US 6,029,045 · Granted 2000-02-22

The Patent That Let Cable Boxes Show You Ads Meant Just for You

Imagine if your cable box could swap out national TV commercials with ads tailored just for your neighborhood or your interests. This patent describes exactly that: a system where a set-top box receives both regular programming and a separate stream of local ads, then intelligently chooses which local content to insert into the broadcast based on your preferences.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a method and system where a set-top box receives two separate data streams—one with television programming and one with local content (like regional ads or announcements)—and automatically identifies gaps or designated spaces in the programming where local content fits. The box stores pieces of local content based on preset rules, then selects and inserts the right piece into the program stream at the right moment, all customized to what the user prefers. What's protected is this entire process of receiving, storing, identifying insertion points, and dynamically swapping content into a live broadcast.

Why it matters

In the late 1990s, cable and satellite companies were exploring ways to make advertising more relevant to viewers in specific regions or with specific interests, rather than showing the same national ads to everyone. This patent represents an early technical approach to that problem—moving the intelligence for content insertion into the home device itself rather than relying on the broadcast center. It laid groundwork for what would eventually become targeted and dynamic ad insertion, a capability that helped cable providers compete with emerging digital platforms by offering advertisers more precise audience control.

Real-world use

When you were watching cable TV in the early 2000s and saw a local car dealership ad in a break where other viewers in different states saw a different advertiser, the set-top box was likely performing something similar to what this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

A system for communicating a programming data stream and a data stream containing pieces of local content data that are going to be inserted into a local content space in the programming data stream at some predetermined time is provided in which the programming data stream and the local content digital data stream are transmitted to a set-top box in a house of a user, the set-top box stores a predetermined portion of the pieces of local content data based on predetermined criteria, and the set-top box identifies a local content space in the programming data stream. The set-top box may also select a particular piece of local content from the storing system to insert into the local content space in the programming data stream based on a plurality of predetermined preferences of the user, retrieve that selected piece of local content from said storage means, and insert that selected piece of local content into said programming data stream at said local content space so that individualized local content specific to the user of the set-top box is inserted into the programming data stream.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,029,045
Filing date: 1997-12-09
Grant date: 2000-02-22
Assignee: Cogent Technology, Inc.
Inventor(s): PICCO; MARTIN R., MEARS; WILLIAM G., KAU; JONATHAN S.
CPC class: H04N21/26241

View original record on Google Patents →

Want to file your own patent?

If you're designing a new way for streaming services or broadcast devices to personalize what viewers see, search our patent database to see how many competing approaches have already staked their claims.

Free patentability scan