Recorded Media Ad Insertion to Steer Episode Viewing Order
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Users often watch television episodes out of order, leading to potential spoilers and older episodes being deleted due to retention policies, despite conventional systems sorting episodes chronologically to encourage watching oldest recordings first.
Innovation Solution
A media guidance application inserts advertisements into newer episodes of a television program series, enticing users to watch older episodes by determining the age of each episode and strategically placing ads within the most recent recordings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If episodes are sorted chronologically to encourage watching oldest recordings first, then users may watch episodes in order, but users still choose to watch the most recent recordings first and may not ever get to watch the older recordings before they get deleted
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of sorting episodes chronologically from oldest to newest, the system inverts the approach by inserting advertisements into the most recent episodes. This inversion changes user behavior by making recent episodes less attractive to watch, thereby encouraging users to watch older episodes before deletion, thus preserving content retention while maintaining chronological sorting
2Ease of operation
If advertisements are inserted into newer episodes, then users are enticed to watch older episodes first, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by automatically inserting advertisements into recent episodes at the time of recording, before users have a chance to watch them. This advance preparation eliminates the need for complex real-time decision-making about which episodes to modify, as the advertisement insertion is predetermined based on recording date, thereby reducing operational complexity while achieving the desired viewing behavior change
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for managing recorded media assets through advertisement insertion. A media guidance application may record and store media assets for later viewing by a user. To help ensure that the user views older recordings first, the media guidance application may insert advertisements into media assets which are part of a program series where there are older recorded media assets of the same program series that have not yet been watched by the user. The media guidance application may determine that multiple media assets are part of the same program series, and which of the media assets was recorded latest. The media guidance application may then select a play position within the later-recorded media asset and insert an advertisement at the selected play position.