Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide secondary content in association with primary broadcast media content

• US 10,555,048 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2018
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Harkness, David Henry, Ramaswamy, Arun, Samson, Jerome, Besehanic, Jan, Srinivasan, Venugopal, Topchy, Alexander Pavlovich
• Primary Examiner(s): Elbin, Jesse A
• Application Number:
  US16/004,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20180295413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 606 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/31 using in-band signals, e.g. subsonic or cue signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/86 Arrangements characterised by the broadcast information itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/40 characterised in that additional data relating to the broadcast data are available via a different channel than the broadcast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/14 Arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/68 Systems specially adapted for using specific information, e.g. geographical or meteorological information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4398 involving reformatting operations of audio signals details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide media content are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein include means for identifying primary media content presented on a first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus also include means for accessing a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content. The secondary content schedule includes a plurality of secondary content items and time values associated with the secondary content items. The secondary content items are also associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus further include means for selecting one of the secondary content items to be accessed in response to a timestamp associated with the primary media content being between time values associated with the selected one of the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule.

Claims

1. An apparatus for presenting secondary content, the apparatus comprising:

a decoder to identify primary media content presented on a first media presentation device;

a fetcher implemented by hardware or at least one processor, the fetcher to access a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content, the secondary content schedule including a plurality of secondary content items and first time values associated with the secondary content items, the secondary content items associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device;

a clock to provide second time values based on a timestamp associated with the primary media content; and

a selector to compare the first time values associated with the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule to the second time values provided by the clock to select one of the secondary content items to be accessed.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to identify the primary media content, the decoder is to determine the timestamp and at least one of a station identifier or a program identifier associated with the primary media content.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first time values associated with the secondary content items include respective start times and end times for the secondary content items.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the loyalty value for the user is based on a plurality of primary media content presentations previously presented to the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the loyalty value is based on at least one of a duration spent consuming a first type of primary media content, a duration spent consuming primary media content from a first network, a diversity of shows watched on the first network, how often the user activates secondary content offers, a number of times a first show has been watched, a number of times the first network has been watched, a likelihood of the user consuming the first type of primary media content, or a likelihood of the user consuming a particular primary media content.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further including an audio input interface to receive an audio signal output by the first media presentation device, the decoder to identify the primary media content based on the audio signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further including at least one of a Bluetooth interface, a cellular interface, or a wireless interface to access the one of the secondary content items.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus and the first media presentation device are at a same monitoring site.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

identify primary media content presented on a first media presentation device;

access a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content, the secondary content schedule including a plurality of secondary content items and first time values associated with the secondary content items, the secondary content items associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device; and

compare the first time values associated with the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule to second time values provided by a clock to select one of the secondary content items to be accessed, the second time values based on a timestamp associated with the primary media content.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein to identify the primary media content, the computer readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to determine the timestamp and at least one of a station identifier or a program identifier associated with the primary media content.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first time values associated with the secondary content items include respective start times and end times for the secondary content items.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the loyalty value for the user is based on a plurality of primary media content presentations previously presented to the user.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the loyalty value is based on at least one of a duration spent consuming a first type of primary media content, a duration spent consuming primary media content from a first network, a diversity of shows watched on the first network, how often the user activates secondary content offers, a number of times a first show has been watched, a number of times the first network has been watched, a likelihood of the user consuming the first type of primary media content, or a likelihood of the user consuming a particular primary media content.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first media presentation device and the second media presentation device are at a same monitoring site.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to access the one of the secondary content items via at least one of a Bluetooth interface of the second media presentation device, a cellular interface of the second media presentation device, or a wireless interface of the second media presentation device.

16. An apparatus for presenting secondary content, the apparatus comprising:

means for identifying primary media content presented on a first media presentation device;

means for accessing a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content, the secondary content schedule including a plurality of secondary content items and first time values associated with the secondary content items, the secondary content items associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device;

means for providing second time values based on a timestamp associated with the primary media content; and

means for selecting one of the secondary content items to be accessed, the means for selecting to compare the first time values associated with the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule to the second time values to select one of the secondary content items to be accessed.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the means for identifying is to identify the primary media content by determining the timestamp and at least one of a station identifier or a program identifier associated with the primary media content.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first time values associated with the secondary content items include respective start times and end times for the secondary content items.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the loyalty value for the user is based on a plurality of primary media content presentations previously presented to the user.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, further including means for receiving audio signals associated with the primary media content.