Wink Communications Inc.

Christopher J Michel

Eric E Del Sesto

Timothy V Travaille

Charles Norman McCullough

Bryan C Gebhardt

Allan C Thygesen

Steve Berriatua

Kalpesh R Patel

Jana J Paquette

An automation server interfaces with broadcast scheduling systems of various types to automatically synchronize the behavior of interactive applications relative to various broadcast programs, such as television shows and commercials, so as to maintain the appropriate interactive application for whatever broadcast program is airing. This allows for television shows which have an associated interactive application, but which are segmented by commercials (which may have their own interactive applications) to have their interactive application displayed while the television show in on, but not during commercials, while maintaining any state information that has been created during execution of the interactive application. The automation server includes multiple channel interfaces, each having a translator and an event manager. The translator translates native control signals from the scheduling system into a fixed set of atomic commands which represent the lifecycle behavior of a broadcast program. The event manager receives these atomic commands and uses them to determine the appropriate state for any interactive application that is associated with the broadcast program. The event manager transmits commands to a broadcast server which directly manages the interactive applications by transmitting code, data, and commands to broadcast receivers that controls the execution of the interactive applications in response to the event manager's commands.

Automatic control of broadcast and execution of interactive applications to maintain synchronous operation with broadcast programs

Interactive content preservation and customization technology is placed at the broadcast facility to ensure reliable transmission of the interactive content to a local subsystem. An interactive content code detector detects interactive content codes in the video stream at the broadcast facility. The interactive content code detector is placed in the transmission path before the video stream is transmitted to broadcast facility hardware that may strip out, destroy, corrupt or otherwise modify the interactive content and interactive content codes. Once an interactive content code detector detects a code, an interactive broadcast server determines what action to take, and instructs an data insertion unit accordingly. The interactive content codes or interactive content may be placed in a portion of the video that is guaranteed by the broadcast facility to be transmitted, for example, the closed caption region of the vertical blanking interval.

Interactive content delivery methods and apparatus

A system and method provide sophisticated analysis of program viewership by executing interactive applications that generate responses describing the viewers' behavior. A broadcast server maintains a database of interactive applications each preferably associated with a program that will be broadcast. The interactive applications preferably include monitoring interactive applications that are configured to selectively monitor viewership, interactive application usage, and reception terminal usage. When the program is broadcast, the monitoring interactive application is inserted into the broadcast feed and delivered to a broadcast receiver such as a television set-top box. The broadcast receiver includes a processor, memory, and other hardware necessary to execute the interactive application. When executed, the interactive application monitors usage of the broadcast receiver, including, for example, the program watched by the subscriber, the entry and exit paths to the program, whether the volume was changed during the program, and the usage of interactive applications. The monitored data is sent in a response packet to a local data center at, for example, the cable headend. The local data center supplements the response with subscriber information from one or more subscriber databases, including marketing information such as the subscriber's age, race, and income. Information about all of the subscribers is aggregated by the local data center and transmitted to a master data center. The master data center aggregates all of the received information, supplements it if possible with additional subscriber information, and provides reports to the broadcaster indicating the geographic, demographic, and psychographic profiles of the program viewers.

Configurable monitoring of program viewership and usage of interactive applications

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Burbank, CA, United States of America

Christopher J Michel