Methods and systems for delivery of compliant video advertisements to devices from one or more platforms including video ad review and approval process

Abstract

A method of approving video advertisements for placement in video content can comprise receiving and ingesting the video advertisements, obtaining a plurality of business rules, creating a database of the business rules, obtaining file information of the video advertisements, obtaining content information about the video advertisements, determining audio codec information and video codec information and/or video data of the video advertisements, determining presence and absence of a unique advertisement identifier of the video advertisements and assigning the unique advertisement identifier to the video advertisements on determining the absence of the unique advertisement identifier, storing video advertisement data in a memory, approving, rejecting and/or rating the video advertisements based on the business rules and the deterministic criteria, providing a web portal that includes user accessibility to the video advertisements and the video advertising data, and providing notification of the availability of new video advertisements for review.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of approving video advertisements for placement in video content, the method comprising:
 receiving and ingesting the video advertisements from a server coupled to a network or from digital media connected to a workstation;   obtaining a plurality of business rules from at least one content publisher or outside source and utilizing the plurality of business rules for classifying the video advertisements;   creating a database of the business rules comprising a hierarchy of deterministic criteria and a plurality of methodologies for the video advertisements;   obtaining file information of the video advertisements including at least one of file size, file creation date, file name, file location, file type, and file source;   obtaining content information about the video advertisements including at least one of content category, content rating, content author, and time duration;   determining audio codec information and video codec information and/or video data of the video advertisements;   determining presence and absence of a unique advertisement identifier of the video advertisements and assigning the unique advertisement identifier to the video advertisements on determining the absence of the unique advertisement identifier;   storing video advertisement data in a memory, the video advertisement data comprising the file information, content information, audio codec information, video codec information and/or video data, and unique advertisement identifiers;   approving, rejecting and/or rating the video advertisements based on the business rules and the deterministic criteria;   providing a web portal that includes user accessibility to the video advertisements and the video advertising data for a user to analyze; and   providing notification of the availability of new video advertisements for review.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 screening the video advertisement data for at least one of illegal characters and undesired characters, and editing the video advertisement data to remove illegal characters and/or undesired characters from the screened video advertisement data.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 at least one of transcoding and transrating a file of the video advertisements; and   storing the video advertisements, the screened and edited video advertisement data, and transcoded and/or transrated video advertisements onto at least one of a LAN-connected computer server and a WAN-connected computer server.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 storing the screened and edited video advertisement data in the memory.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 at least one of transcoding and transrating a file of the video advertisements.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 analyzing the video advertisements and video advertisement data.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the audio codec information comprises audio format, codec identification, sample rate, channels, bit depth, language, and bit rate, and wherein the video codec information comprises at least one of video format, codec identification, aspect, frame rate, bit rate, color space, chroma subsampling, bit depth, scan type, and scan order, and wherein the video data relates to one or more of a container, a tag, an APE tag, and a subtitle, and wherein the container is at least one of a MPEG-4, a QuickTime, a Matroska, an AVI, a H.264, a H.265, or a MPEG-TS, and wherein the tag is at least one of an Id3v1, or an Id3v2, and wherein the subtitle is at least one of a CEA-608, a CEA-708, a DTVCC, an SCTE-20, an SCTE-128, WebVTT, or an ATSC/53. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the web portal is arranged such that the users can select or deselect a plurality of advertisement restrictions. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the plurality of advertisement restrictions includes restriction categories related to at least one of alcohol, ammunition, beef, casinos, competitor, condoms, feminine hygiene, firearms, gambling, pork, sexuality, tobacco, nudity, medicines to treat erectile dysfunction, violence, hate, seaworld, political, republican, and democrat. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 utilizing individual user criteria and the hierarchy of business rule criteria to either approve or reject video advertisements; and   communicating an approved or rejected status of the video advertisements to an advertisement server.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically approving or rejecting an individual video advertisement of the video advertisements to be placed in one or more video content based on a previously approved video advertisement, a previously rejected video advertisement, and/or content rating of the video advertisement.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the automatically approving or rejecting is based, at least in part, on one or more specific geographic regions. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the automatically approving or rejecting is based, at least in part, on criteria within the data structure of the business rules. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically approving or rejecting multiple video advertisements of the video advertisements to be placed in one or more video content based on the previously approved video advertisement, previously rejected video advertisement, and/or rating of the video advertisement.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the automatically approving or automatically rejecting is based, at least in part, on one or more specific geographic regions. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the automatically approving or automatically rejecting is based, at least in part, on criteria within the data structure of the business rules. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 utilizing an automated process to approve or reject an individual video advertisement of the video advertisements, and subsequently manually approving or rejecting the individual video advertisement to be placed in one or more video content based on one or more criteria; and   updating the business rules in the database.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 utilizing an automated process to approve or reject multiple video advertisements of the video advertisements, and subsequently manually approving or rejecting multiple video advertisements to be placed in one or more video content based on one or more criteria, and as applicable update the business rules.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically updating the business rules specific to an individual user based on at least one of one or more criteria, or specific geographic regions for similar video advertisements.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 providing access on the web portal to the business rules for user analysis;   automatically updating the hierarchy of the business rules available to the users on the web portal based on at least one of one or more criteria and specific geographic regions for similar video advertisements.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically updating application of the business rules specific to an individual user, based on at least one of one or more criteria, and specific geographic regions for similar user content categories.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 providing access on the web portal to the business rules for user analysis;   automatically updating the hierarchy of the business rules available to users on the web portal based on at least one of one or more criteria and specific geographic regions for similar user content categories.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically signaling a status of rejected video advertisement based on one or more criteria in real time or on a periodic basis to a video advertisement demand partner.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein providing a web portal includes providing one or more of:
 input user variables;   user control to automatically approve, reject and/or rate the video advertisements;   user control to edit, append, and/or delete the associated data and/or information;   user control to approve or reject the video advertisements for production, and to update the data structure of the business rules;   user control to upload the video advertisements, the edited data and/or information and the transcoded and/or transrated video files onto one or more content distribution networks (CDNs) and/or one or more file backup providers;   user control to send a signal, and/or message by utilizing at least one of a messaging protocol, a flag, a text message, or an email reporting on the progress of the video advertisement and/or video advertisement data; and   user control to log the progress of the video advertisement and/or video advertisement data to a LAN-connected logging server and/or WAN-connected logging server.   
     
     
         25 . A system for analyzing video content for approving or rejecting one or more video advertisements to be placed in one or more video contents based on one or more criteria, the system comprising:
 a processor;   a storage;   an operating system;   a logging module;   one or more network interfaces capable of communicating with a plurality of video advertising networks and users; and   a scripting engine containing logic for:
 creating, modifying, and updating a data structure of business rules; 
 providing a web portal for the users to append, modify, edit, and/or delete data within the data structure; 
 creating, modifying, and updating a data structure of video file characteristics, information, and data; 
 receiving a first video file; 
 creating a system of transcoding, transrating, and transferring video files; 
 determining the video file characteristics, information and data; 
 analyzing the first video file characteristics, information and data in relation to the data structure of business rules based on the analysis of the first video file in relation to the data structure of business rules; 
 determining a classification for the first video file, wherein the classification is selected from at least one of a binary and a quantitative rating; 
 selectively transmitting a signal pertaining to the classification of the first video file; 
 making the first video file available for use based on the classification of the first video file; 
 adding the first video file and first video file characteristics, information, and data to the list of available files available for review in the web portal; 
 updating the classification of the first video file based on the input of the user; 
 updating the business rules within the data structure based on the input of the user; 
 signaling one or more advertising networks with the first video file rating based on the rating of the first video file rating; 
 updating the data structure of the video file characteristics, information and data; and 
 transcoding, transrating, and/or transferring the first video file. 
   
     
     
         26 . A method of delivering live, 24×7 linear or on-demand video content, comprising:
 receiving a request for video content from a video-playing device or proxy that is coupled to a network; 
 determining a device type and a video player capability of the video-playing device; 
 selecting a video content server based on attributes of the request for the video content from the video-playing device and attributes of the video-playing device, wherein the video content server is capable of transmitting the video content; 
 selecting zero, one or more video ads to be played with the video content, wherein all of the ads selected have been whitelisted to be played with the video content; 
 transmitting zero, one or more request for video ads to zero, one or more advertising networks or ad servers, wherein the advertising network or ad server is capable of transmitting the zero, one or more video ads; 
 receiving zero, one or more responses to the video ad requests identifying zero, one or more video ads; 
 generating a playlist listing, in any order, a reference to the video content to be requested from the video content server and zero, one or more references to the video ads to be requested from the advertising network server and/or an ad proxy server; and 
 transmitting the playlist to the video-playing device. 
 
     
     
         27 . A method of delivering live, 24×7 linear or on-demand video content, comprising:
 receiving a plurality of requests for video content from a plurality of video-playing devices or proxies, wherein each video-playing device or proxy is coupled to a network; 
 determining a device type and a video player capability of each video-playing device; 
 selecting a video content server based on attributes of each of plurality of the requests, wherein the video content server is capable of transmitting the video content; 
 selecting zero, one or more video ads to be played with the video content for each of the plurality of the requests, wherein all of the ads selected have been whitelisted to be played with the video content; 
 transmitting zero, one or more request for video ads to zero, one or more advertising networks or ad servers, wherein the advertising network or ad server is capable of transmitting the zero, one or more video ads; 
 receiving zero, one or more responses to the video ad requests identifying zero, one or more video ads; 
 identifying zero, one or more unused ads left over from prior requests for video content from the same video-playing device; 
 generating a playlist listing, in any order, a reference to the video content to be requested from the video content server and zero, one or more references to the video ads to be requested from the advertising network server and/or an ad proxy server; and 
 transmitting the playlist to the video-playing device. 
 
     
     
         28 . A method of delivering live, 24×7 linear or on-demand video content, comprising:
 receiving a request for one or more video ads from a video-playing device or proxy that is coupled to a network; 
 determining a device type and a video player capability of the video-playing device; 
 selecting zero, one or more video ads to be played with the video content; 
 transmitting zero, one or more request for video ads to zero, one or more advertising networks or ad servers, wherein the advertising network or ad server is capable of transmitting the zero, one or more video ads; 
 receiving zero, one or more responses to the video ad requests identifying zero, one or more video ads, wherein all of the ads selected have been whitelisted to be played with the video content; 
 generating a playlist listing, in any order, a reference to the video content to be requested from the video content server and zero, one or more references to the video ads to be requested from the advertising network server and/or an ad proxy server; and 
 transmitting the playlist to the video-playing device.