A system and method for identifying a break in a broadcast including receiving a broadcast of an event, the broadcast comprising one of audio and video, receiving event data about the event, determining, during the event, a break threshold based on the event data and a type of the event and identifying a break based on the broadcast of the event and the break threshold.
BACKGROUND(1) Providers of broadcasts of live events, such as sporting events, insert commercial messages at breaks in the events in order to generate revenue from their broadcasts. Typically, this is accomplished manually. A producer of a live event (e.g., in a remote production facility at the site of a sporting event) communicates directly with a system operator (e.g., a broadcaster's headquarters); the producer informs the operator that a break is forthcoming, and at the appropriate time (e.g., at the end of a countdown provided by the producer), the system operator manually triggers the insertion of a commercial. This approach does not scale well where the same provider broadcasts a large number of events, due to the need for personnel to staff each event. Therefore, providers may wish to be able to detect the onset of a break automatically, without human intervention, in order to be able to broadcast larger numbers of events without the need for equally larger numbers of personnel.(2) Some digital video recorder (“DVR”) devices include logic operative to detect the onset of a commercial break. The goal of a DVR device in including this ability is to enable a user of the device to automatically skip commercials once they have been detected. A DVR having this ability may monitor a video broadcast to detect when a commercial has been inserted by a broadcaster (e.g., by detecting a number of consecutive black frames or an absence of a network logo, also known as a “bug”), a
1. A method, comprising: receiving at least one of a video feed and an audio feed that is to be included in a broadcast of an event; receiving event data about the event; receiving event format data corresponding to a type of the event, wherein the event format data includes a break likelihood value for each of a plurality of situations that correspond to the type of the event; determining a break threshold based on the event data and the event format data; and identifying an onset of a break based on comparing at least one of the video feed, the audio feed or the event data to the break threshold for use in inserting a commercial into the broadcast of the event prior to the broadcast being provided to a viewer.
11. A system, comprising: an audiovisual feed receiving an audio feed of an event and a video feed of the event that is to be included in a broadcast of the event; a data feed receiving event data about the event; a memory storing event format data corresponding to a type of the event, wherein the event format data includes a break likelihood value for each of a plurality of situations that correspond to the type of the event; and a processor configured to perform operations comprising: determining a break threshold based on the event data and the event format data, and identifying an onset of a break based on comparing at least one of the video feed, the audio feed or the event data to the break threshold for use in inserting a commercial into the broadcast of the event prior to the broadcast being provided to a viewer.
21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions executable by a processor, the set of instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving a video feed and an audio feed that is to be included in a broadcast of an event; receiving event data about the event; receiving event format data corresponding to a type of the event, wherein the event format data includes a break likelihood value for each of a plurality of situations that correspond to the type of the event; determining a break threshold based on the event data and the event format data; and identifying an onset of a break based on comparing at least one of the video feed, the audio feed or the event data to the break threshold for use in inserting a commercial into the broadcast of the event prior to the broadcast being provided to a viewer.
23. A method, comprising: receiving a video feed and an audio feed that is to be included in a broadcast of an event; receiving event data about the event; receiving event format data corresponding to a type of the event, wherein the event format data includes a break likelihood value for each of a plurality of situations that correspond to the type of the event; determining a break likelihood value, wherein a first portion of the break likelihood value is based on at least one of the video feed or the audio feed and a second portion of the break likelihood value is based on a comparison between the event data and the event format data; comparing the break likelihood value to a predetermined break threshold; and identifying an onset of a break based on the comparing the break likelihood value to the predetermined threshold for use in inserting a commercial into the broadcast of the event prior to the broadcast being provided to a viewer.