Enabling Advertisements in Designated Periods of a Recurring Schedule

Abstract

A method for providing television advertising includes receiving user input for selecting an advertising parameter and providing a user with an advertisement corresponding to the advertising parameter.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of enabling advertisements in a digital home communication terminal according to a recurring schedule, the method comprising:
 receiving and storing an advertisement;   associating the stored advertisement with a recurring schedule; and   presenting the stored advertisement in accordance with the associated recurring schedule.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the recurring schedule is a weekly schedule. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the recurring schedule is a daily schedule. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 preventing the presentation of the stored advertisement during time periods not included in the associated recurring schedule.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each advertisement is associated with one of a plurality of categories. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 preventing the presentation of any of the advertisements for a particular category during time periods not included in the associated recurring schedule.   
     
     
         7 . A method of presenting advertisements in a digital home communication terminal, the method comprising:
 displaying a plurality of advertisement descriptors;   receiving a user selection of one of the advertisement descriptors; and   responsive to the user selection, presenting an advertisement associated with the advertisement descriptor.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the presenting occurs during presentation of a television program. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the displaying occurs during presentation of a television program. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the displaying occurs responsive to a specific user input. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 providing visual feedback that identifies the selected advertisement descriptor.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 providing visual feedback that identifies the selected advertisement descriptor, wherein the visual feedback includes at least one of an icon, a background color, or text.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 notifying the user of a value associated with the selected advertisement descriptor.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 providing visual feedback that identifies the selected advertisement descriptor, wherein the visual feedback includes at least one of an icon, a background color, or text.   
     
     
         15 . A method of presenting advertisements in a digital home communication terminal, the method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement associated with a category;   selectively presenting the advertisements in accordance with user-specified product preferences.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the selectively presenting comprises:
 preventing the presentation of any of the advertisements that do not correspond to the user-specified product preferences.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving and storing advertisements that do not correspond to the user-specified product preferences.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving and storing only those advertisements that correspond to the user-specified product preferences.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 retrieving the selected advertisements from local storage.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the plurality of advertisements are associated with a recurring schedule.