Content/service handling and delivery

1 . A method comprising:

maintaining by a first entity an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

binding at least some of the advertising opportunities with advertising on behalf of a second entity that is separate from the first entity.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity is a content delivery entity.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first entity is a member of a group consisting of a cable television operator and a local broadcaster.

4 . The method of claim 1 in which the second entity is content generation or content delivery entity.

5 . The method of claim 1 in which the second entity is a member of a group consisting of a network, a local broadcaster, a provider to a library of stored content, a network affiliate, a movie producer, a movie distributor, and a program content developer.

6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising the first entity receiving advertisements from a third entity, and binding the at least some of the advertising opportunities includes binding at least some of the advertisements received from the third entity on behalf of the second entity.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the third entity is separate from the second entity.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein the third entity is an agent of a fourth entity.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the third entity is an advertising agent.

10 . The method of claim 8 wherein the fourth entity is an advertiser.

11 . The method of claim 7 wherein the third entity is an advertiser.

12 . The method of claim 6 further comprising establishing a commercial relationship between the first entity and the second entity related to the binding of advertising opportunities to advertising.

13 . The method of clam 12 further comprising establishing a commercial relationship between the second entity and the third entity related to the binding of advertising opportunities to advertising.

14 . A method comprising:

receiving advertising, including receiving advertising copy and receiving structured data associated with the advertising copy; and

binding advertising opportunities to the received advertising according to the received structured data.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the structured data includes tagged data.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the tagged data includes data tagged according to an extensible markup language.

17 . The method of claim 14 wherein the received data identifies multiple variants of at least some of the advertising copy, and binding the advertising opportunities to the advertising includes selecting among the multiple variants according to the received data.

18 . A method comprising:

maintaining an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers.

19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving advertising, receiving at least some advertisements that each include multiple different advertisement copy for presentation to different sets of the one or more viewers.

20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising receiving the advertising in conjunction with content.

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein receiving the advertising in conjunction with the content include receiving multiplexes of multiple different advertisement copy within the received content.

22 . The method of claim 18 wherein binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers is performed at a common distribution location for each of the sets of viewers.

23 . The method of claim 22 wherein the common location includes a location of a cable system head end.

24 . The method of claim 18 wherein binding different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers is performed at different locations each associated with a different one of the sets of one or more viewers.

25 . The method of claim 24 wherein the binding is performed at one or more of the viewers' set-top boxes.

26 . A method comprising:

receiving content that includes advertising opportunities in content;

receiving advertising associated with the advertising opportunities independently of the content; and

binding the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

27 . The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received via switched digital video streams.)

28 . The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received via a data network.

29 . The method of claim 26 wherein the advertising is received and stored before binding the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

30 . The method of claim 29 wherein the advertising is stored at the viewer's set top box.

31 . A method comprising:

maintaining an inventory of advertising opportunities in content; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, binding new advertisement copy to replace old advertising copy associated with the at least some of the advertising opportunities.

32 . The method of claim 31 wherein the content is time-shifted content.

33 . The method of claim 31 wherein the old advertising copy was previously presented to one or more viewers.

34 . Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain by a first entity an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

bind at least some of the advertising opportunities with advertising on behalf of a second entity that is separate from the first entity.

35 . Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

receive advertising, including receiving advertising copy and receiving structured data associated with the advertising copy; and

bind advertising opportunities to the received advertising according to the received structured data.

36 . Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain an inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, bind different advertisement copy for presentation to each of a corresponding plurality of separate sets of one or more viewers.

37 . Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

receive content that includes advertising opportunities in content;

receive advertising associated with the advertising opportunities independently of the content; and

bind the advertising to the inventory of advertising opportunities in content and services.

38 . Software stored on a computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing a computer system to:

maintain an inventory of advertising opportunities in content; and

for each of at least some of the advertising opportunities, bind new advertisement copy to replace old advertising copy associated with the at least some of the advertising opportunities.