Importance

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Abstract

A broadcast network, which may have multiple affiliated television stations each broadcasting in different geographic areas, is provided with one or more easy-to-use telephone numbers. The broadcast network, in turn, assigns one or more the these numbers to its affiliated television stations, each of which allows advertisers to prominently display one of its broadcast network's telephone numbers in direct-response television advertisements broadcast by the affiliated stations in their respective geographic areas. Different advertisements broadcast on different television stations affiliated with that broadcast network may then display that same number, regardless of the geographic area in which the broadcast is received, and the time at which the advertisement is displayed. When a particular advertisement sponsored by a particular advertiser is displayed on a TV program, viewer/listeners can dial the broadcast network's telephone number in response to the advertising, in order to initiate a transaction. The call is routed based upon its 'context', to a specific terminating telephone number for a transaction processor serving the advertiser associated with the advertisement. 'Context' based processing is accomplished by using a call-routing database to uniquely associate each incoming call placed to the broadcast network telephone number with an advertiser's specific terminating telephone number, illustratively based upon the time period that the call is made, and the viewer/listener location where the call was originated, both of which together determine the particular advertisement to which the caller was responding. Ambiguities arising from (a) overlap of the geographic areas in which affiliated stations broadcast or (b) short time intervals between broadcast of different ads, are resolved by querying a caller using a voice response system.

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First Claim