Advertisement swapping using an aggregator for an interactive television system

An article of manufacture, comprising:

• a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon to:
• in regards to one or more television signals sent to a client terminal via a first channel of a communication network, wherein prior to being sent to the client terminal, the television signal includes information related to a first advertisement present in the television signal, aggregate information related to a second advertisement that is to replace the first advertisement;
• send at least some of the aggregated information related to the second advertisement to the client terminal via a second channel of the communication network;
• correlate the information related to the first advertisement with the information related to the second advertisement;
• swap the first advertisement with the second advertisement if a subscriber has specifically requested to receive substitute advertisement services and if there is a match in the correlated information;
• and
• replace operative link information associated with the first advertisement with link information associated with the second advertisement by presenting the link information associated with the first advertisement to the subscriber and redirecting the subscriber according to the link information associated with the second advertisement.

An interactive television system, comprising:

• a broadcast center to send a television signal to a client terminal via a first channel of a communication network coupled to the broadcast center, wherein prior to being sent to the client terminal, the television signal includes information related to a first advertisement present in the television signal;
• and
• an aggregator communicatively coupled to a broadcast center of an interactive television system, the aggregator capable of aggregating at least some information related to a second advertisement, the aggregator further capable of sending at least some of the aggregated information to cause a swap of the second advertisement in place of the first advertisement if a subscriber has opted-in by specific request to receive substitute advertisement services,
• wherein the swap of the second advertisement includes redirection of a subscriber who clicks on an operative link that was present in the first advertisement using a link related to the second advertisement.

A method, comprising:

• sending one or more television signals to a client terminal via a first channel of a communication network, wherein prior to being sent to the client terminal, the television signal includes information related to a first advertisement present in the television signal, wherein the information associated with the first advertisement is sent to the client terminal along with the television signal;
• aggregating information related to a second advertisement;
• sending at least some of the aggregated information related to the second advertisement to the client terminal via a second channel of the communication network;
• correlating the information related to the first advertisement with the information related to the second advertisement;
• and
• swapping the first advertisement with the second advertisement if a subscriber has affirmatively elected to receive substitute advertisement services and if there is a match in the correlated information, including presenting link information associated with the first advertisement to the subscriber and upon subscriber activation of the link information, redirecting the subscriber according to link information associated with the second advertisement.

An interactive television system, comprising:

• a broadcast center to send a television signal to a client terminal via a first channel of a communication network coupled to the broadcast center, wherein prior to being sent to the client terminal, the television signal includes information related to a first advertisement present in the television signal;
• an aggregator communicatively coupled to a broadcast center of an interactive television system, the aggregator capable of aggregating at least some information related to a second advertisement, the aggregator further capable of sending at least some of the aggregated information to cause a swap of the second advertisement in place of first advertisement, wherein the swap of the second advertisement includes a presentation of operative link information associated with the first advertisement to the subscriber and upon subscriber activation of the link information, redirection of the subscriber according to link information associated with the second advertisement;
• and
• a unit disposed at the broadcast center to receive the aggregated information from the aggregator and, based on the received aggregated information, to switch an output feed of the broadcast center to provide the second advertisement to a client terminal.

A method, comprising:

• sending one or more television signals to a client terminal via a first channel of a communication network having a plurality of different channels, wherein prior to being sent to the client terminal, the television signal includes information related to a first advertisement present in the television signal, the information capable of identifying the first advertisement and of demarcating the beginning and ending locations of the first advertisement in the television signal;
• aggregating information related to a second advertisement, the aggregated information including information indicative of one or more first advertisements for which the second advertisement is to be swapped;
• correlating the information related to the first advertisement with the information related to the second advertisement to determine if the first advertisement is to be swapped with the second advertisement;
• and
• swapping the first advertisement with the second advertisement if a subscriber has individually opted in to receive substitute advertisement services and if the correlated information determines that a swap is appropriate, including replacing link information associated with the first advertisement with link information associated with the second advertisement by redirecting the subscriber according to the link information associated with the second advertisement, wherein the second advertisement is swapped for the first advertisement during a time period substantially corresponding to the beginning and ending locations of the first advertisement.