Satellite On-Demand Advertising Recording (SODAR) Service Overview

The Satellite On-Demand Advertising Recording (SODAR) Service provides local advertising for national TV Broadcasters that use satellite TV services. The satellite receivers record local advertising content specific to geographical advertising markets before scheduled advertising time periods. The receivers replay the ads at scheduled times when the destination channel is tuned in by the viewer. The service allows national satellite broadcasters to provide localized advertising specific to the geographical advertising markets offered by the satellite service. The service comprises of five components: 1) satellite service provider, 2) National TV Broadcasters, 3) advertisers, 4) satellite geographical advertising markets and 5) satellite service customers within geographical advertising markets.
The service allows satellite service customers to; 1) search the local ads recorded by the SODAR receiver and 2) set the SODAR receiver ads to a desired advertising market. The ability to set the SODAR receivers to a non local market allows customers to; 1) prepare for vacation shopping in markets before visiting and 2) be informed of advertising deals outside of their geographical shopping areas.

NEEDS

The Satellite On-Demand Advertising Recording (SODAR) Service fulfills the need for satellite TV service providers to provide addressable advertising to its satellite TV broadcasters. Addressable advertising is being pioneered in the cable TV and Internet TV media and SODAR provides a competitive offering of like services to satellite TV broadcasters.

SATELLITE ON-DEMAND ADVERTISING RECORDING (SODAR) service.

The proposed SODAR entails a centralized advertising service that schedules all nationwide satellite advertising. Advertising is dynamically allocated through set fees for fixed time periods, and an open auction market for unassigned advertising spots. These unasigned openings exist up to at a set minimal period before a commitment to broadcast is possible. This set minimal period is the time the service needs to configure all open spots with non-revenue generating filler ads. The minimal period varies with the processing time the service’s scheduling system can complete the allocation of ads.

One benefit of the SODAR service scheduling system is the near real time allocation of ads. The system permits the management of a queue of pending ads at different offered rates of payments. Ads that offer higher rates of pay are dynamically scheduled to higher viewer periods in targeted markets. The service always provide an advertising revenue stream as long as there are ads in the queue for a particular market time period.

Advances in addressable receiver technology will ultimately allow defining the target market size to a single individual. At this point, the goal of advertising gatekeepers is to optimize the spending power of the client through minimization of redundant spending. This advertising philosophy follows the premise that a well informed consumer optimizes her/his buying decision with [perfect] knowledge of the marketplace, which allows maximum use of spending dollars. The lack of redundant purchases allows more room for using discretionary income for savings. The current US paradigm shift from spending less to saving more during the recession, may continue into the indefinite future. This philosophy of [perfect] consumer knowledge mimics the current attitude of US consumers. Consumer advertising gatekeepers who function as [perfect] product knowledge providers will be in step with the shift in consumer spending.

REFERENCES

1. SCTE To Develop Three Addressable Advertising Standards, Reference 1

2. The Advanced TV Advertising Market 2008 (Strategic Focus) Reference 2

3. Comcast Spotlight Corporate: Addressable Advertising Reference 3

4. Coming Soon To A TV Near You: Addressable Advertising Reference 4

5. Addressable Advertising: Broadcast TV moves on to Internet Reference 5

6. Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Estimates Reference 6

7. Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 (CBSA-EST2007-01) Reference 7

The automated scheduling system provides the main value added service to SODAR. This system optimizes selection of submitted ads to maximize revenues relative to optimum targeted market. The operation of the scheduling system will require mapping the current state of ads in the system (at mass market / individual level), matching available time slots for ads in queue, selection of maximum revenue generating ad from matched ads and placement of selected ads into broadcasting time slots.

Above functions are complemented by a call center staff. Some duties of the staff include providing customer service to advertisers, placement of ads into desired advertising market segment queue, account executives and billing advertisers for ads placed on air time. Account executives provide a cradle to grave optimization of spending for targeted clients through their ad ratings and product and service offerings. This is an implementation of achieving “perfect knowledge” in purchasing decision by clients.

The design of the SODAR automated scheduling system is scalar. Experienced learnt from optimizing advertising to large marketing segment leads to faster scheduling algorithms. Faster algorithms allow the allotment time for ads to available time slots to decrease. Faster allotment periods allow further targeting of ads to smaller marketing segments, which may converge to a single customer. At each step of these changes, marketing will need to further change their advertising format to conform to the new market size.