Time shifting of advertisements in digital content delivery services

1. A computer-implemented method of allowing a user to control playback of an advertisement, said method comprising:

inputting, at a processor, a playback option for time-shifting a playback of the advertisement from a first playback time, corresponding to a first time at which the advertisement is located at a first position in a content stream, to a second playback time, corresponding to a second time to which to shift the advertisement;

determining, at the processor, whether time-shifting of the advertisement is allowable, the determining comprising determining whether the user has an amount of credit equal to or greater than an amount of credit required to control playback of the advertisement, wherein the amount of credit required to control playback of the advertisement is based on an assigned value of the advertisement, the assigned value of the advertisement being based at least in part on at least one of information about the user, and a characteristic related to viewing of the advertisement by the user, the characteristic being separate from a duration of the advertisement; and

in response to determining that time-shifting of the advertisement is allowable, using at the processor a data structure to independently access the advertisement and segments of the program in the content stream to generate a modified program content stream comprising the program and the advertisement, wherein the advertisement is located in the modified program content stream at the second playback time.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising increasing the credit available to the user when the advertisement is played back to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

allowing the user to skip playing the advertisement during playback of the modified program content stream when it is determined that skipping of the advertisement is allowable; and

decreasing the credit available to the user due to skipping the advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying to the user visual controls for time-shifting the advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement is shifted such that it is at the beginning of the modified program content stream.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the data structure includes indices for each segment of the program and the advertisement, the indices dividing the content stream into one or more blocks of shiftable content and blocks of non-shiftable content.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the content stream includes metadata that indicates whether each block is shiftable.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising the step of determining by the processor whether each block is shiftable using an artificial intelligence algorithm.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the modified program content stream is generated by placing the blocks of non-shiftable content into the modified program content stream in an order in which the blocks of non-shiftable content appear in the content stream, and placing the block of shiftable content into the modified program content stream at a location relative to the one or non-shiftable blocks corresponding to the second playback time.

10. A content playback apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing a content stream;

a processor programmed to manage playback of advertisements by:

inputting a playback option for time-shifting a playback of the advertisements from original playback times, corresponding to a first times at which the advertisements are located in first positions in the content stream, to second playback times;

corresponding to second times to which to shift the advertisements to second positions in the content stream;

determining whether time-shifting of the advertisements is allowable, the determining comprising determining whether a user has an amount of credit equal to or greater than an amount of credit required to control playback of the advertisement, wherein the amount of credit required to control playback of the advertisement is based on an assigned value of the advertisement, the assigned value of the advertisement being based at least in part on at least one of information about the user and a characteristic related to viewing of the advertisement by the user, the characteristic being separate from a duration of the advertisement; and

in response to determining that time-shifting of the advertisements is allowable, using a data structure to independently access the advertisements and segments of a program included in the content stream to generate a modified program content stream comprising the program and the advertisements, wherein the advertisements are inserted into the modified program content stream at the second playback time.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further adapted to increase the credit available to the user when the advertisements are played back to the user.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further adapted to:

allow the user to skip playing the advertisements during playback of the modified program content stream when it is determined that skipping of the advertisements is allowable; and

decrease the credit available to the user due to skipping the advertisements.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is further adapted to display to the user visual controls for time-shifting the advertisements.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor generates the modified program content stream by:

receiving the program; and

independently access generating an index table for the program, wherein the index table includes indices to the advertisements.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the advertisements are shifted to the beginning of the modified program content stream.

16. A content playback apparatus comprising:

a processor programmed to manage playback of stored content comprising static content and a time-shiftable content by:

inputting a playback option for time-shifting a playback of the shiftable content from a first playback time corresponding to a first time at which the shiftable content is located at a first position in a content stream to a second playback time corresponding to a second time to which to shift the shiftable content that is different from the first playback time;

determining whether time-shifting of the shiftable content is allowable, the determining comprising determining whether a user has an amount of credit equal to or greater than an amount of credit required to control playback of the shiftable content, wherein the amount of credit required to control playback of the shiftable content is based on an assigned value of the shiftable content, the assigned value of the shiftable content being based at least in part on at least one of information about the user and a characteristic related to viewing of the advertisement by the user, the characteristic being separate from a duration of the shiftable content; and

in response to determining that time-shifting of the shiftable content is allowable, using a data structure to independently access the shiftable content and the static content to generate a modified program content stream comprising the shiftable content and the static content, with the shiftable content located in the modified program content stream at the second playback time.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further adapted to increase the credit points available to the user when the shiftable content is played back to the user.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further adapted to:

allow the user to skip playing the shiftable content during playback of the modified program content stream when it is determined that skipping of the shiftable content is allowable; and

decrease the credit points available to the user due to skipping the shiftable content.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further adapted to display to the user visual controls for time-shifting the shiftable content.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the shiftable content is shifted to the beginning of the modified program content stream.