Coded/non-coded program audience measurement system

• US 6,647,548 B1
• Filed: 09/06/1996
• Issued: 11/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Inventors: Harkness, David H., Lu, Daozheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Application Number:
  US08/709,180
• Time in Patent Office: 2,622 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.900, H04/N.716, H04/N.710, 725/20, 725/19, 725/17, 725/14, 725/13, 725/12, 725/9, 725/10, 725/44, 725/45, 725/46, 725/1, 725/2, 725/4
• US Class Current: 725/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/44 for identifying broadcast stations

Abstract

An audience measurement system identifies a program which is broadcast from a signal source and to which a receiver is tuned. The audience measurement system includes a code reader for reading an ancillary code of the program to which the receiver is tuned, a channel status detector for determining channel status relating to channels to which the receiver is tuned, a memory for storing ancillary codes read by the code reading means and for storing channel status determined by the channel status determining means if ancillary codes are not readable by the code reading means, and a communicator for communicating the ancillary code and/or the channel status to a central office computer.

Claims

1. An audience measurement system for collecting program identifying data associated with a program which is transmitted from a signal source and to which a receiver is tuned, the audience measurement system comprising:

a first data collector, wherein the first data collector ranged to collect first program identifying data, wherein the first data collector is a code reader arranged to read an ancillary code of the program to which the receiver is tuned, and wherein the first program identifying data includes the ancillary code;

a second data collector, wherein the second data collector is arranged to collect second program identifying data, and wherein the second program identifying data is manually entered by a user of the receiver; and

,

wherein the second data collector is arranged to collect the second program identifying data if the code reader cannot read the ancillary code in the program received by the receiver.

2. The audience measurement system of claim 1 wherein the second data collector comprises a sensor responsive to a remote control operated by the user of the receiver.

3. The audience measurement system of claim 1 further comprising a people identifier, wherein the people identifier is arranged to identify individual people in a monitored audience.

4. The audience measurement system of claim 3 arranged to time stamp and store the second program identifying data and information relating to any identified people in the monitored audience.

5. The audience measurement system of claim 3 arranged to time stamp and store the ancillary code and information relating to any identified people in the monitored audience.

6. The audience measurement system of claim 3 arranged to time stamp and store the ancillary code and information relating to any identified people if the ancillary code is readable and to time stamp and store the second program identifying data and information relating to any identified people in the monitored audience if the ancillary code is not readable.

7. An audience measurement system for collecting program identifying data associated with a program which is transmitted from a signal source and to which a receiver is tuned, the audience measurement system comprising:

a first data collector, wherein the first data collector is arranged to collect first program identifying data, wherein the first data collector is a code reader arranged to read an ancillary code of the program to which the receiver is tuned, and wherein the first program identifying data includes the ancillary code;

a second data collector, wherein the second data collector is arranged to collect second program identifying data, and wherein the second program identifying data is manually entered by a user of the receiver; and

,

wherein the audience measurement system is arranged to time stamp and store the ancillary code if the ancillary code is readable and to time stamp and store the second program identifying data if the ancillary code is not readable.

8. An audience measurement system comprising:

a first data collector, wherein the first data collector is arranged to collect first program identifying data, wherein the first data collector is a code reader arranged to read an ancillary code of the program to which the receiver is tuned, and wherein the first program identifying data includes the ancillary code;

a second data collector, wherein the second data collector is arranged to collect second program identifying data, and wherein the second program identifying data is manually entered by a user of the receiver

a memory, wherein the memory stores the ancillary code read by the code reader if the ancillary code is readable by the code reader and stores the second program identifying data collected by the second data collected only if the ancillary code is not readable by the code reader.

9. The audience measurement system of claim 8 further comprising a people identifier, wherein the people identifier is arranged to identify individual people in a monitored audience.

10. The audience measurement system of claim 9 wherein the people identifier is arranged to passively identify individual people in a monitored audience.

11. The audience measurement system of claim 9 wherein the people identifier comprises keys.

12. The audience measurement system of claim 9 wherein the memory is arranged to store time stamped second program identifying data and time stamped information relating to any identified people in the monitored audience.

13. The audience measurement system of claim 9 wherein the memory is arranged to store time stamped ancillary codes and time stamped information relating to any identified people in the monitored audience.

14. The audience measurement system of claim 8 wherein the second data collector comprises a sensor responsive to a remote control manually operated by the user of the receiver.

15. The audience measurement system of claim 8 wherein the second data collector comprises a prompter, and wherein the prompter is arranged to prompt the user to manually enter the second program identifying data.

16. The audience measurement system of claim 15 wherein the prompter is arranged to provide prompts in the form of on-screen prompts.

17. The audience measurement system of claim 15 wherein the prompter comprises a transducer for providing prompts to a user.

18. The audience measurement system of claim 17 wherein the transducer provides a visual display.

19. The audience measurement system of claim 17 wherein the transducer provides an audio signal.

20. The audience measurement system of claim 17 wherein the transducer provides a synthesized voice message from a speaker.

21. The audience measurement system of claim 8 wherein the memory is arranged to store time stamped second program identifying data.

22. The audience measurement system of claim 8 wherein the memory is arranged to store time stamped ancillary codes.

23. The audience measurement system of claim 8 wherein the second data collector comprises manually operable keys.

24. A method of collecting program identifying data related to programs received by a receiver located within a building, the method comprising the steps of:

a) detecting signals corresponding to the programs;

b) if a detected signal includes an ancillary code, reading the ancillary code from the signal, wherein the ancillary code is related to a program corresponding to the detected signal;

c) if the detected signal does not include an ancillary code, collecting manually entered program identifying data related to the program corresponding to the detected signal, wherein steps a), b), and c) are performed within the building;

d) forwarding the ancillary codes and the manually entered program identifying data to a remote building;

e) if the detected signal includes an ancillary code, comparing, in the remote building, the ancillary code with a first library to thereby identify the program; and

f) if the detected signal does not include an ancillary code, comparing, in the remote building, the manually entered program identifying data with a second library to thereby identify the program.

25. A method of collecting program identifying data related to programs received by a receiver located within a building, the method comprising the steps of:

a) detecting a signal corresponding to the programs;

b) reading ancillary codes from the signal, wherein the ancillary codes are related to at least some of the programs;

c) collecting manually entered program identifying data related to at least some programs to which the ancillary codes are not related, wherein steps a), b), and c) are performed within the building; and

wherein, for one of the programs, step c) is performed only if an ancillary code cannot be read from the one program in step b).

26. A method of collecting program identifying data related to programs received by a receiver located within a building, the method comprising the steps of:

a) detecting a signal corresponding to the programs;

b) reading ancillary codes from the signal, wherein the ancillary codes are related to at least some of the programs;

c) collecting manually entered program identifying data related to at least some programs to which the ancillary codes are not related, wherein steps a), b), and c) are performed within the building;

d) identifying the at least some programs to which the ancillary codes are related from the ancillary codes;

e) identifying the at least some programs to which the ancillary codes are related from the manually entered program identifying data; and

,

wherein, for one of the programs, step e) is performed only if the one of the programs cannot be identified from corresponding ancillary codes.

27. A method of collecting program identifying data related to programs received by a receiver located within a building, the method comprising the steps of:

a) detecting a signal corresponding to the programs;

b) reading ancillary codes from the signal, wherein the ancillary codes are related to at least some of the programs;

c) collecting manually entered program identifying data related to at least some programs to which the ancillary codes are not related, wherein steps a), b), and c) are performed within the building; and

,

wherein step c) further comprises the step of prompting a user to manually enter the manually entered program identifying data only if the ancillary codes cannot be read in the programs received by the receiver.

28. A method of measuring audiences in a plurality of statistically selected households, the method comprising the steps of:

a) in each of the statistically selected households, detecting a signal corresponding to a program to which a receiver is tuned;

b) in each of the statistically selected households, reading an ancillary code from the signal when the ancillary code is present in the program; and

,

c) in each of the statistically selected households, collecting manually entered program identifying data related to the program, wherein step c) is performed only in the event that the ancillary code cannot be read from the signal.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of associating an identity of an audience member with the ancillary code or the manually entered program identifying data.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the identity of the audience member includes the age and gender of the audience member.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein step c) comprises the step of collecting the manually entered program identifying data by use of a remote control and a sensor responsive to the remote control.

32. The method of claim 28 wherein step c) comprises the step of prompting a user to manually enter the manually entered program identifying data.

33. The method of claim 28 wherein steps a), b), and c) are performed by a portable metering apparatus.

34. A method of identifying a program to which a receiver is tuned, the method comprising the steps of:

a) detecting a signal corresponding to the program;

b) reading an ancillary code when the ancillary code is readable in the signal;

c) collecting manually entered program identifying data relating to the program;

d) identifying the program from the ancillary code if the ancillary code is readable; and

,

e) identifying the program from the manually entered program identifying data only if the ancillary code is not readable.

35. The method of claim 34 comprising the further step of associating an identity of an audience member with the ancillary code or the manually entered program identifying data.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein step c) comprises the step of detecting the manually entered program identifying data by use of a remote control and a sensor responsive to the remote control.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein step c) comprises the step of prompting a user to manually enter the manually entered program identifying data.