MONITORING STREAMING MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20130007298A1
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Arun, Besehanic, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 9,210,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• 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 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to monitor streaming media content are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to monitor streaming media content comprises extracting metering data having a first format from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the extracted metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, the extracted metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device, transcoding the extracted metering data to form transcoded metering data having a second format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device, and encoding the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel to send the transcoded metering data to the content presentation device, the metadata channel being associated with the transport stream.

Claims

1. A method to monitor streaming media content, the method comprising:

extracting, using a processor, metering data having a first format from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the extracted metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, the extracted metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device;

transcoding the extracted metering data, using the processor, to form transcoded metering data having a second format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device; and

encoding the transcoded metering data, using the processor, into a metadata channel to send the transcoded metering data to the content presentation device, the metadata channel being associated with the transport stream.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an internal metadata channel comprising a data field of the transport stream.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein transcoding the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format comprises transcoding the extracted metering data to form ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, and encoding the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel comprises inserting the ID3 tag metadata into data fields of the transport stream.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an external metadata channel comprising a file to be sent to the content presentation device, the file being associated with the transport stream.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein the file corresponds to an M3U file, transcoding the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format comprises transcoding the extracted metering data to form text data corresponding to the metering data, and encoding the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel comprises inserting the text data into the M3U file implementing the external metadata channel.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein extracting the metering data having the first format from the media content comprises extracting watermark data from the media content, and transcoding the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format comprises transcoding the extracted watermark data to form at least one of (1) ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, or (2) text data for inclusion in an M3U file.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising sending secondary content to the content presentation device, the secondary content being selected based on the transcoded metering data monitored at the content presentation device.

8. A tangible storage medium storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

extract metering data having a first format from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the extracted metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, the extracted metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device;

transcode the extracted metering data to form transcoded metering data having a second format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device; and

encode the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel to send the transcoded metering data to the content presentation device, the metadata channel being associated with the transport stream.

9. A storage medium as defined in claim 8 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an internal metadata channel comprising a data field of the transport stream.

10. A storage medium as defined in claim 9 wherein to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to transcode the extracted metering data to form ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, and to encode the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to insert the ID3 tag metadata into data fields of the transport stream.

11. A storage medium as defined in claim 8 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an external metadata channel comprising a file to be sent to the content presentation device, the file being associated with the transport stream.

12. A storage medium as defined in claim 11 wherein the file corresponds to an M3U file, to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to transcode the extracted metering data to form text data corresponding to the metering data, and to encode the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to insert the text data into the M3U file implementing the external metadata channel.

13. A storage medium as defined in claim 8 wherein to extract the metering data having the first format from the media content, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to extract watermark data from the media content, and to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to transcode the extracted watermark data to form at least one of (1) ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, or (2) text data for inclusion in an M3U file.

14. A storage medium as defined in claim 8 wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to send secondary content to the content presentation device, the secondary content being selected based on the transcoded metering data monitored at the content presentation device.

15. A meter to monitor media content, the meter comprising:

an extractor to extract metering data having a first format from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the extracted metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, the extracted metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device;

a transcoder to transcode the extracted metering data to form transcoded metering data having a second format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device; and

an encoder to encode the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel to send the transcoded metering data to the content presentation device, the metadata channel being associated with the transport stream.

16. A meter as defined in claim 15 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an internal metadata channel comprising a data field of the transport stream.

17. A meter as defined in claim 16 wherein the transcoder is to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format by transcoding the extracted metering data to form ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, and the encoder is to encode the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel by inserting the ID3 tag metadata into data fields of the transport stream.

18. A meter as defined in claim 15 wherein the metadata channel corresponds to an external metadata channel comprising a file to be sent to the content presentation device, the file being associated with the transport stream.

19. A meter as defined in claim 18 wherein the file corresponds to an M3U file, the transcoder is to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format by transcoding the extracted metering data to form text data corresponding to the metering data, and the encoder is to encode the transcoded metering data into the metadata channel by inserting the text data into the M3U file implementing the external metadata channel.

20. A meter as defined in claim 15 wherein the extractor is to extract the metering data having the first format from the media content by extracting watermark data from the media content, and the transcoder is to transcode the extracted metering data to form the transcoded metering data having the second format by transcoding the extracted watermark data to form at least one of (1) ID3 tag metadata corresponding to the metering data, or (2) text data for inclusion in an M3U file.