System and method for preferred placement programming of iTV content

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer readable storage media storing instructions configured to, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• access content placement rules that (a) describe conditions for placement of content elements within a user interface of an interactive television (iTV) application at defined locations along multiple dimensions and (b) prioritize placement of one of the content elements at one of the defined locations relative to the placement of other content elements at other ones of the defined locations,
• place, at one or more of the defined locations, one or more of the content elements based on an identification of a reference to a definition of a programming campaign that includes a key for uniquely identifying the programming campaign, a listing of candidate content elements, and at least one rule for selecting the one or more of the content elements from the candidate content elements, and
• store to a computer readable memory the user interface, which includes the one or more of the content elements placed at the one or more of the defined locations.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media storing instructions configured to, when executed, cause an apparatus to:

• access content placement rules that (a) describe conditions for placement of content elements within a user interface of an interactive television (iTV) application at defined locations along multiple dimensions and (b) prioritize placement of one of the content elements at one of the defined locations relative to the placement of other content elements at other ones of the defined locations,
• place, at one or more of the defined locations, one or more of the content elements based on an identification of a reference to a definition of a programming campaign that includes a key for uniquely identifying the programming campaign, a listing of candidate content elements, and at least one rule for selecting the one or more of the content elements from the candidate content elements;
• and
• store to a computer readable memory the user interface, which includes the one or more of the content elements placed at the one or more of the defined locations.

A method, comprising:

• accessing, by a computing device, content placement rules that (a) describe conditions for placement of content elements within a user interface of an interactive television (iTV) application at defined locations along multiple dimensions and (b) prioritize placement of one of the content elements at one of the defined locations relative to the placement of other content elements at other ones of the defined locations;
• placing, at one or more of the defined locations, one or more of the content elements based on an identification of a reference to a definition of a programming campaign that includes a key for uniquely identifying the programming campaign, a listing of candidate content elements, and at least one rule for selecting the one or more of the content elements from the candidate content elements;
• and
• outputting the user interface, which includes the one or more of the content elements placed at the one or more of the defined locations.