Video advertising
AssigneeStarz Entertainment, LLC
InventorsJohn J. Sie, John C. Beyler, Gregory R. DePrez
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
According to the invention, a method is disclosed for playing a video program for a user that has an associated commercial that can be avoided to some extent if the user is authorized. In one step, the video program is received with the associated commercial and made available for display. An attempt by the user to avoid normal playback is detected. A playback point in the video program for the associated commercial is determined. The attempt is correlated to the playback point in the video program for the associated commercial. It is determined whether the user is authorized to avoid normal playback of the associated commercial. If the user is not authorized to avoid normal playback of the associated commercial, the attempt is thwarted.
Claims17
A method for playing a video program for a user that has an associated commercial that can be avoided to some extent if the user is authorized, the method comprising:
- receiving the video program;
- providing the video program for display with a video player;
- receiving control information for the associated commercial, wherein:
- the control information indicates a portion of the video program that contains the associated commercial, and
- the control information is at least partially encrypted;
- detecting a request from the user to temporally manipulate playback of the video program, wherein the request to temporally manipulate playback comprises at least one of a request to fast forward or a request to skip forward in the video program;
- determining a playback point in the video program for the associated commercial;
- correlating the request to temporally manipulate playback to the portion of the video program containing the associated commercial;
- determining if the user is authorized to avoid normal playback of the associated commercial;
- temporally manipulating the playback of the video program according to the request to temporally manipulate playback for portions of the video program not indicated by the control information to be the associated commercial;
- and
- stopping temporally manipulating the playback of the video program upon reaching the portion of the video program indicated by the control information to be the associated commercial and beginning normal playback of the video program if the user is not authorized to avoid normal playback of the associated commercial.
A method for providing a video program to a user for playback with a content delivery system having multiple video programming channels available simultaneously, the method comprising:
- receiving a video program electronically from a point remote to where playback is performed;
- storing the video program in a compressed digital format with a video player;
- identifying a plurality of portions of the video program, the plurality of portions comprising commercials;
- determining advertising options applicable to the video program;
- playing the video program with the advertising options applied;
- and
- modifying how a temporal manipulation of playback is acted upon during playback of the plurality of portions containing commercials, wherein the modifying step includes a step of performing the temporal manipulation of the playback of the video program for portions of the video program not containing commercials until one of the plurality of portions containing commercials is reached, wherein:
- the temporal manipulation of the video program is deactivated to transition to normal playback for the one of the plurality of portions containing the advertisement if the user is not authorized to avoid normal playback, and
- the temporal manipulation that is deactivated comprises at least one of a fast forward or a skip forward.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.