The Internet is becoming a primary method for distributing multimedia content (e.g., video and audio or audio) and other information to end users. It is currently possible to download music, video, games, and other multimedia information to computers, cell phones, and virtually any network capable device. The percentage of people accessing the Internet for multimedia content is growing rapidly. The quality of the viewer experience is a key barrier to the growth of video viewing on-line. Even with current capacity and demand, performance can be uneven, with streams starting slowly, stopping unexpectedly, and audio tracks not always synchronizing well with video. Many of these issues can be traced to the unpredictable nature of the Internet and uncertain capacity at the consumer access level. Consumer expectations for online video are set by their television and movie viewing experiences. Appointment TV and “live” event broadcasts, whether distributed over the air, via cable, or through satellite, attract very large audiences.
Audience numbers for streaming video of a “live” event on the web are rapidly growing, and there is a growing interest and demand for viewing live events on the Internet, referred to as online live event viewing or web TV. Streaming of data files or “streaming media” refers to technology that delivers sequential multimedia content at a rate sufficient to present the multimedia to a user at the originally anticipated playback speed without significant interruption. Unlike downloaded data of a multimedia file, streamed data may be stored in memory until the data is played back and then subsequently deleted after a specified amount of time has passed. In this context, “live” means that the multimedia content is anchored to a particular point in time for playing the multimedia content. That is, particular pieces of multimedia content of the live event are played by a media player according to a schedule of the live event; for example, the beginning of the video is scheduled to be played by the media player at a particular point in time.
Streaming multimedia content of live events (e.g., Appointment TV, live broadcast events, etc.) over the Internet have some challenges, as compared to regular broadcasts over the air, satellite, or cable. One concern that arises in the context of distribution of multimedia content over the Internet, regardless of the method used for delivering, is how to update the schedule for playback of a live event in real time or near real time; for example, how to update content durations and start and end times for advertisements during the live event. Conventional broadcasting of live or scheduled events does not have this concern because the broadcaster is in complete control of timing of duration of the video, and the insertion and playback of advertisements in the broadcasted video. For example, if a 30-second advertisement, which has been selected and scheduled beforehand, is to be inserted into the output signal at the precise instant that it is called for, with very high reliability, and the advertisement starts and ends immediately at the scheduled time. In addition, all viewers see or hear the same advertisement at the same point in the multimedia content, such as that of a live event. The viewers are human beings who watch or listen to the multimedia content using a television or radio.
In one conventional approach for streaming live events, a publisher inserts advertisements into the live video stream of a live event, effectively controlling the video stream being encoded itself, before being delivered by a specialized media server. This approach does not allow for real-time or near real-time updates to the schedule of the live event because the advertisements are effectively part of the original multimedia content stream. Moreover, there is frequently a need to replace the original scheduled broadcast advertisements of the live event with Internet advertisements because of broadcast rights of the live event, and because of the lack of ability for the publisher to charge for advertisement delivery over the Internet. Using this approach, all viewers watching the live event see the same Internet advertisement at the same time, but the publisher cannot control how many viewers see the advertisements. In general, there is no good way to take advantage of knowing how many viewers see the advertisements. In particular, it is difficult or impossible to be paid a higher price if a higher-than-expected number of viewers sees the advertisements. In addition, using this approach, it is difficult or impossible to target advertising to particular demographics or geographic areas without setting up one or more specialized media servers for each demographic or geographic area and ensure that each viewer connects to the appropriate media server to watch the live event. These conventional approaches do not have the ability to provide real-time or near real-time updates to the schedule of a live event, for example, to perform advertisement insertion in real or near real time.