Via a DVR ad-based server

Dec 13, 2006 15:28 GMT  ·  By

On December 7, 2006, Microsoft has filed a patent for DVR-based targeted advertising with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Microsoft Digital Video Recorder ad patent aims to resolve the issue of time sensitive ad skipping.

With the patent, the Redmond Company aims to take control over the commercials that segment TV programs. According to Microsoft's proposals, TV advertisements will no longer be embedded in the programs and indiscriminately force fed to viewers. The Redmond Company's take on this is the introduction of a DVR ad-based server into this equation.

"In an embodiment, a targeted advertisement system includes a DVR, an advertisement data store, and an advertisement manager. The DVR records media content, maintains the recorded media content for on-demand viewing, and provides the recorded media content for viewing when requested. The advertisement manager designates advertisement region(s) in the recorded media content as the media content is being recorded, where an advertisement region includes a first boundary and a second boundary to designate the advertisement region in the media content," reads the abstract of the Microsoft's patent.

Via a DVR ad-based server, advertisement will be tracked, and played or replaced. In this manner the Redmond Company could control time sensitive and context sensitive advertising and reduce the volume of skipped ads.

"The advertisement manager monitors a first data stream of the recorded media content when it is rendered for viewing to detect that a playback position of the first data stream has crossed an advertisement region boundary, and to initiate that an advertisement obtained from the advertisement data store be provided as a second data stream to render the advertisement for viewing," is added in the abstract.