present invention utilize the digital packetized transmission features of a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system to provide an automated and efficient method of conducting advertisement reconciliation. The apparatus and method of the present invention inserts advertisement reconciliation data packets into the transmitted DBS data stream. Preferably, the inserted reconciliation data packets are transmitted synchronously with the advertisement data packets to which they are related. The reconciliation data may include data identifying the date on which the advertisement is aired, the time at which the advertisement is aired, the duration of the advertisement as aired, the contract number under which the advertisement was purchased, the particular order line number of the contract under which the advertisement was purchased, the "makegood" status (indicates whether the advertisement is a makegood an advertisement that was missed), the scheduled time and duration of the advertisement, and an identification code identifying a particular advertisement.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.