System and method for the near-real time capture and reporting of large population consumer behaviors concerning television use

• US 6,289,514 B1
• Filed: 03/29/1999
• Issued: 09/11/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: QCOM TV Partners (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Qcom Tv, Inc.
• Inventors: Brown, Thomas A., Link, John F., Graves, George A., Endler, George III, Heimark, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, John W.
• Application Number:
  US09/280,035
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 725/9, 725/14, 725/20, 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/36
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A system and method for identifying television programming, identifying and capturing consumer behavior as regards such programming and providing a nearly-real time reporting of that information to interested parties, while also providing verification of actual delivery of advertising and/or program content.

Claims

1. A system for near-real time capturing and reporting of viewers'"'"' cable television use for televisions coupled to a cable television network including at least one head end, said system comprising:

a first subsystem for generating encoded media assets for transmission through the cable network, said preparation subsystem including means for assigning a range of codes to be associated with the media assets and with entities that own the media assets to form assigned asset data;

a second subsystem, coupled to said first subsystem, comprising;

at least one set top box coupled to an associated television for receiving said encoded media assets and for obtaining data of television events as they occur, said at least one set top box generating a message corresponding to each one of said data of television events as they occur;

at least one set top box event dispatching means for receiving each of said messages and for routing said messages to collection means within said second subsystem;

means for generating statistics from said television event data coupled to said at least one set top box event dispatching means;

means for extracting the code from the encoded media assets and creating asset tag timestamps therefrom; and

a third subsystem, coupled to said first subsystem and to said second subsystem, said third subsystem comprising means for merging said asset tag timestamps with;

said statistics generated in said second subsystem;

information related to published broadcast schedules and to head-end channel line-ups; and

said assigned asset data;

to generate, in near-real time, viewership consolidated data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said second subsystem further comprises:

(a) a cluster code database;

(b) a cable customer database;

(c) a set top box identification database; and

(d) cluster code server means for merging data from said cluster code database, said cable customer database and said set top box identification database to generate set top box-to-cluster code data.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said collection means in said second subsystem comprises a settop box event aggregator for collecting counting data regarding how many set top boxes experienced at least one event for creating set top box aggregate data.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said collection means in said second subsystem further comprises a set top box audience tracking sampler for recording television event data for a statistically significant sample of households in the at least one head end and for creating audience sample data.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said collection means further comprises a set top box service request router which routes a service request message from said at least one set top box to an external service.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein said set top box aggregator aggregates received set top box messages by time, channel, cluster code and head end.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for extracting the code in said second subsystem comprises a cable head end transmission monitor that records the occurrence and time of any assigned asset codes which are broadcast over the cable television network and that creates said asset tag timestamps.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said merging means further comprises means for matching head end identification data and virtual channel number data with published broadcast data for updating said viewership consolidated data.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said matching means also matches head end identification data and virtual channel number data with said asset tag timestamp data to update said viewership consolidated data.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said third subsystem further comprises reporter means for providing said viewership consolidated data as on-line information.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said third subsystem further comprises reporter means for providing said viewership consolidated data as printed documentation.

12. A method for near real time capturing and reporting of viewers'"'"' cable television use for televisions coupled to a cable television network including at least one head end, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating encoded media assets for transmission through the cable network,

(b) assigning a range of codes to be associated with said media assets and with entities that own the media assets to form assigned asset data;

(c) coupling at least one set top box to an associated television for receiving said encoded media assets and for obtaining data about television events as they occur;

(d) generating a message, by said at least one set top box, corresponding to each one of said data of said television events as they occur and transmitting them into the cable television network;

(e) routing each of said messages to collection means;

(f) generating statistics from said television event data;

(g) extracting the code from the encoded media assets and creating asset tag timestamps therefrom;

(h) merging said asset tag timestamps with;

said statistics;

information related to published broadcast schedules and to head-end channel line-ups; and

said assigned asset data;

to generate, in near-real time, viewership consolidated data.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said step of generating statistics from said television events data includes utilizing a cluster code database, a cable customer database, a set top box identification database and a cluster code server for merging data from said cluster code database, cable customer database and said set top box identification database to form set top box-to-cluster code data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said step of generating statistics from said television events data comprises collecting counting data regarding how many set top boxes experience at least one event and creating set top box aggregate data.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of generating statistics from said television event data includes recording television event data for a statistically significant sample of households in the at least one head end and generating audience sample data.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of routing a service request message from the at least one set top box to an external service.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said step of extracting the code from the encoded media assets comprises recording the occurrence and time of any assigned asset codes which are broadcast over the cable television network and creating said asset tag timestamps.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of generating statistics from said television event data further comprises aggregating said counting data by time, channel, cluster code and head end.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein said step of merging said asset tag timestamps further comprises matching head end identification data and virtual channel number data with published broadcast data for updating said viewership consolidated data.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said step of merging said asset tag timestamps further comprises matching head end identification data and virtual channel number data with said asset tag timestamp data to update said viewership consolidated data.

21. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of reporting said viewership consolidated data on-line.

22. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of reporting said viewership consolidated data as printed documentation.