System and Method for An Adaptive Scheduling System Architecture
The disclosed embodiments describe an automatic, adaptive system and method for efficiently and effectively scheduling advertising spots in commercial break locations across various networks, zones, channels, dates, times, and specific products, for example. The disclosed embodiments make use of fixed and relative factors, that may be user-defined, which assign a “cost” to one or more particular breaks which thereby allow for quick and accurate scheduling of spots. The “costs” may represent a value, or desirability, of a break for the advertiser and may be a function of both the fixed and relative factors. The fixed and relative factors may be configurable and may change for different advertising clients, different contract lines, different networks, different spot placement, etc. The placement of spots may be accomplished through the use of an ordered list which may be generated based on a number of inputs that may be user-selected. A non-limiting example of user inputs may include: spot length, spot cost, contract line priority, beginning date/time of contract line, ending date/time of contract line, a predefined value index for the client, and contract line number, among others.
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The present application is a divisional application of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/701,422 filed 2 Feb. 2007 and entitled “System and Method for an Adaptive Scheduling System Architecture”, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, cross-reference is hereby made to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/701,423 filed 2 Feb. 2007 and entitled “System and Method for an Adaptive Scheduling System Architecture”, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUNDCurrent scheduling systems for placing commercial messages, sometimes referred to herein as “advertising spots” or “spots” in communication media such as television (e.g., broadcast, cable, etc.), radio (e.g., broadcast, satellite, etc.), wireless access (e.g., hand-held devices like personal digital assistants, cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, etc.) or other media, are incapable of meeting the burgeoning demand of new networks and channels for advertising or the plethora of advertising spots that need to be scheduled. Additionally, the complexity with which current advertising is designed to be scheduled is another factor that is stretching the limits of current scheduling systems.
Current scheduling systems, either manual or “automatic”, typically rely on only two inputs for determining when an advertising spot is to be scheduled: rate (cost) and contract line priority. As is known in the art, the cost of airing an advertising spot may vary depending on a number of factors, the most common being the day of the week and the time of the day the spot is aired. For example, a spot aired in “prime time” when the potential audience is large is more expensive than airing the spot during the middle of the night when the potential audience is smaller Priorities in prior art scheduling systems are generally set and static and therefore require a large amount of time and effort to change. Additionally, if a higher-priority advertising spot were to try to be scheduled after a lower-priority spot was already scheduled, typical prior art systems typically would have to schedule the higher-priority spot around the lower-priority spot, thereby turning the priorities upside-down, or spend a lot of time and effort manually rearranging the schedule to account for the placement of the higher-priority spot. This is inefficient, ineffective, and expensive. Obviously, there is a need for an advertising spot scheduling system that can take into account more than two parameters, allow scheduling of multiple advertising spots on multiple forms of media, each having a large number of networks and/or channels, and be able to adapt to changing conditions.
The present disclosure takes into account the complexity inherent in current and future advertising scheduling systems and methods. For example, the present disclosure may make use of a ranking algorithm that ranks available commercial breaks in communication media program scheduling and may take into account a variety of factors, some fixed factors and some relative factors, as herein described, in performing such ranking Furthermore, the selection of which factors to use and the weight given to each factor may be user-defined rather than preset by, for example, a network, a scheduling entity, or a governing body. By using a variety of factors, which may or may not be user-defined, the commercial break locations (“breaks”) where spots are to be placed (“scheduled”) may be tailored to better meet the needs of the advertiser.
Additionally, with the advent of cable television systems and the plethora of networks now available for viewers to watch, the prior art systems of manually scheduling spots or automatically scheduling spots according to fixed rules, becomes an intractable problem which the prior art systems cannot handle efficiently or effectively.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present disclosure to obviate the problems of the prior art and to provide a method and system of scheduling where an ordered list of advertising spots to be scheduled is provided where each spot has an associated scheduling factor, a first one of the spots is selected, one or more breaks for one or more networks are selected, a first cost for each of the breaks is determined as a function of a predetermined algorithm, and the first spot is assigned (i.e., “placed” or “scheduled”) to one of the breaks which has a lowest first cost.
It is also an object of the present disclosure to provide a method and system of scheduling where an ordered list of spots is generated from a select group of spots to be scheduled, where each of the spots has an associated scheduling factor, and a first spot is selected and assigned to a first break chosen from multiple breaks as a function of a first cost assigned individually to each of the multiple breaks, where each of the first costs is a function of a predetermined fixed parameter. Additionally, if during the method of scheduling a second spot it is determined that no unassigned breaks have a second cost less than a predetermined amount thereby preventing the second spot from being assigned to one of the unassigned breaks, determining the relative rankings of the first and second spots and if the ranking of the second spot is greater than the ranking of the first spot, bumping the first spot from the first break and assigning the second spot to the first break. However, if the ranking of the second spot is not greater than the ranking of the first spot, place the second spot on an exceptions list to be placed later.
It is another object of the present disclosure to provide a computer program for scheduling where the computer program includes computer-readable code including program instructions for providing an ordered list spots to be scheduled where each spot has an associated scheduling factor, selecting a first one of the spots, providing multiple breaks for one or more networks, determining a first cost for each of the breaks as a function of a predetermined algorithm, and assigning the first spot to one of the breaks which has a lowest first cost.
It is a further object of the present disclosure to provide a system for scheduling including a database comprising (a) an ordered list of spots to be scheduled where each spot has an associated scheduling factor, and (b) a plurality of breaks for one or more networks, and a microprocessor operatively connected to the database, where the microprocessor comprises (a) circuitry for selecting a first spot, (b) circuitry for determining a first cost for each of the breaks as a function of a predetermined algorithm, and (c) circuitry for assigning the first spot to one of the breaks which has a lowest first cost. Alternatively, the circuitry for assigning the first spot may assign the first spot to one of the breaks that has a first cost less than a first predetermined amount. Additionally, the system for scheduling may include circuitry for removing the first spot from the ordered list of spots.
Furthermore, the system for scheduling may include circuitry for selecting a second spot, circuitry for determining a second cost for unassigned breaks as a function of the first cost and as a function of a predetermined relative parameter, and circuitry for assigning the second spot to one of the unassigned breaks which has wither a lowest second cost or a second cost that is less than a second predetermined amount. In addition, the circuitry for assigning the second spot may determine that no unassigned breaks have a second cost less than a second predetermined amount thereby preventing the second spot from being assigned to one of the unassigned breaks, and may determine that the second spot has a ranking greater than a ranking for the first spot, bumps the first spot from the first break, and assigns the second spot to the first break. Alternatively, the circuitry for assigning the second spot may determine that no unassigned breaks have a second cost less than a second predetermined amount thereby preventing the second spot from being assigned to one of the unassigned breaks, may determine that the second spot has a ranking less than a ranking for the first spot, and may place the second spot on an exceptions list, and may remove the second spot from the ordered list of spots. Additionally, the circuitry for assigning the second spot may assign the second spot to any one of the unassigned breaks. Still further, the system for scheduling may include circuitry for assigning advertising (“ad”) copy to the spots.
It is yet another object of the present disclosure to provide a method and system for scheduling including prioritizing a list of networks for scheduling spots; determining if one or more networks on the list of networks requires spot scheduling such that (a) if none of the networks requires spot scheduling, displaying a network spot schedule, or (b) if one of the networks requires spot scheduling then (i) selecting a first network, (ii) obtaining scheduling information, (iii) generating an ordered list of spots, (iv) selecting a first contract line from the ordered list, where the first contract line contains one or more spots to be scheduled, and (v) selecting a first spot; based on the scheduling information, determining if one or more breaks on the selected network are acceptable for placing the first spot, where (a) if one or more acceptable breaks is determined to exist, scheduling the first spot in one of the acceptable breaks, or (b) if one or more acceptable breaks is determined to not exist then (i) determining if a bump candidate exists, (ii) if no bump candidate exists then logging the first spot as an exception, and (iii) if a bump candidate exists, bumping the bump candidate from its associated break, placing the bump candidate on the ordered list of spots, and scheduling the first spot in the break associated with the bump candidate; determining if there are any additional spots associated with the contract line where (a)if there are additional spots associated with the contract line, selecting a second spot from the first contract line and repeating the method for the second spot, or (b) if there are no additional spots associated with the first contract line, check and assign ad copy to all scheduled spots; and determining if there are additional contract lines, where (a) if there are additional contract lines, selecting a second contract line and repeating the method for the second contract line, or if there are no additional contract lines, placing spots logged as exceptions and repeating the method for a second network.
With the advent of communication signals being carried by, for example, cable systems, telephony networks, the internet and other computer networks, and satellite systems, for display to viewers via standard television interfaces, computer interfaces, and other non-standard television interfaces (e.g., personal digital assistants, cell phones, iPods, Blackberries, etc.), the opportunity and demand for scheduling advertising spots is ever increasing. In order to meet the demand, the disclosed embodiments describe a variety of systems and methods capable of efficiently and effectively scheduling spots in commercial break locations (“breaks”) for the large number of networks for which spots need to be scheduled. The disclosed embodiments may make use of fixed and relative factors (sometimes referred to herein as “fixed parameters” and “relative parameters”, respectively), that may be user-defined, in order to quickly and accurately schedule advertiser's spots at the dates, times, and for the channels that the advertisers desire.
The novel scheduling method, sometimes referred to herein as “Adaptive Scheduling”, allows for a number of advantages not available in prior art manual and/or automatic scheduling systems, such as, for example, the elimination of traditional separate processes for roadblock scheduling (i.e., placing the same spot in the same break time for multiple channels so that viewers on the multiple channels each see the same spot), the ability for the advertiser to have a hand in setting the goals/costs of the advertising campaign; reducing manual scheduling of exceptions (i.e., spots that cannot be placed due to a lack of breaks meeting the advertiser's preferred scheduling criteria) due to a more effective placement of spots, and reducing the overall time required to schedule spots.
As further discussed herein, specifically with reference to
Additionally, the placement of spots may be accomplished through the use of an ordered list, sometimes referred to herein as an “Adaptive Scheduling Order by Clause” or an “AS Order by Clause”, which may be generated based on a number of inputs that may be user-selected. A non-limiting example of user inputs may include: spot length, spot cost, contract line ranking, beginning date/time of contract line, ending date/time of contract line, a predefined value index for the client, ranking value, contract line number, etc. The AS Order by Clause may be used in the determination of the order in which spots are placed by, for example, ordering the various contract lines and/or ordering the various spots to be placed within one or more contract lines.
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At block 120 a determination may be made regarding possible locations for the spot to be scheduled, i.e., a determination may be made as to which breaks meet the criteria for placement of the spot. The criteria may include fixed and relative parameters and/or other factors including, but not limited to, start/stop date and time for the spot, availability of the spot and/or break for scheduling, program name and/or type associated with the break, product type associated with the spot, product conflict with the name/type of program associated with the break, association between the product associated with the spot and the type of program associated with the break, minimum/maximum date/time separation between the spot and types of programs that may conflict with the spot, separation between the client's spot and a spot placed by another client, etc. The fixed and relative parameters may be taken into account in this step of the procedure as will be discussed in more detail below with respect to
At block 140, a determination is made as to whether the spot that was placed or entered onto the exceptions list is the last spot for the current contract line. If the placed/excepted spot is not the last spot for the current contract line, then the next spot for the current contract line is selected at block 116 (thereby closing the Spot Loop) and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected spot. If the placed/excepted spot is the last spot for the current contract line, then advertising copy is checked at block 141 and advertising copy is assigned at block 142, as is known in the art, for each of the spots on the current contract line.
At block 150, a determination is made as to whether the current contract line is the last contract line having spots that need to be scheduled. If the current contract line is not the last contract line having spots that need to be scheduled, then the next contract line is selected at block 115 (thereby closing the Contract Loop) and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected contract line. If the current contract line is the last contract line having spots that need to be scheduled, then those spots on the exception list, such as the spots placed on the exception list in block 133 above, may be placed at block 151. After the excepted spots are placed, a determination is made at block 110 as to whether there are additional networks for which spots need to be scheduled. If there are additional networks for which spots need to be scheduled, a new network is selected at block 111 (thereby closing the Network Loop) and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected network. If there are no additional networks for which spots need to be scheduled, then the procedure may end at block 117 and a display of the schedule for one or more of the networks may be created, printed out, stored, etc., as discussed above.
With reference now to
At block 206, a determination may be made as to whether the placed/excepted spot is the last spot to be scheduled for a particular contract line. If the placed/excepted spot is not the last spot to be scheduled for a particular contract line, then at block 203 another spot is selected for scheduling and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected spot. If the placed/excepted spot is the last spot to be scheduled for a particular contract line, then at block 207 advertising copy rotation is checked and advertising copy may be assigned to the spots for the particular contract line, as is known in the art.
At block 208, a determination is made as to whether there are additional spots to be scheduled for the current network. If there are additional spots to be scheduled for the current network, then at block 203 another spot is selected for scheduling and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected spot. If there are no additional spots to be placed for the current network, at block 212 the exceptions (e.g., from the exceptions list at block 211 above) may be placed. At block 213, a determination is made as to whether there are additional networks for which spots need to be scheduled. If there are additional networks for which spots need to be scheduled, then a network is selected for scheduling at block 200 and the above procedure may be repeated for this newly-selected network. If there are no further networks for which spots need to be scheduled, then the procedure may end at block 214 and a display of the schedule for one or more of the networks may be created, printed out, stored, etc., as discussed above.
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Fixed parameters typically do not change when a spot is placed. Fixed parameters may include, but are not limited to, the following: “day of the week” which allows a particular cost to be assigned to a particular day, “daypart” which allows a particular cost to be assigned to a particular daypart, “used break” or “availability” (whether a spot is placed in a break regardless if the spot is from the same or different client, contract, or contract line, for example) which can be used to assign costs so that breaks are more evenly filled, and “empty break” which can be used to assign a cost to empty breaks in order to favor breaks that already have a spot assigned to it.
Relative parameters typically change as spots are placed. Relative parameters may include, but are not limited to, the following: “narrow window” which may assign a cost to a spot placed in a same time-frame window as a previously-placed spot, such as a 15-minute window, for example, “wide window” which may assign a cost to a spot placed in a same time-frame window as a previously-placed spot, such as a 60-minute window, for example, “daypart” or “same daypart” which allows for a cost to be assigned to the breaks in a daypart for which a previous spot has been placed, “same day” which allows for a cost to be assigned to the breaks in a day for which a previous spot has been placed, “same day+n” which is similar to “same day” where the “same day” cost is expanded to n days either side of a placed spot, and “preferred product separation” which assigns costs to those breaks close to a previously-assigned break for a spot for a particular product or company so as to maintain a separation in time from the previously-assigned break.
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Still further, the circuitry for assigning the second spot may determine that no unassigned breaks have a second cost less than a second predetermined amount thereby preventing the second spot from being assigned to one of the unassigned breaks in the database 1001, and may determine that the second spot has a ranking less than a ranking for the first spot, place the second spot on an exceptions list, and remove the second spot from the ordered list of spots.
Yet further, the circuitry for assigning the second spot may assign the second spot to any one of the unassigned breaks in the database 1001. Additionally, the microprocessor 1002 may include circuitry for assigning ad copy to each of the first and second spots.
The display device 1003 may be an electronic display device, such as an LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, a CRT (cathode ray tube), or other similar display device, as is known in the art. The display device may also be a printer for printing out, rather than displaying, the results of the operation of the scheduling system. The display device 1003 may display/print out any or all of the screens shown in
The above description is not intended and should not be construed to be limited to the examples given but should be granted the full breadth of protection afforded by the appended claims and equivalents thereto. Although the disclosure is described using illustrative embodiments provided herein, it should be understood that the principles of the disclosure are not limited thereto and may include modification thereto and permutations thereof.
Claims
1. A method for scheduling, comprising:
- (a) prioritizing a list of networks for scheduling advertising spots (“spots”);
- (b) determining if one or more networks on said list of networks requires spot scheduling;
- (c) selecting, from said list of networks, a network which requires spot scheduling;
- (d) determining one or more commercial break locations (“breaks”) on said selected network;
- (e) assigning a cost to ones of said one or more breaks, wherein said assigned cost is a function of a user-defined predetermined fixed parameter; and
- (f) scheduling a selected spot for one of said breaks based on said assigned cost.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (b) further comprises displaying a network spot schedule if none of said networks requires spot scheduling.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein step (c) further comprises:
- (A) obtaining scheduling information for said selected network;
- (B) generating an ordered list of spots;
- (C) selecting a contract line from said ordered list, said contract line containing one or more spots to be scheduled; and
- (D) selecting a spot for scheduling.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
- (g) determining if there is an additional spot to be scheduled from said contract line; and
- (h) assigning a second cost to ones of said one or more breaks, wherein said second cost is a function of a predetermined relative parameter.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
- (g) if said assigned cost is above a predetermined threshold: (A) determining if a bump candidate exists; (B) if no bump candidate exists; logging said selected spot as an exception; and (C) if a bump candidate exists; bumping said bump candidate from its associated break, placing said bump candidate on said ordered list of spots, and scheduling said selected spot in said break associated with said bump candidate.
6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
- (D) scheduling a spot logged as an exception in one of said breaks that is not scheduled with a spot.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said spots has an associated scheduling factor.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein said fixed parameter is selected from the group consisting of: day of the week, day part, availability of a commercial break location, and combinations thereof.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein said day part parameter is selected from the group consisting of: an overnight parameter, a morning parameter, an afternoon parameter, a prime parameter, and combinations thereof.
10. The method of claim 4 wherein said relative parameter is selected from the group consisting of: interval of time between said first break and said second break, difference in day part of said first break and day part of said second break, difference between day of the week of said first break and day of the week of said second break, difference between a first product associated with said first spot and a second product associated with said second spot, and combinations thereof.
11. The method of claim 7 wherein said scheduling factor is selected from the group consisting of: ranking identification, product type, stop time, start, time, stop date, start date, cost, contract line identification number, line number, client value, and combinations thereof.
12. A method for scheduling, comprising:
- (a) prioritizing a list of networks for scheduling advertising spots (“spots”);
- (b) determining if one or more networks on said list of networks requires spot scheduling: (A) if none of said networks requires spot scheduling, displaying a network spot schedule; (B) if one of said networks requires spot scheduling; selecting a first network; (C) obtaining scheduling information; (D) generating an ordered list of spots; (E) selecting a first contract line from said ordered list, said first contract line containing one or more spots to be scheduled; and (F) selecting a first one of said spots (“first spot”);
- (c) based on said scheduling information, determining if one or more commercial break locations (“breaks”) on said selected network are acceptable for placing said first spot, wherein each of said breaks has an assigned first cost which is a function of a predetermined fixed parameter, and wherein said fixed parameter is user defined: (A) if one or more acceptable breaks is determined to exist, scheduling said first spot in one of the acceptable breaks; and (B) if one or more acceptable breaks is determined to not exist: (1) determining if a bump candidate exists; (2) if no bump candidate exists; logging said first spot as an exception; and (3) if a bump candidate exists; bumping said bump candidate from its associated break, placing said bump candidate on said ordered list of spots, and scheduling said first spot in said break associated with the bump candidate;
- (d) determining if there are any additional spots associated with said contract line: (A) if there are additional spots associated with said contract line, selecting a second spot from said first contract line and repeating (c) through (d) for said second spot in place of said first spot; and (B) if there are no additional spots associated with said first contract line, check and assign ad copy to all scheduled spots;
- and
- (e) determining if there are additional contract lines: (A) if there are additional contract lines, selecting a second contract line and repeating (c) through (e) for said second contract line in place of said first contract line; and (B) if there are no additional contract lines, placing spots logged as exceptions and repeating (b) through (e) for a second network in place of said first network.
13. A system for scheduling, comprising:
- circuitry for prioritizing a list of networks for scheduling advertising spots (“spots”);
- circuitry for determining if one or more networks on said list of networks requires spot scheduling;
- circuitry for selecting, from said list of networks, a network which requires spot scheduling;
- circuitry for determining one or more commercial break locations (“breaks”) on said selected network;
- circuitry for assigning a cost to ones of said one or more breaks, wherein said assigned cost is a function of a user-defined predetermined fixed parameter; and
- circuitry for scheduling a selected spot for one of said breaks based on said assigned cost.
14. The system of claim 13 further comprising a display for displaying a network spot schedule if none of said networks requires spot scheduling.
15. The system of claim 13 further comprising:
- circuitry for obtaining scheduling information for said selected network;
- circuitry for generating an ordered list of spots;
- circuitry for selecting a contract line from said ordered list, said contract line containing one or more spots to be scheduled; and
- circuitry for selecting a spot for scheduling.
16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:
- circuitry for determining if there is an additional spot to be scheduled from said contract line; and
- circuitry for assigning a second cost to ones of said one or more breaks, wherein said second cost is a function of a predetermined relative parameter.
17. The system of claim 13 further comprising:
- circuitry for determining if said assigned cost is above a predetermined threshold, comprising: circuitry for determining if a bump candidate exists; circuitry for logging said selected spot as an exception if no bump candidate exists; and if a bump candidate exists, circuitry for bumping said bump candidate from its associated break, placing said bump candidate on said ordered list of spots, and scheduling said selected spot in said break associated with said bump candidate.
18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:
- circuitry for scheduling a spot logged as an exception in one of said breaks that is not scheduled with a spot.
19. The system of claim 13 wherein each of said spots has an associated scheduling factor.
20. The system of claim 13 wherein said fixed parameter is selected from the group consisting of: day of the week, day part, availability of a commercial break location, and combinations thereof.
21. The system of claim 20 wherein said day part parameter is selected from the group consisting of: an overnight parameter, a morning parameter, an afternoon parameter, a prime parameter, and combinations thereof.
22. The system of claim 16 wherein said relative parameter is selected from the group consisting of: interval of time between said first break and said second break, difference in day part of said first break and day part of said second break, difference between day of the week of said first break and day of the week of said second break, difference between a first product associated with said first spot and a second product associated with said second spot, and combinations thereof.
23. The system of claim 19 wherein said scheduling factor is selected from the group consisting of: ranking identification, product type, stop time, start, time, stop date, start date, cost, contract line identification number, line number, client value, and combinations thereof.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 21, 2010
Publication Date: Apr 14, 2011
Applicant: Harris Corporation (Melbourne, FL)
Inventors: Trisha Schepers (Byron Center, MI), Stephen Falk (Grand Rapids, MI)
Application Number: 12/974,279
International Classification: G06Q 30/00 (20060101); G06Q 10/00 (20060101);