USING VIEWERSHIP PROFILES FOR TARGETED PROMOTION DEPLOYMENT

• US 20080255952A1
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navic Systems, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Yen, Felix, Fagnani, Mark, Cameron, Kirk
• Application Number:
  US12/115,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20080255952A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system for generating viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles to one or more network devices, such as set top boxes. The system includes a promotion agent associated with each network device which collects viewing activity data of the network device. For example, the viewing activity data may include a channel the network device was tuned to, a time when the network device was tuned to the channel, and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel. The collected viewing activity data is then transmitted, for example, every twenty-four hours, to a life-cycle manager server, which also periodically receives a program schedule. The program schedule typically specifies the channel on which a particular program was displayed, as well as the time the program was shown. The life-cycle manager server correlates the viewing activity data with the program schedule to generate the viewership profile of the network device. The life cycle manager server determines the viewing behavior for four, eight, and twelve week periods, for example, or for a time period specified by a user.

Claims

1. A system for distributing promotions to network devices, comprising:

a promotion agent, embedded in each of the network devices, for collecting data corresponding to viewership activity at each of the network devices;

a life-cycle manager server, for receiving the viewership activity data from the promotion agents and correlating the viewership activity data with a program schedule, to determine viewer behaviors associated with the network devices;

the life-cycle manager server also for matching the determined viewer behaviors to group profiles, to determine at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;

the life-cycle manager server also for generating viewership profiles for the network devices based on the viewer behaviors and the at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;

a promotion manager, for matching the viewership profiles with promotion group membership criteria, to determine a promotion group that includes network devices that are to receive a promotion intended for viewers matching the viewership profile; and

the promotion manager also distributing the at least one promotion to the network devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data of the network device includes a program channel on the network device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data includes a time at which the network device was tuned to the channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity includes a time at which the network device was tuned away from the channel.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data is collected if the difference between a time the network device was tuned to the channel and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel is greater than a configurable time period.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data is collected by the promotion agent over a twenty-four hour period before the viewership activity data is received by the life-cycle manager.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data includes a program viewed by a viewer.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time the program was viewed by the viewer.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the program belongs to a genre.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time which the genre is viewed.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the percentage of time is precise to within about one percent.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the program belongs to multiple genres.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile data is matched with a promotion group profile.

14. The system of claim 14, wherein the promotion group profile is based on viewer attributes.

15. The system of claim 15, wherein the viewer attributes include a geographic location.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the viewer attributes include demographic characteristics.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the viewer attributes include a genre of programs.

18. A method for distributing promotions to at least one network device, comprising the steps of:

collecting viewership activity data of work devices;

correlating the viewership activity data with a program schedule to determine viewer behaviors associated with the network devices;

matching the determined viewer behaviors to group profiles to determine at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;

generating viewership profiles for the corresponding network devices based on the correlation and the matching steps, the generated viewership profiles including the viewer behaviors associated with the corresponding network devices and the classes of viewer associated with the network devices;

using the viewership profiles to determine a type of individual presently interacting with one of the network devices, the determined type of individual used to match one of the viewership profiles with a promotion group membership criteria, to determine a promotion group that includes network devices that are to receive a promotion intended for viewers matching the viewership profile; and

distributing one or more promotions to the promotion group so determined.