Abstract: A method and system to help control when to monitor for presence of replaceable advertisements in a media stream. An example method includes determining a time offset based at least on a difference between (i) a time of occurrence of a content event in a media stream as indicated by data carried in-band with the media stream and (ii) a time of occurrence of the content event in the media stream as indicated by schedule data that is not carried in-band with the media stream. Further, the method includes applying the determined time offset as a basis to adjust a scheduled time of an advertisement in the media stream, and using the adjusted scheduled time of the advertisement in the media stream as a basis to control when to monitor for presence of a replacement advertisement in the media stream.

Abstract: A method and system for harvesting ads or other modifiable-content segments for use to facilitate dynamic ad replacement or other dynamic content modification. An example method includes (i) determining, based on data carried in-band with a media stream being distributed, a time position of an ad in the media stream, (ii) using the determined time position of the ad in the media stream as a basis to select, from reference fingerprints representing the media stream, a set of the reference fingerprints that represent the ad in the media stream, and (iii) populating the selected set of reference fingerprints into an ad-inventory database as a set of fingerprints representing the ad, to facilitate later detecting presence of another instance of the same ad in the media stream or in another media stream and, based on the later detecting, dynamically replacing the detected other instance of the ad.

Abstract: A method and system to help control when to monitor for presence of replaceable advertisements in a media stream. An example method includes determining a time offset based at least on a difference between (i) a time of occurrence of a content event in a media stream as indicated by data carried in-band with the media stream and (ii) a time of occurrence of the content event in the media stream as indicated by schedule data that is not carried in-band with the media stream. Further, the method includes applying the determined time offset as a basis to adjust a scheduled time of an advertisement in the media stream, and using the adjusted scheduled time of the advertisement in the media stream as a basis to control when to monitor for presence of a replacement advertisement in the media stream.