Generating Audience Response Metrics and Ratings From Social Interest In Time-Based Media

• US 20120215903A1
• Filed: 02/18/2011
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bluefin Labs, Inc. (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Bluefin Lab, Inc. (X Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Fleischman, Michael Ben, Roy, Deb Kumar, Rishel, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,454 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts

Abstract

Social media content items are mapped to relevant time-based media events. These mappings are used as the basis for calculating metrics based upon the mappings, and ratings of the time-based media there from. Audience response metrics (ARMs) are calculated from the mappings, which provide an indication of audience engagement or response. In addition, ARMs provide information about the virality, depth, and breadth of the response by the viewing audience. The calculated metrics are stored and are used to generate ratings for the time-based media. The ratings may be published in whole or in part, e.g., as part of a ratings system.

Claims

1. A method for rating time-based broadcast media based on audience response via social media, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:

for each of a plurality of time-based media events, each corresponding to a chronological segment of time-based broadcast media, storing a mapping between the time-based media event and social media content items associated with the time-based media event;

selecting a time-based media event from the plurality of time-based media events for determining an audience response metric for the selected time-based media event;

calculating the audience response metric for the selected time-based media event using social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event; and

rating the selected time-based media event using the calculated audience response metrics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event is based on a number of the social media content items associated with the time-based media event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event is an audience response count, comprising social media content items associated with the time-based media event;

an audience response rate, comprising the audience response count normalized by a length of the time-based media event;

or an audience response acceleration, comprising a change in the audience response rate over time.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a length for each of the plurality of time-based media events; and

wherein the one or more audience response metrics comprises an audience response rate based upon a ratio of (i) a number of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event to (ii) a length of the selected time-based media event.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a first time and a second time from within the selected time-based media event;

determining a number of the social media content items associated with the first and second times selected from within the selected time-based media event;

determining a duration between the first and second times within the selected time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics comprises calculating an audience response trend based upon a ratio of (i) the difference between the number of the social media content items associated with the first time and the second time to (ii) the duration between the first time and the second time selected from the selected time-based media event.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a comparison time-based media event from the plurality of time-based media events of a same type as the selected time-based media event;

determining a number of the social media content items associated with the comparison time-based media event;

determining a duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics comprises calculating an audience response acceleration based upon a ratio of (i) the difference between the number of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event and the number of the social media content items associated with the comparison time-based media event to (ii) the duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the duration is a time duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the duration is a number of airings of time-based media events of the same type as the selected time-based media event in between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a broadcast time period corresponding to each of the plurality of time-based media events; and

calculating one or more audience response share metrics base upon a ratio of (i) the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event during the broadcast time period to (ii) a sum of the audience response metrics for the time-based media events of the plurality during the broadcast time period.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event is based on a number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the time-based media event.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event is a unique author response count, comprising the number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the time-based media event;

a unique author response rate, comprising the unique author response count normalized by a length of the time-based media event;

or a unique author response acceleration, comprising a change in the unique author response rate over time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each of the plurality of time-based media events, the mapping further comprises mapping information about authors of the social media content items associated with the time-based media event.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing a length for each of the plurality of time-based media events; and

wherein the one or more audience response metrics comprises a unique author response rate based upon a ratio of (i) a number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event to (ii) a length of the selected time-based media event.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

selecting a first time and a second time from within the selected time-based media event;

determining the number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the first and second times selected from within the selected time-based media event;

determining a duration between the first and second times within the selected time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics comprises calculating a unique author response trend based upon a ratio of (i) the difference between the number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the first time and the second time to (ii) the duration between the first time and the second time selected from the selected time-based media event.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

selecting a comparison time-based media event from the plurality of time-based media events of a same type as the selected time-based media event;

determining a number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the comparison time-based media event;

determining a duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics comprises calculating a unique author response acceleration based upon a ratio of (i) the difference between the number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event and the number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the comparison time-based media event to (ii) the duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the duration is a time duration between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the duration is a number of airings of time-based media events of the same type as the selected time-based media event in between the selected time-based media event and the comparison time-based media event.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a broadcast time period corresponding to each of the plurality of time-based media events; and

calculating one or more unique author response share metrics based upon a ratio of (i) the one or more unique author response metrics for the selected time-based media event during the broadcast time period to (ii) a sum of the unique author response metrics for the time-based media events of the plurality during the broadcast time period.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

calculating an aggregated unique author response share metric based upon a ratio of (i) the one or more unique author response metrics for the selected time-based media event to (ii) a sum of the unique author response metrics for the plurality of time-based media events.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics are filtered by event type by limiting the audience response metrics to those of the time-based media events of the plurality during the broadcast time period corresponding to the event type.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics are filtered by one or more demographic groups by limiting the audience response metrics to those of the social media content items associated with the time-based media events provided by an author belonging to the one or more demographic groups.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics are filtered by author influence by limiting the audience response metrics to those of the social media content items associated with the time-based media events provided by an author with an author influence score exceeding a given threshold.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics are filtered by one or more response content categories by limiting the audience response metrics to those of the social media content items associated with the time-based media events corresponding to the one or more categories of response content categories.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics are filtered by manner of observation of the time-based media events.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of time-based media events are anticipated time-based media events, each corresponding to a chronological segment of scheduled time-based broadcast media not yet broadcast, each mapping being between the anticipated time-based media event and a number of social media content items associated with the anticipated time-based media event;

wherein the one or more audience response metrics are anticipatory audience response metrics.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of time-based media events are delayed time-based media events, each corresponding to a chronological segment of time-based broadcast longer than a threshold duration before the plurality of time-based media events, each mapping being between the delayed time-based media event and a number of social media content items associated with the historical time-based media event;

wherein the one or more audience response metrics are lingering audience response metrics.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more audience response metrics comprise at least two audience response metrics;

and

calculating the one or more audience response metrics further comprises calculating a multiple factor response metric;

calculating a first of the at least two audience response metrics;

calculating a second of the at least two audience response metrics; and

calculating a multiple factor response metric from the calculated first and second of the at least two audience response metrics; and

wherein the rating is based on the calculated multiple factor response metric.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of time-based media events, determining a consumption-based metric corresponding to estimated audience size for the time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics further comprises determining a ratio of (i) the audience response metric for the selected time-based media event to (ii) the consumption-based metric for the selected time-based media event.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

wherein the calculating further comprises determining a response percentage metric for the selected time-based media event based on a ratio of (i) a number of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event to (ii) the consumption-based metric for the selected time-based media event.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

wherein the calculating further comprises determining a response percentage metric for the selected time-based media event based on a ratio of (i) a number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event to (ii) the consumption-based metric for the selected time-based media event.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of time-based media events, determining a cost associated with advertising during the time-based media event; and

wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics further comprises determining a monetary value metric for the selected time-based media event based on dividing an audience response count consisting of a number of unique authors of the social media content items associated with the selected time-based media event by the cost for the selected time-based media event.

32. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the rating for the selected time-based media event.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing ratings for a subset of the plurality of time-based media events.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the one or more audience response metrics for the selected time-based media event is based on a number of users connected to unique authors of the social media content items associated with the time-based media event.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the number of users connected to unique authors are unique users.