What do you think about Sling Media sending ads to you over your Slingplayer? According to this Patent [link] they may have the ability to do just that.
Here is one example of what is possible:
Say you are watching a television broadcast; in this case a baseball game. The Slingbox determines that a particular baseball player is currently at the plate. Based on this information, the Slingbox selects an advertisement for a site that sells sports memorabilia. To do this, the Slingbox may select a URL for a web page on the website where the viewer can buy an autographed ball from the baseball player that is currently batting.
This supplemental content is then delivered to the user's personal computer with the television broadcast. As a result, while the user is watching their favorite player at bat during a baseball game on the personal computer, they also receive an advertisement for the relevant sports memorabilia as well as a link to a web page where the user can easily buy the advertised product.
Here are some of the ways, according to the patent, that they can send advertisements.
- The Slingbox may add video content (the advertisement) in the front of the video content of the media stream.
- They could ad it at the end of the video content of the media stream, or they could overlay the video content of the media stream with an adverttisement.
- The supplemental content (Advertisement) may be sent through a phone call, a fax, or the postal service to the user's home.
- Rather than sending the supplemental content (the Advertisement) to the destination system (you) , they may send information necessary for you to access the supplemental information, like the a particular web page.
- The system may send a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the supplemental content (Advertisement) to you, which you may then retrieve the supplemental content using the URL through a network.
- The system may display a television program (media stream) using a Slingplayer, and overlay an advertisement (supplemental content) as a scrollbar (or text ticker) on the television program using the Slingplayer.
- They could make it so it will launch a web browser to display the web page associated with the URL, while displaying the media stream using a media player.
- The system replaces a portion of the media stream with the supplemental content. For example, they may replace an advertisement for a company with a different advertisement for the company that is determined to be more relevant to the user (you).
The patent describes, in detail, how they can determine the Context Information or type of advertising to send you. It's an interesting read if you are somene that likes to get into the nitty gritty details.
No one is saying the Sling Media is going to use this technology or what kind of pre-arranged sign up program they might have. But, it appears they are gearing up their ability to do some or more of the things mentioned above.
In this Slinger's opinion, even though the idea and technology behind this is amazing, I'm not sure I'm keen on the idea of having ads interjected into my already commercial filled TV shows. Of course, I'd be interested to see what advertisements pop up when I'm monitoring my home video camera from my hotel room...
What do you think of this concept? Post your thoughts in the discussion below.
Brandon C. - Lead Moderator
SlingCommunity.com
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