Method and apparatus for providing directed advertising based on user preferences

A method of providing an advertisement with a media program having at least one advertising break, comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• transmitting, by the computing device from the media program provider to the user device, metadata defining an advertising break having at least one advertisement opportunity within the media program, wherein the advertising break is temporally interposed between playing of the media program, and wherein the metadata is used to configure a media program player of the user device to request the media program and advertisements during the advertising break;
• transmitting, by the computing device from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• causing sending, by the computing device, of a first advertisement to the user device;
• receiving, by the computing device from the user device during the sending of the first advertisement, a command for substitution of an alternative advertisement;
• interrupting, by the computing device, the sending of the first advertisement to the user device in response to the command;
• transmitting, by the computing device to the user device, advertising control options, wherein the advertising control options are for outputting an interface including a choice of a plurality of alternate advertisements;
• receiving, by the computing device from the user device, a user selection identifying only one of the output alternate advertisements as a selected alternative advertisement, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising opportunity;
• causing sending, by the computing device, of the selected alternative advertisement to the user device, wherein the media program and the selected alternative advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the selected alternative advertisement is sent in a communication channel from the one or more sources using a transport/transmission protocol;
• receiving, by the computing device, advertisement viewing data describing the viewing of the selected alternative advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• storing, by the computing device, the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.

A method of providing an advertisement with a media program having at least one advertising break, comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• transmitting, by the computing device from the media program provider to the user device, metadata defining an advertising break having at least one advertisement opportunity within the media program, wherein the advertising break is temporally interposed between playing of the media program, and wherein the metadata is used to configure a media program player of the user device to request the media program and advertisements during the advertising break;
• transmitting, by the computing device from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• transmitting, by the computing device to the user device, advertising control options for presenting an interface including a choice of a plurality of alternate advertisements;
• causing sending, by the computing device, of a first advertisement to the user device at the advertising break;
• receiving, by the computing device from the user device during the sending of the first advertisement, a command for substitution of an alternative advertisement;
• interrupting, by the computing device, the sending of the first advertisement to the user device in response to the command;
• receiving, by the computing device from the user device, a user selection identifying only one of the alternate advertisements as a selected alternative advertisement, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising opportunity;
• causing sending, by the computing device, of the selected alternative advertisement to the user device, wherein the media program and the selected alternative advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the selected alternative advertisement is sent in a communication channel from the one or more sources using a transport/transmission protocol;
• receiving, by the computing device, advertisement viewing data describing the viewing of the selected alternative advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• storing, by the computing device, the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.

An apparatus for providing an advertisement with a media program having at least one advertising break, comprising:

• means for receiving from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• means for transmitting from the media program provider to the user device, metadata defining an advertising break having at least one advertisement opportunity within the media program, wherein the advertising break is temporally interposed between playing of the media program, and wherein the metadata is used to configure a media program player of the user device to request the media program and advertisements during the advertising break;
• means for transmitting, from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• means for transmitting, to the user device at the advertisement opportunity, advertising control options configured to be output on the user device;
• means for receiving, from the user device, a user selection for the output advertising control options, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising opportunity;
• means for causing sending, during the advertisement break, of the advertisement to the user device according to the user selection for the advertising control options, wherein the media program and advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the advertisement is sent in a communication channel from the one or more sources using a transport/transmission protocol;
• means for receiving advertisement viewing data describing the viewing of the advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• means for storing the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.

An apparatus for providing an advertisement with a media program having at least one advertising break, comprising:

• means for receiving from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• means for transmitting from the media program provider to the user device, metadata defining an advertising break having at least one advertisement opportunity within the media program, and wherein the metadata is used to configure a media program player of the user device to request the media program and advertisements during the advertising break;
• means for transmitting from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• means for causing sending of a first advertisement to the user device;
• means for receiving from the user device during the sending of the first advertisement, a command for substitution of an alternative advertisement;
• means for interrupting the sending of the first advertisement to the user device in response to the command;
• means for transmitting to the user device, advertising control options, wherein the advertising control options are for outputting an interface including a choice of a plurality of alternate advertisements;
• means for receiving from the user device, a user selection identifying only one of the output alternate advertisements as a selected alternative advertisement, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising opportunity;
• means for causing sending of the selected alternative advertisement to the user device, wherein the media program and the selected alternative advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the selected alternative advertisement is sent in a communication channel from the one or more sources using a transport/transmission protocol;
• means for advertisement viewing data describing the viewing of the selected alternative advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• means for storing the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.

An apparatus for providing an advertisement with a sent media program having at least one advertising break, comprising:

• means for receiving, from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• means for transmitting, from the media program provider to the user device, metadata defining an advertising break having at least one advertisement opportunity within the media program, wherein the advertising break is temporally interposed between playing of the media program, and wherein the metadata is used to configure a media program player of the user device to request the media program and advertisements during the advertising break;
• means for transmitting, from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• means for transmitting, to the user device, advertising control options for presenting an interface including a choice of a plurality of alternate advertisements;
• means for causing sending of a first advertisement to the user device at the advertising break;
• means for receiving, from the user device during the sending of the first advertisement, a command for substitution of an alternative advertisement;
• means for interrupting, the sending of the first advertisement to the user device in response to the command;
• means for receiving, from the user device, a user selection identifying only one of the alternate advertisements as a selected alternative advertisement, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising opportunity;
• means for causing sending of the selected alternative advertisement to the user device, wherein the media program and the selected alternative advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the selected alternative advertisement is sent in a communication channel from the one or more sources using a transport/transmission protocol;
• means for receiving advertisement viewing data describing the viewing of the selected alternative advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• means for storing the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.

A method of providing advertisements in conjunction with a media program, comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device from a user device at a media program provider, an identification of the media program to be sent to the user device;
• transmitting, by the computing device from the media program provider to the user device, configuration information defining a set of events that will trigger advertising viewing data to be sent by the media program player during a temporal session;
• transmitting, by the computing device to the user device, an interface having advertising control options to be output on the user device, wherein the advertising control options are for an advertising break that is temporally interposed between playing of the media program;
• receiving, by the computing device from the user device, a user selection for the output advertising control options, the user selection affecting sending of an advertisement in the advertising break;
• and
• causing sending, by the computing device, of the identified media program and the advertisement according to the user selection for the advertising control options, wherein the identified media program and advertisement are sent from one or more sources to the user device in the temporal session, and wherein the advertisement is sent from the one or more sources in a communication channel using a transport/transmission protocol;
• receiving, by the computing device, advertisement viewing data describing actions taken by the user during the viewing of the advertisement on the user device via the communication channel using the transport/transmission protocol before the temporal session of sending the media program to the user device ends, wherein the advertisement viewing data is determined while the advertisement is viewed on the media program player of the user device and sending of the advertisement viewing data by the media program player is triggered based on an event in the set of events occurring at the media program player;
• and
• storing, by the computing device, the advertisement viewing data for use in determining an advertisement for a next advertisement opportunity in the media program.