Television audience reporting system and method

• US 20060015891A1
• Filed: 07/13/2004
• Published: 01/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ahmad R. Shishegar, Jonathan D. Gershan, Michael J. Lazzaro
• Original Assignee: Ahmad R. Shishegar, Jonathan D. Gershan, Michael J. Lazzaro
• Inventors: Lazzaro, Michael J., Gershan, Jonathan D., Shishegar, Ahmad R.
• Application Number:
  US10/890,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20060015891A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/64 for providing detail information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Disclosed is a television audience reporting system, and related method. The television audience reporting system includes a plurality of audience monitoring devices, a database server, and an internet server. The plurality of audience monitoring devices are located at a respective plurality of viewing locations for providing real-time program viewing information based on television channel selection by viewers at the respective viewing locations. The database server gathers the real-time program viewing information from the plurality of audience monitoring devices and generates a program viewing summary from the real-time program viewing information. The internet server provides the program viewing summary in real-time to client computers.

Claims

1. A television audience reporting system, comprising:

a plurality of audience monitoring devices located at a respective plurality of viewing locations for providing real-time program viewing information based on television channel selection by viewers at the respective viewing locations;

a database server for gathering the real-time program viewing information from the plurality of audience monitoring devices and generating a program viewing summary from the real-time program viewing information; and

an internet server for providing, in real-time, the program viewing summary to client computers.

2. A television audience reporting system as defined in claim 1, wherein data base server is further for correlating the real-time program viewing information with viewer characteristics to generate real-time audience profile information, and the internet server is for further providing, in real-time, the real-time audience profile information only to client computers of profile information subscribers.

3. A television audience reporting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the internet server comprises a web server.

4. A television audience reporting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the internet server comprises a streaming media server.

5. A method for television audience reporting, comprising:

generating real-time program viewing information by monitoring television channel selections by viewers at a plurality of viewing locations;

gathering the real-time program viewing information from the plurality of viewing locations and generating a program viewing summary from the real-time program viewing information; and

providing, in real-time, the program viewing summary to client computers requesting the summary.

6. A method for television audience reporting as defined in claim 5, further comprising:

correlating the real-time program viewing information with viewer characteristics to generate real-time audience profile information; and

providing, in real-time, the real-time audience profile information only to client computers of profile information subscribers.