Method and system for localized replacement of base content in video feed, with replacement-media delivered in broadcast-TV transport stream

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing system at a local video-program-distributor (VPD), a first transport stream broadcast from a television (TV) station, the received first transport stream including standard media content indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers and supplemental media content not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers;

extracting, by the computing system, from the received first transport stream, at least one portion of the supplemental media content;

receiving, by the computing system, from a source other than the TV station, a second transport stream for delivery by the local VPD to customer premises equipment (CPE) receivers served by the local VPD, the received second transport stream including one or more instances of base content;

injecting, by the computing system, the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into the second transport stream in place of at least one of the one or more instances of base content to establish a modified version of the second transport stream having the extracted portion of the supplemental media content injected in place of the at least instance of base content; and

outputting the modified version of the second transport stream for transmission by the local VPD to the CPE receivers served by the local VPD.

2. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the TV station is a terrestrial over-the-air broadcast TV station configured to terrestrially broadcast the first transport stream over the air for receipt by broadcast-TV receivers that are configured to receive terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcasts, and

wherein the local VPD is equipped with a given such broadcast-TV receiver configured to receive terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcasts, and wherein the local VPD receiving the first transport stream broadcast from the TV station comprises, at the local VPD, the given broadcast-TV receiver receiving the first transport stream terrestrially broadcast over the air from the TV station.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the local VPD is further equipped with a controller, and wherein at least the extracting and injecting are done by the controller.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second transport stream is broadcast substantially simultaneously to multiple VPDs, each of which serves CPE receivers in a different respective geographic market, wherein the local VPD is one such VPD and serves CPE receivers in a particular geographic market, and

wherein the at least one instance of base content is generally for multiple geographic markets, but wherein the extracted portion of the supplemental media content injected in place of the at least one instance of base content comprises local content specific to the particular geographic market.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one instance of base content comprises at least one commercial, and wherein the local content specific to the particular geographic market comprises content selected from the group consisting of (i) a commercial that advertises a product or service and (ii) a commercial that promotes video program content.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the local VPD is a cable-TV head-end, wherein the CPE receivers served by the local VPD are cable TV subscriber devices in the particular geographic market.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second transport stream is broadcast by satellite from a video-program source.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein extracting from the first transport stream the at least one portion of the supplemental media content comprises extracting from the first transport stream multiple portions of the supplemental media content, the method further comprising:

storing, by the computing system, the extracted multiple portions of the supplemental media content; and

selecting, by the computing system, from the stored multiple portions of the supplemental media content, a particular one of the portions of the supplemental media content to be injected into the second transport stream in place of the at least one commercial,

wherein the injected portion of the supplemental media content is the selected portion.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the multiple portions are associated with multiple respective content providers, and wherein the selecting the portion to be injected is based on bidding among the multiple content providers to determine which content provider's portion of the supplemental media content will be injected.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received second transport stream indicates with an audio tone a point in the second transport stream where the injecting should be done,

wherein injecting the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into the second transport stream in place of at least one instance of base content comprises (i) detecting the point based at least in part on the audio tone, and (ii) injecting the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into the second transport stream at the detected point.

11. A method comprising:

broadcasting from a television (TV) station a first transport stream carrying standard media content indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers and carrying supplemental media content not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers;

broadcasting from a video-program source a second transport stream carrying one or more TV shows and one or more commercials;

receiving at a local video-program-distributor (VPD) the broadcast first transport stream and the broadcast second transport stream; and

at the local VPD, (i) extracting at least a portion of the supplemental media content from the received first transport stream, (ii) injecting the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into the received second transport stream in place of at least one of the one or more commercials, and (iii) outputting, for transmission by the local VPD to customer premises equipment (CPE) receivers served by the local VPD a modified version of the second transport stream having the injected supplemental media content in place of the at least one commercial.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the TV station and video-program source are commonly owned or operated.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising operating at the local VPD a computing system configured to perform the receiving, extracting, injecting, and outputting.

14. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein broadcasting the first transport stream from the TV station comprises broadcasting the first transport stream terrestrially over the air from the TV station, and

wherein broadcasting the second transport stream from the video-program source comprises broadcasting the second transport stream via satellite from the video-program source.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the local VPD is a cable-TV head-end.

16. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein broadcasting the second transport stream comprises broadcasting the second transport stream for receipt by multiple VPDs, each of which serves CPE receivers in a different respective geographic market, wherein the local VPD is one such VPD and serves CPE receivers in a particular geographic market, and

wherein the at least one commercial is generally for multiple geographic markets, but wherein the extracted portion of the supplemental media content injected in place of the at least one commercial comprises local content specific to the particular geographic market.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the local content specific to the particular geographic market comprises content selected from the group consisting of (i) a commercial that advertises a product or service and (ii) a promotion for video program content.

18. A computing system comprising:

at least one communication interface;

at least one processing unit;

at least one data storage; and

program instructions stored in the at least one data storage and executable by the at least one processing unit to carry out operations comprising:

receiving via the at least one communication interface a first transport stream that is broadcast terrestrially over the air from a TV station, the first transport stream carrying (i) standard media content indexed for processing by standard terrestrial-broadcast-TV receivers and (ii) supplemental media content not indexed for processing by standard terrestrial-broadcast-TV receivers,

receiving via the at least one communication interface a second transport stream that is broadcast by satellite from a video-program source, the second transport stream carrying one or more TV shows and one or more commercials,

extracting from the received first transport stream at least a portion of the supplemental media content,

inserting the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into the received second transport stream in place of at least one of the one or more commercials, thereby establishing a modified transport stream carrying at least a portion of the TV shows and carrying the extracted portion of supplemental media content in place of the at least one commercial, and

outputting via the at least one communication interface the modified transport stream for delivery to customer premises equipment (CPE) receivers.

19. The computing system of claim 18 ,

wherein the at least one commercial is generally for multiple geographic markets, but wherein the extracted portion of the supplemental media content injected in place of the at least one commercial comprises local content specific to a particular geographic market encompassing the CPE receivers, and

wherein the local content comprises content selected from the group consisting of (i) a commercial that advertises a product or service and (ii) a promotion for video program content.

20. The computing system of claim 18 , disposed at a cable-TV head-end that serves the CPE receivers in the particular geographic market.