Abstract: An Ad Management System (AMS) for managing sales and insertion of targeted advertisements into advertising opportunities (“avails”). The AMS provides advertisers an ability to describe their advertisements (ad characteristics) in terms of target market demographics, required ad bandwidth, ad duration, and other ad specific parameters. The AMS receives the ad characteristics and matches the ads to the avails. The AMS tracks different avails including duration and bandwidth of the avail, and uses a number of schemes to determine if the ad can be placed in the avail. The AMS targets advertisements by correlating subscriber characteristics to the ad characteristics. The subscriber characteristics may be associated with groups of subscribers (e.g. nodes in cable television environments) or to individual subscribers.

Abstract: A subscriber identification system is presented in which EPG related data including scrolling rates, paging rates, information screen viewing times, and manner and frequency of EPG activation are used to identify a subscriber from a group of subscribers. In one instance, the subscriber viewing data is recorded and a signal processing algorithm, such as a Fourier transform, is used to produce a processed version of the EPG related data. The processed version of the EPG related data can be correlated with stored common identifiers of subscriber profiles to determine which subscriber from the group is presently viewing the programming. A neural network or fuzzy logic can be used as the mechanism for identifying the subscriber from clusters of information, which are associated with individual subscribers.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for the insertion and transport of advertisements in a digital environment, including methods for directing advertisements (ads) at subscribers and substituting advertisements in a program stream with targeted advertisements. The insertion methods are based on synchronous, plesiochronous, or asynchronous techniques. These methods may operate at constant bit rates or at available bit rates. An ad manager is used to select targeted advertisements, and dynamic ad linking is used to substitute an advertisement in a program stream with an alternative targeted advertisement.