Video curation platform with pre-roll advertisements for discovered content

Abstract

A video curation platform displays curated video channels in the form of markup language pages. A page delivered to client machine includes thumbnails of video content that an end user may select and view. The markup language page includes a first container for supporting a first media player, and a second container for supporting a third party media player that is embedded from a content source. The containers are aligned, one in front of the other. The markup language page also includes control logic adapted to be executed in hardware at a client machine when an end user selects video content to be viewed (i) to render first content in the first media player, (ii) upon completing the first content, to automatically hide the first media player and reveal the third party media player; and (iii) to render the video content in the third party media player.

Having described my invention, what I now claim is as follows: 
     
         1 . An apparatus, comprising:
 at least one hardware processor; and   computer memory storing computer program instructions executed in the hardware processor, the computer program instructions comprising:
 program code to deliver a markup language page in response to receiving a request for the third party video content from a viewer, the markup language page comprising a container for supporting a third party media player, control logic, and a script, the script adapted to be executed at a receiving client machine associated with the viewer upon delivery of the markup language page: (i) to create a class object, (ii) to request a player configuration, the player configuration being specified at least in part by given data, (iii) to receive the player configuration, and (iv) to instantiate the first media player according to the received player configuration; 
 the control logic adapted to be executed in the received client machine to sequentially render the first content in the first media player, reveal the third party media player, and render the third party video content in the revealed third party media player. 
   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1  wherein the computer program instructions further include:
 program code associated with a user interface to receive the given data, the given data adapted to configure a curated video channel to associate the first content with the third party video content. 
 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus as described in  claim 2  wherein the first content is a pre-roll advertisement. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus as described in  claim 3  wherein the pre-roll advertisement is selected by a publisher of the curated video channel. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1  wherein the computer program instructions further include an administrative server. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus as described in  claim 5  wherein the administrative server provides one of: user registration, billing, administration, and interoperability with third party sites. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1  wherein the control logic is further operative cause display of a thumbnail of the third party video content. 
     
     
         8 . Software-as-a-service (SaaS) apparatus, comprising:
 hardware and software upon which a network-accessible publisher site is hosted, the publisher site including a video channel that includes at least one reference to a third party media player that renders third party video content in the third party media player;   a management interface hosted by the server hardware and software and adapted to receive data that configures the video channel to associate first content with the third party video content;   an application server executing on the server hardware to dynamically-generate a markup language page in response to receiving a request for the third party video content from a viewer, the markup language page comprising a container for supporting a third party media player, control logic, and a script, the script adapted to be executed at a receiving client machine associated with the viewer upon delivery of the markup language page: (i) to create a class object, (ii) to request a player configuration, the player configuration being specified at least in part by the received data, (iii) to receive the player configuration, and (iv) to instantiate the first media player according to the received player configuration; and   a web server to serve the markup language page in response to the request for the third party video content.   
     
     
         9 . The apparatus as described in  claim 1  wherein the control logic is adapted to be executed in the received client machine to sequentially render the first content in the first media player, reveal the third party media player, and render the third party video content in the revealed third party media player.