Method for enhancing television advertising viewership

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enhancing television advertising viewership. Advertisers deliver content demographic and associated data as metadata along with content to a service that is in communication with a large number of multimedia devices. Each device supplies information to the service that tells about the user of the device's content viewing preferences. The service compares user information to content metadata to find content for the user. The service sends the selected content to the multimedia device. Advertisers whose content were downloaded to the multimedia device may be charged a fee for the download. The multimedia device sends statistics regarding the user's action when the user viewed the content to the service. The service charges a fee to advertisers that had their content viewed by the user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for distributing content to multimedia devices, comprising:
 receiving, at a server, content and associated metadata from content providers, the received content including at least one of: video content, audio content, text content, graphical content, or multimedia content, the received associated metadata including at least one of: content title, content synopsis, information specifying what program or type of program a content item of the content should be played during, information specifying that a content item of the content is to be played before or after a program, or information specifying that a content item of the content be displayed in a specific user interface screen;   receiving, at the server, a user's content viewing preferences;   matching, at the server, the user's content viewing preferences with the received content using the received associated metadata;   enqueuing, at the server, (a) a plurality of content items as matched content and (b) content information about the plurality of content items in a content queue at the server specifically for the multimedia device, the same content queue being used by the server to send queued content items to the multimedia device in response to synchronizations between the server and the multimedia device;   in response to a synchronization between the server and the multimedia device, sending, by the server, the matched content and the content information in the content queue to the multimedia device.   
     
     
         2 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 ensuring that a user does not receive repeats of a content item, in the received content, that the user has already viewed or heard.   
     
     
         3 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the sending step sends any content item and content information to the multimedia device if content and content information exist in the queue specifically for the multimedia device. 
     
     
         4 . A method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating a report based on user input commands and associated content identification received from a plurality of multimedia devices for any of:   indicating popularity of content for a specific content provider, indicating what actions users performed during display of certain content for a specific content provider, or indicating most popular content of all content providers that have content available from a service.   
     
     
         5 . An apparatus for distributing content to multimedia devices, comprising:
 a device for receiving, at a server, content and associated metadata from content providers, the received content including at least one of: video content, audio content, text content, graphical content, or multimedia content, the received associated metadata including at least one of: content title, content synopsis, information specifying what program or type of program a content item of the content should be played during, information specifying that a content item of the content is to be played before or after a program, or information specifying that a content item of the content be displayed in a specific user interface screen;   a device for receiving, at the server, a user's content viewing preferences;   a device for matching, at the server, the user's content viewing preferences with the received content using the received associated metadata;   a device for enqueuing, at the server, (a) a plurality of content items as matched content and (b) content information about the plurality of content items in a content queue at the server specifically for the multimedia device, the same content queue being used by the server to send queued content items to the multimedia device in response to synchronizations between the server and the multimedia device;   a device for sending, by the server, the matched content and the content information in the content queue to the multimedia device in response to a synchronization between the server and the multimedia device.   
     
     
         6 . An apparatus as recited in  claim 5 , further comprising:
 a device for ensuring that a user does not receive repeats of a content item, in the received content, that the user has already viewed or heard.   
     
     
         7 . An apparatus as recited in  claim 5 , further comprising a device for sending any content item and content information to the multimedia device if content and content information exist in the queue specifically for the multimedia device. 
     
     
         8 . An apparatus as recited in  claim 5 , further comprising:
 a device for generating a report based on user input commands and associated content identification received from a plurality of multimedia devices for any of:   indicating popularity of content for a specific content provider, indicating what actions users performed during display of certain content for a specific content provider, or indicating most popular content of all content providers that have content available from a service.   
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for content to multimedia devices, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:
 receiving, at a server, content and associated metadata from content providers, the received content including at least one of: video content, audio content, text content, graphical content, or multimedia content, the received associated metadata including at least one of: content title, content synopsis, information specifying what program or type of program a content item of the content should be played during, information specifying that a content item of the content is to be played before or after a program, or information specifying that a content item of the content be displayed in a specific user interface screen;   receiving, at the server, a user's content viewing preferences;   matching, at the server, the user's content viewing preferences with the received content using the received associated metadata;   enqueuing, at the server, (a) a plurality of content items as matched content and (b) content information about the plurality of content items in a content queue at the server specifically for the multimedia device, the same content queue being used by the server to send queued content items to the multimedia device in response to synchronizations between the server and the multimedia device;   in response to a synchronization between the server and the multimedia device, sending, by the server, the matched content and the content information in the content queue to the multimedia device.   
     
     
         10 . A medium as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the one or more sequences of instructions comprise instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to further carry out the step of:
 ensuring that a user does not receive repeats of a content item, in the received content, that the user has already viewed or heard.   
     
     
         11 . A medium as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the one or more sequences of instructions comprise instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to further carry out the step of:
 sending any content item and content information to the multimedia device if content and content information exist in the queue specifically for the multimedia device.   
     
     
         12 . A medium as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the one or more sequences of instructions comprise instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to further carry out the step of:
 generating a report based on user input commands and associated content identification received from a plurality of multimedia devices for any of: indicating popularity of content for a specific content provider, indicating what actions users performed during display of certain content for a specific content provider, or indicating most popular content of all content providers that have content available from a service.