Systems and methods to determine when to rejoin a live media broadcast after an interruption are presented herein. Weighting information including individual weights conveying importance of attribute values for a set of broadcast attributes of the live media broadcast may be obtained. One or more of the weighting information, the attribute values, and/or other information may facilitate making a determination of a rejoin point in time in the live media broadcast for rejoining the live media broadcast upon a completion of an interruption.

A method that provides a delay of social media feeds during time-shifted viewing of multi-media presentations including the steps of receiving a media presentation, time-shifting the media presentation for a period of time, receiving a social media message regarding the media presentation, and delaying presentation of the social media message for the period of time.

Methods of operating a communications system comprise, in one example, inserting advertising in a program stream by a receiving device based, at least in part, on an encrypted segmentation message embedded in the program steam. The at least one segmentation message defines an expanse of the program stream to receive the advertising. At least one embedded decoy message is included in the program stream, as well. In one example the receiving device, which may be a set-top terminal, for example, is coupled to a display device, such as a television, at a user location. A method of operating a receiving device coupled to a display device at a user location is also disclosed, comprising programming the receiving device to record a program and recording the program based, at least in part, on at least one segmentation message in a program stream. Systems are disclosed, as well.

A data stream, such as a video stream, may comprise one or more event trigger messages indicating an upcoming event in the stream. The time (e.g., pre-roll time) between the event trigger message and its corresponding event may be modified, based on rules, to provide a network operator, service provider or downstream recipient more (or less) time to prepare for the event. This may be accomplished by moving the event trigger to an earlier (or later) location in the stream, and/or editing the event trigger to indicate the different pre-roll time.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for processing a traffic log having an optional-promotion log entry. An example method involves (i) accessing a stored television-broadcasting traffic log, wherein the traffic log includes multiple ordered log entries including at least a first log-entry and a second log-entry; (ii) making a first determination that the first log-entry corresponds to a show-segment video-component (VC) of a live news program; (iii) making a second determination that the second log-entry corresponds to an initial show-segment VC of a show, wherein the show is scheduled to follow the live news program; (iv) identifying, among log entries scheduled between the first log-entry and the second log-entry, a set of optional-promotion log entries, each such optional-promotional log entry having a duration; (v) determining a cumulative duration of the optional-promotion log entries in the identified set; and (vi) providing the determined cumulative-duration to an output device for presentation.

The disclosure discloses a live broadcast delaying method and apparatus, the method including: receiving live streaming media transmitted on the spot; segmenting the live streaming media into segmented files at a preset length of time; if a live broadcast delay instruction is received, then obtaining a delay period of time indicated by the live broadcast delay instruction; calculating a play start point of time from the current system time and the delay period of time; searching for one of the segmented files corresponding to the play start point of time, and downloading the segmented file searched to a cloud encoder; encoding the segmented file downloaded in the cloud encoder into delayed live streaming media; and transmitting the delayed live streaming media to a streaming media server, so that the live broadcast can be delayed without any additional costly delay device to thereby lower a cost of delaying the live broadcast.

Systems and methods are described herein for synchronizing media asset playback on multiple devices. A media guidance application may transmit a media asset for simultaneous display to a first device and a second device. During playback of the media asset, the media guidance application may receive indications of the amount of the media asset consumed by the first and second device. In response to determining that one device has fallen behind in playback, the media guidance application may pause playback on other devices. In response to determining that the devices have become synchronized in playback, the media guidance application may resume playback on all devices.

The present disclosure is directed to a single card solid-state play out server for retrieving or receiving content from a network or cloud based storage, and playing content according to an automated playlist received from a media distribution and management system.

A data stream, such as a video stream, may comprise one or more event trigger messages indicating an upcoming event in the stream. The time (e.g., pre-roll time) between the event trigger message and its corresponding event may be modified, based on rules, to provide a network operator, service provider or downstream recipient more (or less) time to prepare for the event. This may be accomplished by moving the event trigger to an earlier (or later) location in the stream, and/or editing the event trigger to indicate the different pre-roll time.

Systems and methods that may facilitate synchronizing the presentation of a program on multiple devices are disclosed. Synchronization information related to a program may be exchanged via a two-way communications channel. Amounts by which each device may delay its presentation of a program may be calculated and/or exchanged.