System and method of determining viewership information

• US 20090025025A1
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vleck, Paul Van, Devlin, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,925,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing

Abstract

Systems and methods of determining viewership information are provided. A method of determining viewership information includes determining viewership information from multicast routing table data associated with one or more edge routers of a media content delivery service. Each edge router of the one or more edge routers is adapted to transmit media content streams to multiple devices via a first network. The method also includes sending data related to the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

Claims

1. A method of determining viewership information, the method comprising:

determining viewership information from multicast routing table data associated with one or more edge routers of a media content delivery service, each edge router of the one or more edge routers adapted to transmit media content streams to multiple devices via a first network; and

sending data related to the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending requests for the multicast routing table data to the one or more edge routers; and

receiving the multicast routing table data from the one or more edge routers in response to the requests.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining viewership information comprises analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data further comprises:

determining viewership data associated with a plurality of channels, each channel of the plurality of channels related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to a particular set-top box device of the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregating the viewership data for each channel of the plurality of channels.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for the viewership information from the requesting device via the second network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the data comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including the data related to the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device and wherein sending the data comprises sending a graphical user interface including statistics related to the determined viewership information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises a private network and wherein the second network comprises a public network.

10. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

a interface to communicate with one or more edge routers via a private network, the one or more edge routers adapted to communicate media content to customer premises equipment (CPE) devices, each edge router of the one or more edge routers including a multicast routing table comprising data relating multicast media content to particular CPE devices; and

a data analyzer coupled to the interface and adapted to retrieve multicast routing table data from the one or more edge routers via the interface, the data analyzer to process the multicast routing table data to determine viewership information and to generate a graphical user interface including data related to the viewership information.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a second interface responsive to a second network, wherein the data analyzer is adapted to send the graphical user interface to a requesting device via the second interface.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a list of television programs and associated data related to viewership of each of the television programs.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the associated data comprises statistical data determined from the multicast routing table data.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the multicast routing table data comprises a device identifier, date information, time information, and media content information.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the private access network comprises an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) access network.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the data analyzer calculates viewership data associated with the CPE devices and aggregates the viewership data to produce aggregated data.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising determining statistical information related to the aggregated data, wherein the graphical user interface includes the statistical information.

18. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

processing logic and memory accessible to the processing logic, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processing logic to;

determine viewership information from multicast routing table data associated with one or more edge routers of a media content delivery service, each edge router of the one or more edge routers adapted to transmit media content streams to multiple devices via a first network; and

send data related to viewership information to a requesting device via a second network, the data indicating viewership of media content streams.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising instructions executable by the processing logic to:

receive the multicast routing table data; and

analyze the multicast routing table data to determine aggregate viewership of a particular program.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the instructions executable by the processing logic to determine viewership information comprise instructions to analyze the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices of a media content delivery system.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the instructions to analyze the multicast routing table data further comprise instructions executable by the processing logic to:

determine viewership data associated with a plurality of channels, wherein each channel of the plurality of channels is related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to a particular set-top box device of the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregate the viewership data for each channel of the plurality of channels.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the instructions to send the data comprise instructions executable by the processing logic to:

generate a graphical user interface including the data related to the viewership information; and

send the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device associated with a subscriber to a media content delivery system.

24. A method of determining viewership information, the method comprising:

receiving multicast routing table data from one or more edge routers associated with a content delivery service, the one or more edge routers to route media content streams from the content delivery service to customer premises equipment devices;

analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine viewership information associated with each media content stream; and

sending data related to the viewership information to a requesting device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data comprises mapping the multicast routing table data to specific media content streams from the content delivery service.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein sending the viewership information comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including data related to the viewership information, wherein the data comprises statistics determined from the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device via a public network.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the requesting device comprises one of a network monitoring system, a customer premises equipment device, and a computing device.