Advertising video distribution server, advertising video distribution method, and advertising video distribution program

Abstract

To provide a technology capable of stably distributing advertising videos even in places where the communication environment is unstable. [Solution] When an advertising video distribution server receives a distribution request for an advertising video from a user terminal, it acquires first advertising video data of the advertising video from the advertising video server. The advertising video distribution server also generates second advertising video data by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. Furthermore, the advertising video distribution server transmits the second advertising video data to the user terminal via a communication device.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a technique for streaming video. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for delivering streaming content to a viewer's viewing device. In this technology, a streaming advertisement and streaming content are selected by the viewer, and the streaming advertisement is inserted into the streaming content according to insertion point information. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-281483 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Consider the CSAI (Client-Side Ad Insertion) method, in which advertising videos are inserted into the main video on the player (video playback device) side of the user's terminal. In this case, the advertising videos inserted into the main video are delivered from an advertising video server that is different from the server that delivers the main video. The video data of the advertising videos delivered from the advertising video server consists of video files delivered using a progressive method such as mp4. However, when watching large advertising videos in a location with an unstable communication environment, the progressive method may not provide stable delivery. In this case, there is a risk that the advertising videos will stop or be interrupted.

[0005] One object of the present disclosure is to provide a technology that can stably distribute advertising videos even in places where the communication environment is unstable. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A first aspect of the present disclosure relates to an advertising video distribution server that streams advertising videos to a user terminal. The advertising video distribution server includes a computer, an advertising video server that provides advertising video data of advertising videos to be distributed, and a communication device configured to be able to communicate with each of the user terminals. When the computer receives a distribution request for the advertising video from the user terminal, it acquires first advertising video data of the advertising video from the advertising video server. The computer also generates second advertising video data by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. The computer then transmits the second advertising video data to the user terminal via the communication device.

[0007] A second aspect of the present disclosure relates to an advertising video distribution method for streaming-distributing advertising videos to a user terminal. The advertising video distribution method includes, when receiving a distribution request for advertising videos from a user terminal, acquiring first advertising video data of the advertising video from an advertising video server that provides advertising video data of the advertising video for distribution, generating second advertising video data by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format, and transmitting the second advertising video data to the user terminal via a communication device.

[0008] A second aspect of the present disclosure relates to an advertising video distribution program that causes a computer to execute streaming distribution of advertising videos to a user terminal. When a distribution request for advertising videos is received from a user terminal, the advertising video distribution program causes the computer to execute the following operations: acquire first advertising video data of the advertising video from an advertising video server that provides advertising video data of the advertising video for distribution; generate second advertising video data by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format; and transmit the second advertising video data to the user terminal via a communication device. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present disclosure, when a distribution request for an advertising video is received from a user terminal, first advertising video data of the advertising video is acquired from an advertising video server. Second advertising video data is generated by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. Furthermore, the second advertising video data is transmitted to the user terminal. This allows stable streaming distribution of advertising videos even in locations with unstable communication environments. Therefore, the experience of users watching the advertising videos can be improved. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overview of an advertising video distribution system according to a first embodiment. [Figure 2] 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an advertising video distribution server according to the first embodiment. FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an advertising video distribution server according to the second embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an advertising video distribution server according to the second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] An advertising video distribution server, an advertising video distribution method, and an advertising video distribution program according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, common elements in the drawings will be assigned the same reference numerals, and redundant explanations will be omitted.

[0012] 1. First Embodiment 1-1. Overview of the advertising video distribution system FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overview of an advertising video distribution system 1 according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the advertising video distribution system 1 includes a user terminal 2, a main video distribution server 5, an advertising server 6, an advertising video server 7, and an advertising video distribution server 10. The user terminal 2 is a terminal carried by a user who watches videos. Examples of the user terminal 2 include a personal computer, a smartphone, a tablet PC, and a television terminal. The user terminal 2 is provided with a video playback device 3 for playing video data distributed from the servers (main video distribution server 5, advertising video distribution server 10).

[0013] The main video distribution server 5 streams the main video to the user terminal 2. Specifically, the main video distribution server 5 stores video data of the main video. Based on a request from the user terminal 2, the main video distribution server 5 streams the video data of the main video to the user terminal 2.

[0014] The advertising server 6 stores information about advertising content. The advertising content is used, for example, by the user terminal 2 to select advertising videos to be inserted into the main video. Generally, advertising videos are inserted at specific times in the main video while the main video is being distributed. The advertising server 6 provides information about advertising content to the user terminal 2 based on a request from the user terminal 2. The user terminal 2 then selects target advertising content based on the advertising content information acquired from the advertising server 6. The user terminal 2 requests the advertising video distribution server 10 to distribute advertising video data corresponding to the selected target advertising content.

[0015] The advertising video server 7 provides advertising video data of advertising videos for distribution to the advertising video distribution server 10. Specifically, the advertising video server 7 stores advertising video data. The advertising video server 7 provides the advertising video distribution server 10 with advertising video data of advertising videos corresponding to target advertising content selected by the user terminal 2.

[0016] The advertising video distribution server 10 streams advertising video data to the user terminal 2. Specifically, when the advertising video distribution server 10 receives a distribution request for an advertising video from the user terminal 2, it acquires advertising video data of the advertising video from the advertising video server 7. Then, the advertising video distribution server 10 streams the advertising video data to the user terminal 2. This realizes streaming distribution of the advertising video.

[0017] The advertising video distribution server 10 includes a computer 50, a storage device 60, and a communication device 70. The computer 50 executes various processes. The storage device 60 includes an advertising video distribution program. The advertising video distribution program is a computer program executed by the computer 50. The computer 50 executes the advertising video distribution program, thereby realizing the functions of the computer 50. The communication device 70 is a device that communicates with the advertising video server and the user terminal 2. The communication device 70 is configured to be able to communicate with both the advertising video server and the user terminal 2.

[0018] Here, consider the CSAI method in which advertising videos are inserted into the main video on the user terminal 2 (video playback device 3) side. In this case, the advertising video data provided from the advertising video server 7 is composed of video files delivered in a progressive format such as mp4. When watching large advertising videos in a location with an unstable communication environment, the progressive format may not provide stable delivery. For this reason, it is preferable to be able to stably stream large amounts of advertising video data even in a location with an unstable communication environment.

[0019] According to the advertising video distribution server 10 (computer 50) of this embodiment, when a distribution request for an advertising video (advertising video data corresponding to advertising content) is received from the user terminal 2, advertising video data of the advertising video (first advertising video data described later) is acquired from the advertising video server 7. In addition, advertising video data (second advertising video data described later) is generated by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. Furthermore, the second advertising video data is transmitted to the user terminal 2. This allows stable streaming distribution of advertising videos even in locations with unstable communication environments. Therefore, the experience of users watching the advertising videos can be improved.

[0020] 1-2. Example of functional configuration of advertising video distribution server 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of the advertising video distribution server 10 according to embodiment 1. The advertising video distribution server 10 (computer 50) executes various processes. The various processes include an advertising video data acquisition process 51, a format conversion process 52, and an advertising video distribution process 54. Each process will be described in detail below.

[0021] When the advertising video data acquisition process 51 receives a distribution request for an advertising video from the user terminal 2, it requests the advertising video server 7 to provide advertising video data corresponding to the advertising video. Then, the advertising video data acquisition process 51 acquires the advertising video data of the advertising video from the advertising video server 7. The advertising video data acquired from the advertising video server 7 is also referred to as first advertising video data.

[0022] Here, we will explain the flow up to when a distribution request for an advertising video is made to the advertising video distribution server 10. First, the user terminal 2 makes a distribution request for a main video to the main video distribution server 5. Based on the request from the user terminal 2, the main video distribution server 5 streams video data of the main video to the user terminal 2. Then, the user terminal 2 requests the advertising server 6 to provide information on advertising content. After that, the user terminal 2 selects advertising content to be inserted into the main video based on the information on the advertising content acquired from the advertising server 6. As a result, a distribution request for an advertising video corresponding to the advertising content selected by the user terminal 2 is made to the advertising video distribution server 10.

[0023] The format conversion process 52 converts the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. The advertising video data converted into the predetermined streaming format is also called second advertising video data. The predetermined streaming format is a format for optimizing the quality of the advertising video data to be streamed in response to changes in the communication environment with the user terminal 2. The predetermined streaming format may be, for example, a format that optimizes the bit rate of the advertising video data, image quality One example is ABR (Adaptive Bit Rate), which dynamically adjusts the bit rate.

[0024] The advertising video distribution process 54 transmits the second advertising video data to the user terminal 2 via the communication device 70. In this way, streaming distribution of the second advertising video data to the user terminal 2 is realized.

[0025] 1-3.Effects According to this embodiment, when a distribution request for an advertising video is received from a user terminal 2, first advertising video data of the advertising video is acquired from the advertising video server 7. Then, second advertising video data is generated by converting the first advertising video data into a predetermined streaming format. Then, the second advertising video data is transmitted to the user terminal 2. This allows stable streaming distribution of advertising videos even in locations with unstable communication environments. This improves the experience of users watching the advertising videos.

[0026] 2. Second Embodiment 2-1. Overview The advertising video requested for distribution from a user terminal 2 may be the same as the advertising video distributed to the same user terminal 2, or may be the same as the advertising video distributed to another user terminal 2. In this case, advertising video data of the already distributed advertising video (also referred to as already distributed second advertising video data) may be streamed to the user terminal 2 that made the distribution request.

[0027] According to the advertising video distribution server 10 according to the second embodiment, when a distribution request for an advertising video is received from a user terminal 2, it is determined whether or not the advertising video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertising video data. If it is determined that the advertising video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertising video data, the distributed second advertising video data corresponding to the advertising video is transmitted to the user terminal 2 via the communication device 70. This allows the advertising video to be streamed without acquiring the advertising video data from the advertising video server 7. This improves the efficiency of the processing of the advertising video distribution server 10.

[0028] 2-2. Example of functional configuration of advertising video distribution server 3 and 4 are block diagrams showing an example of a functional configuration of the advertising video distribution server 10 according to the second embodiment. In order to stream-distribute the already-distributed second advertising video data to the user terminal 2, it is necessary to store the second advertising video data stream-distributed to the user terminal 2 in the storage device 60. Therefore, FIG. 3 shows an example of a functional configuration of the advertising video distribution server 10 for storing the second advertising video data to be stream-distributed to the user terminal 2 in the storage device 60. FIG. 4 shows an example of a functional configuration of the advertising video distribution server 10 for streaming-distributing the already-distributed second advertising video data stored in the storage device 60 to the user terminal 2. Details of the functional configuration examples of the advertising video distribution servers 10 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 will be described below.

[0029] 3, the advertising video distribution server 10 (computer 50) executes various processes. The various processes include an advertising video data acquisition process 51, a format conversion process 52, and a storage process 53. The advertising video data acquisition process 51 and the format conversion process 52 are the same processes as those in the first embodiment, and therefore, a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0030] The saving process 53 saves the second advertising video data in the storage device 60. As a result, when a distribution request for the same advertising video is received from the user terminal 2, the second advertising video data saved in the storage device 60 can be streamed to the user terminal 2 without acquiring the advertising video data from the advertising video server 7.

[0031] In the example shown in Fig. 4, the advertising video distribution server 10 (computer 50) executes various processes. The various processes include a matching process 55, a second advertising video data acquisition process 56, and an advertising video distribution process 54. The storage device 60 also stores history information of the distributed second advertising video data. The history information of the distributed second advertising video data is history information of the second advertising video data stored in the storage device 60 by the above-mentioned storage process 53.

[0032] When the matching process 55 receives a distribution request for an advertising video from the user terminal 2, it determines whether or not the advertising video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertising video data. If it is determined that the advertising video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertising video data, the matching process 55 instructs the second advertising video data acquisition process 56 to execute processing. If it is determined that the advertising video is not included in the history information of the distributed second advertising video data, the matching process 55 instructs the execution of various processes according to embodiment 1 (advertising video data acquisition process 51, format conversion process 52, advertising video distribution process 54).

[0033] The second advertisement video data acquisition process 56 acquires the distributed second advertisement video data stored in the storage device 60 and corresponding to the advertisement video.

[0034] The advertising video distribution process 54 transmits the distributed second advertising video data to the user terminal 2 via the communication device 70. In this way, streaming distribution of the distributed second advertising video data to the user terminal 2 is realized. [Explanation of symbols]

[0035] 1...Advertising video distribution system, 2...User terminal, 3...Video playback device, 5...Main video distribution server, 6...Advertising server, 7...Advertising video server, 10...Advertising video distribution server, 50...Computer, 51...Advertising video data acquisition processing, 52...Format conversion processing, 53...Storage processing, 54...Advertising video distribution processing, 55...Collation processing, 56...Second advertising video data acquisition processing, 60...Storage device, 70...Communication device

Claims

1. An advertising video distribution server that streams advertising videos inserted on a user terminal side to the user terminal, A computer, An advertising video server that provides advertising video data of advertising videos for distribution, and a communication device configured to be able to communicate with the user terminal; A storage device; Equipped with The computer When a distribution request for an advertising video is received from the user terminal, first advertising video data of the advertising video is acquired from the advertising video server; generating second advertisement video data by converting the first advertisement video data into a predetermined streaming format; Transmitting the second advertising video data to the user terminal via the communication device; storing the second advertisement video data streamed to the user terminal in the storage device; When a distribution request for the advertising video is received from the user terminal, determining whether or not the advertising video is included in history information of the distributed second advertising video data based on history information of the distributed second advertising data stored in the storage device; If it is determined that the advertisement video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertisement video data, the distributed second advertisement video data corresponding to the advertisement video is transmitted to the user terminal via the communication device; The predetermined streaming format is a format for dynamically adjusting the bit rate and image quality of the first advertisement video data in response to changes in the communication environment with the user terminal. An advertising video distribution server characterized by:

2. An advertising video distribution method for streaming an advertising video inserted on a user terminal side to the user terminal, comprising: When a distribution request for an advertising video is received from the user terminal, first advertising video data of the advertising video is acquired from an advertising video server that provides advertising video data of the advertising video for distribution; generating second advertisement video data by converting the first advertisement video data into a predetermined streaming format; Transmitting the second advertisement video data to the user terminal via a communication device; storing the second advertisement video data streamed to the user terminal in a storage device; When receiving a distribution request for the advertising video from the user terminal, determining whether or not the advertising video is included in history information of the distributed second advertising video data based on history information of the distributed second advertising data stored in the storage device; When it is determined that the advertisement video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertisement video data, transmitting the distributed second advertisement video data corresponding to the advertisement video to the user terminal via the communication device; Including, The predetermined streaming format is a format for dynamically adjusting the bit rate and image quality of the first advertisement video data in response to changes in the communication environment with the user terminal. An advertising video distribution method.

3. An advertising video distribution program that causes a computer to perform streaming distribution of an advertising video inserted on a user terminal side to the user terminal, When a distribution request for an advertising video is received from the user terminal, first advertising video data of the advertising video is acquired from an advertising video server that provides advertising video data of the advertising video for distribution; generating second advertisement video data by converting the first advertisement video data into a predetermined streaming format; Transmitting the second advertisement video data to the user terminal via a communication device; storing the second advertisement video data streamed to the user terminal in a storage device; When receiving a distribution request for the advertising video from the user terminal, determining whether or not the advertising video is included in history information of the distributed second advertising video data based on history information of the distributed second advertising data stored in the storage device; If it is determined that the advertisement video is included in the history information of the distributed second advertisement video data, transmitting the distributed second advertisement video data corresponding to the advertisement video to the user terminal via the communication device; The predetermined streaming format is a format for dynamically adjusting the bit rate and image quality of the first advertisement video data in response to changes in the communication environment with the user terminal. An advertising video distribution program characterized by:

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