Iheartmedia Management Services, Inc.

Amit Aggarwal

Daniel N MacTiernan

Jeffrey Lee Littlejohn

Kathleen Brougham

Jeffrey Joseph Augustyn

Patricia D Roberts

Brian Kaminsky

James Liao

A traffic-and-billing system imports a chronological schedule from a media automation system. The schedule includes media and advertisement spots allocated in accordance with a content allocation prediction, which allocates a portion of the advertisement spots to general content and a portion to local content. The traffic-and-billing system stores information associated with general advertisement content and generates a content listing based on the content allocation prediction. A general advertisement system receives, an update request that indicates at least one item of the general advertisement content is to be removed from the content listing. The general advertisement system plays out general advertisement content items included in the general advertisement content listing in response to receiving a playout request from the media automation system.

Dynamic media allocation

A log file including prediction information specifying a local advertisement content allocation amount and a general advertisement content allocation amount over a predetermined duration of time is received. A chronological schedule designating media content spots and advertising spots for the predetermined duration of time is also received. It is determined that a sold amount of local advertisement content during a particular time period, which is less than the predetermined duration of time, is insufficient to fill the local allocation during that time period, A portion of the local allocation is reallocated to the general allocation for the particular time period, while leaving the local and general allocation amounts unchanged over the predetermined duration of time. A program log is generated in accordance with the prediction information and the reallocating.

Adjusting inventory allocations at discrete times without adjusting overall inventory allocations

Total advertising inventory of a broadcast station can be dynamically allocated between local, or station-sold, inventory and general, or network, inventory. The portion of total inventory allocated to local inventory or network inventory can be adjusted based on feedback from an advertising service, and a broadcast log can be generated based on the adjusted allocation. The broadcast log can be delivered to a media automation system associated with a media station which plays out local inventory in accordance with the broadcast log. When the broadcast log indicates that general/network inventory is to be broadcast, the media automation system stops playing-out local inventory, and allows the advertisement system to broadcast network inventory for a period of time indicated by the broadcast log. Broadcast of local inventory can be resumed early, before the time period indicated in the broadcast log has expired.

Managing local and general advertisement spot allocations

A planning system obtains an order attribute table associating media advertising orders with flexibility attribute values that indicate scheduling flexibility, and generates an inventory table having cells representing station-daypart combinations. The cells of the inventory table are assigned flexibility attribute values corresponding to the flexibility attribute values of orders booked into corresponding station-daypart combinations. The planning system makes a comparison between a first flexibility attribute associated with an un-booked order and a second flexibility attribute associated with a booked order already booked in a particular station-daypart combination, where the comparison shows that the un-booked order has less scheduling flexibility than the booked order. In response to the comparison, an association between the booked order and the particular station-daypart combination is replaced with an association between the un-booked order and the particular station-daypart combination. A plan lineup is then generated based on the inventory table.

Dynamic assignment of media advertising orders to broadcast inventory

A planning system can receive media advertising orders including flexibility attributes indicating whether the orders are flexible with regard to various different circumstances. The planning system can obtain both booked an unbooked inventory from a traffic and billing system, and determine associations or re-associations between the advertising orders and the booked and unbooked inventory based on the flexibility attributes. The planning system can then generate a non-guaranteed order including the associations or re-associations, and transmit the order to media delivery system. The planning system can obtain feedback and/or real time data that can be used to reassess existing associations, and in some cases adjust the flexibility attribute values.

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New York, NY, United States of America

Amit Aggarwal