METHODS AND APPARATUS TO MEASURE EXPOSURE TO STREAMING MEDIA

• US 20130291001A1
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Besehanic, Jan, Bosworth, Alan, Ramaswamy, Arun
• Application Number:
  US13/793,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20130291001A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• 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 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• 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 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media are disclosed herein. An example method includes extracting metering data from media obtained from a media provider. Metadata identifying the media based on the extracted metering data is generated. The media is transcoded into a transport stream, the transport stream having a streaming format. The metadata is embedded in a timed text track accompanying the transport stream.

Claims

1. A method of measuring exposure to streaming media, the method comprising:

extracting a watermark from media obtained from a media provider;

generating metadata identifying the media based on the extracted watermark;

transcoding the media into a transport stream, the transport stream having a streaming format; and

embedding the metadata in a timed text track accompanying the transport stream.

2. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising transmitting the transport stream and the timed text track to a requesting device.

3. The method as described in claim 2, wherein the media is obtained from the media provider in response to a request from the requesting device.

4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the media obtained from the media provider is live media.

5. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the media obtained from the media provider is stored media.

6. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the streaming format is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) format.

7. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the watermark is an audio watermark.

8. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the watermark is a video watermark.

9. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the metadata is formatted as an ID3 tag.

10. An apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media, the apparatus comprising:

a media identifier to generate media-identifying metadata based on a watermark extracted from the media;

a transcoder to transcode the media into a transport stream; and

a metadata embedder to embed the metadata in a timed text track associated with the transport stream.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 10, further comprising a media transmitter to transmit the transport stream and the timed text track.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 10, wherein the transport stream is formatted in a streaming format.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 12, wherein the streaming format is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Live Streaming (HLS) format.

14. The apparatus as described in claim 10, wherein the metadata is formatted as an ID3 tag.

15. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

extract a watermark from media obtained from a media provider;

generate metadata identifying the media based on the extracted watermark;

transcode the media into a transport stream, the transport stream having a streaming format; and

embed the metadata in a timed text track accompanying the transport stream.

16. The machine-readable medium as described in claim 15, further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the machine to transmit the transport stream and the timed text track to a requesting device.

17. The machine-readable medium as described in claim 16, wherein the media is obtained from the media provider in response to a request from the requesting device.

18. The machine-readable medium as described in claim 15, wherein the media obtained from the media provider is live media.

19. The machine-readable medium as described in claim 15, wherein the watermark is an audio watermark.

20. The machine-readable medium as described in claim 15, wherein the metadata is formatted as an ID3 tag.