Systems and methods are described for delivering regional content for a lineup over a national network. A content provider may select a particular regional broadcast for inclusion in a regional service lineup. The content provider may be able to broadcast multiple, or even all, services nationally. At regional distribution centers, a multiplexer may select only those services that are desired for the region in response to in-stream signals. In some instances, a single region-specific version of a given service may be selected from multiple versions broadcasted nationally. The regional lineup, including the selected services, can then be multiplexed and transmitted to customers throughout the region.

A media packaging and distribution system that allocates each of a plurality of first instructions from an instruction queue to a corresponding first worker based on an instruction type and a priority level. Each of the plurality of first workers reads a first manifest data, which is non-ingested metadata, of at least one of a plurality of live input streams or a second manifest data of a plurality of pre-encoded media assets from locations of corresponding input manifests. Further, a second instruction from a plurality of second instructions is allocated to a second worker. The second worker inserts a next manifest segment to a disparate live output stream manifest upon reading a manifest metadata ingested into a manifest metadata storage system. Accordingly, the plurality of disparate live media output stream manifests is generated for a plurality of channels based on the disparate live output stream manifest.

A video distribution server according to one embodiment of the present invention promotes viewing of live video by a new viewer. The server provides a user with a live video distribution service for distributing and viewing live video via a user terminal communicably connected via a communication network. The server distributes live video provided by a specific distributor such that a viewer having a small value of a predetermined parameter corresponding to the specific distributor is prioritized, and thus a new viewer is prioritized over a regular viewer of the live video provided by the specific distributor. As a result, viewing of the live video by the new viewer is promoted.

Methods and apparatus for monitoring locally inserted media are disclosed. A disclosed apparatus includes instructions to detect, at a media device at an end user location, a frequency of a watermark that was spliced into a primary media stream received at the media device after the primary media stream was received at the end user location, associate identifying tags with segments of the primary media stream that were spliced, in response to the detection of the watermark, determine an advertisement associated with the segments of the primary media based on the identifying tags, present the primary media at a first time and the advertisement at second times, record a log including first identifying information including an identity of the content of the primary media and second identifying information including a change in the frequency of the watermark corresponding to the advertisement; and transmit the log to a data collection facility.

A method includes providing a variant playlist file that identifies a plurality of variant streams each corresponding to a different encoding of a same media presentation; tracking a first set of media segments encoded at a first bitrate that correspond to a first playlist file for a first variant stream associated with the variant playlist file; responsive to a second encoded bitrate associated with a second set of media segments that correspond to a second variant stream being higher than the first encoded bitrate: determining a number of media segments to include in a plurality of media segments from the second set of media segments that correspond to the first set of media segments; and providing, to the client device, a second playlist file that identifies a plurality of media segments from the second set of media segments that correspond to respective ones of the first set of media segments.

Methods and apparatus for selectively enforcing required insertion or viewing of secondary content, such as advertisements or promotions, in a content distribution network. In one embodiment, the network is a managed network (e.g., cable television, satellite, or the like), and the method includes identifying secondary content with a particular attribute or property (e.g., an advertisement that a user has watched before), and selectively enabling one or more “trick mode” functions relating to that secondary content. In one implementation, audio codes or watermarks are inserted into the secondary content and detected when the content is accessed or rendered; if the detected content matches a database or listing of previously played content for that user or premises, the trick mode functionality (e.g., FF or “skip”) is enabled, thereby allowing the user to bypass the content.

This patent disclosure provides various embodiments of a client-server based digital video playback system and technique. In one aspect, a process for playing internet/online videos on a user device is disclosed. This process can begin by sending a video playback request for playing an online video to the server, wherein the video playback request includes a device type and a browser type of the user device. Next, the process receives a set of video playback addresses and a set of video playback configuration files from the server, wherein the set of video playback addresses and the set of video playback configuration files are generated based on the device type and the browser type. The process subsequently selects a video playback address from the set of video playback addresses corresponding to a transcoded version of the online video that matches a device version and a browser version of the user device. The process next obtains the transcoded version of the online video from the selected video playback address, and plays the obtained video on the user device.

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to use station identification to enable confirmation of exposure to live media. Example apparatus disclosed herein include a watermark data segmenter to determine a media identifier conveyed by a watermark, a detection time determiner to determine a time at which a media meter detected the watermark from a media presentation by a media device, a reference identifier to query a library of reference signatures for a reference signature associated with the media identifier of the watermark and associated with a reference timestamp corresponding to the time at which the media meter detected the watermark, and a viewing type determiner to determine whether the media presentation is live or time-shifted based on whether a result of the query indicates the reference signature does not exist in the library of reference signatures.

A method, a device, an electronic device and a readable storage medium detect a fault of a live stream service. The method specifically includes: obtaining log data of a live stream service; performing statistics on the log data according to a plurality of dimensions to be detected, to obtain log statistics data in each of the plurality of dimensions; analyzing the log statistics data in each of the plurality of dimensions respectively to obtain an analysis result; determining whether a live link portion corresponding to the log statistics data in each of the plurality of dimensions has a fault, according to the analysis result.

Systems and methods for skipping a presentation of a portion of segments to catch up to live based on a priority level value is disclosed. For example, a streaming application generates a content item for live streaming where the content item comprises a plurality of segments. In response to determining that playing of the content item lags behind the live streaming of the content item, the streaming application identifies a duration of lag and determines a priority threshold based on the lag. Based on a manifest which includes priority level information, the streaming application determines whether a respective segment needs to be cached. For example, if a priority level for a segment that is within the duration of the lag has a priority level that is higher the priority threshold, then the segment is stored in a cache from a respective network address and is played from the cache.