Television distribution system for signal substitution

• US 6,941,573 B1
• Filed: 03/21/1997
• Issued: 09/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Information Resources Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Information Resources Incorporated
• Inventors: Richardson, Bruce C., Thomas, Scott J., Cowan, Thomas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SRIVASTAVA, VIVEK
• Application Number:
  US08/821,890
• Time in Patent Office: 3,091 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N00.9/00, H04/N00.7/16, H04/N00.7/025, H04/N00.7/10, 348/200.47, 348/9, 348/1, 348/2, 348/3, 348 6- 8, 348/11, 348/12, 455/2, 455/3.1, 455/3.2, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.1, 455/6.2, 395/200.49, 725/9, 725/11, 725/12, 725/16, 725/32, 725/35, 725/118, 725/148, 705/14
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/78 CATV [Community Antenna Television] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/63 for services of sales data processing systems or methods specially adapted for electronic commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence

Abstract

A cable television distribution system in which the head end substitutes different channels for a plurality of separated geographic zones. The head end creates a plurality of channel spectrums and transmits the spectrums on distribution trunks such that a different spectrum may be present on each distribution trunk. The spectrums on the distribution trunks are connected to zones of the viewer community which have been selected for market research purposes on the basis of demographics. Product sales collection units are provided at stores throughout the community served by the cable television distribution to collect consumer purchase data for market research purposes.

Claims

1. A consumer response analysis system comprising:

a targetable television system including a head end, a signal distribution arrangement and a plurality of television receivers for viewing by consumers, said head end including circuitry for transmitting normal television program signals and substitute television program signals on a plurality of distribution trunks connected by the signal distribution arrangement to said plurality of television receivers, each television receiver being connected to the plurality of distribution trunks preselected so that the receivers connected to at least one of the distribution trunks demographically represents the community for market research purposes, the head end including signal distribution circuitry for receiving the normal television program signals and the substitute television program signal and for combining the received channel signals into spectrums of channels on the plurality of distribution trunks, the spectrum of channels on less than all of the plurality of distribution trunks including the substitute television program signal;

a plurality of product sales collection units each for collecting information representing purchases by the consumers at one of a plurality of stores and for generating product identifying signals identifying the products purchased and the sales collection unit collecting the information, each sales collection unit predominately collecting purchase information by consumers viewing receivers connected to the Same distribution trunk, whereby the system is closed between the targetable television system and the product sales collection units by the acts of the consumers viewing the programs presented on the respective television receivers and shopping in a store including a sales collection unit; and

a market research computer system including data for identifying the particular sales collection units associated with each of the distribution trunks and responding to said transaction response signals to provide an indication of consumer behavior in response to said normal and substitute programs.

2. A consumer response analysis system in accordance with claim 1 comprising controller apparatus for controlling signal substitution on the distribution trunks and for identifying such substitution to the market research computer system.

3. A consumer response analysis system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the consumers are distributed throughout a viewer community and the distribution means comprise means for splitting the signals on each distribution trunk into a plurality of substantially identical copies and for conveying the signal copies by fiberoptic means to geographically grouped consumers.

4. A consumer response analysis system in accordance with claim 3, wherein each sales collection unit is located in a-store shopped predominately by consumers from one of the geographic areas.

5. A method for use in a consumer response analyzing system comprising apparatus for distributing television programming to a plurality of zones in a community of consumers and consumer data collection points located in stores in the zones for collecting consumer purchase data, the method comprising:

associating one of the zones with each consumer data collection point, said association, being made when a majority of purchases at a particular data collection point are made by consumers from one of the zones;

assigning each consumer data collection point aunique identifying address;

presenting television programming to the community so that a substitute program is presented to the consumers in a first set of zones and normal programming is presented to consumers in a second set of zones;

accumulating consumer purchase data from the consumer data collection points along with the identifying address of each consumer data collection point providing accumulated consumer purchase data; and

analyzing the collected data of the consumer data collection points identified as being associated with a zone receiving the substitute program and the collected data identified as being associated with a zone receiving the normal programming to identify the market significance of the substitute programming.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 comprising:

identifying consumer data collection points in the community which are located in stores where a majority of the purchases are made by consumers from one of the zones; and

storing in a computer memory information associating the consumer data collection points identified in the identifying step with the zone including the consumers making the majority of purchases.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6 comprising storing in the computer, demographic data describing the type of a store in which each consumer data collection point is located, and wherein the analyzing step comprises identifying market significance based in part on the computer stored demographic data.

8. A method in accordance with claim 7 comprising only data accumulated from consumer data collection points located in stores having similar demographic data description.

9. A television distribution and analysis system for delivering a plurality of channel signals in separated TV channels to a plurality of cable television subscribers residing in a geographic area comprising:

a plurality of normal channel signal sources for producing normal TV channel signals to be delivered to subscribers;

a source of a substitute channel signal to be substituted for at least one normal channel signal;

signal distribution circuitry for receiving the normal channel signals and the substitute channel signal and for combining the received channel signals into spectrums of channels on a plurality of distribution trunks, the spectrum of channels on less than all of the plurality of distribution trunks including the substitute channel signal; and

apparatus for generating a plurality of substantially identical copies of the spectrum of channels of each distribution trunk;

apparatus for connecting the substantially identical copies of the channel spectrum of each distribution trunk to different substantially contiguous zones of the geographic area;

a plurality of customer purchase data collectors for collecting customer purchase data in stores of the geographic area, each customer purchase data collector representing purchases made by subscribers residing in one of the zones; and

a data analysis computer system for accumulating customer purchase data from the data collectors and for analyzing the collected data to identify the market significance of the normal and substitute channel signals connected to the zones of the geographic area.

10. The television distribution and analysis system of claim 9 wherein each customer purchase data collector is located in a store a majority of whose purchasers are subscribers in one of the zones and the data analysis computer comprises memory for storing for each customer purchase data collector, the identity of the zone including the collector.

11. The television distribution and analysis system of claim 9 wherein the apparatus for connecting connects the spectrum of channel signals from one of the distribution trunks to zones of the community separated from one another by zones connected to others of the distribution trunks and selected to demographically represent the community for market research purposes.

12. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 9 wherein the zones connected to at least one distribution trunk are selected to demographically represent the community for market research purposes.

13. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 9 wherein the connecting apparatus comprises fiber optic apparatus for connecting the substantially identical copies of the channel spectrum of each distribution trunk to different ones of the zones.

14. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 9 comprising a plurality of first signal combiners equal in number to the number of distribution trunks each first signal combiner receiving as inputs first channel modulated normal signals for which no signal substitution is performed and second channel modulated signals including normal signals and at least one substitute signal.

15. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 14 comprising:

a video switch apparatus for receiving as inputs, normal channel signals and substitute channel signals and for selectively connecting the input signals to a plurality of output ports of the video switch; and

circuitry for combining the signals at the output ports into a plurality of cable television channel spectrums equal to the number of distribution trunks.

16. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 15 comprising a plurality of channel modulators each connected to an output of the video switch, the channel modulators comprising a number of modulators equal to the number of distribution trunks for each channel of the second channel modulated signals.

17. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 9 comprising:

a video switch apparatus for receiving as inputs, normal channel signals and substitute channel signals and for selectively connecting the input signals to a plurality of output ports of the video switch; and

circuitry for combining the signals at the output ports into a plurality of cable television channel spectrums equal to the number of distribution trunks.

18. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 17 comprising a plurality of channel modulators each connected to an output of the video switch.

19. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 9 comprising:

a plurality of first signal conductors each for conveying a single channel modulated normal television signal;

at least one second signal conductor for conveying a single channel modulated substituted television signal; and

a switched combiner means connected to receive signals from the first signal conductors and the second signal conductor for selectively connecting signals from predefined ones of the first and second signal conductors to the distribution trunks.

20. A television distribution and analysis system in accordance with claim 19 wherein the switched combiner unit comprises a switched combiner for providing signals to each of the distribution trunks.

21. A method for use in a consumer response analyzing system comprising apparatus for distributing television to a plurality of substantially geographically contiguous zones in a community of consumers and a market research computer system, the method comprising:

identifying a consumer parameter of consumers in the community and associating one of the zones of the community with the consumer parameters of a plurality of consumers;

storing in the market research computer system data representing the associations between consumer parameters and zones;

presenting television programming to the community so that a substitute program is presented to the consumers in a first set of zones and normal programming is presented to consumers in a second set of zones, the presenting step being performed after the preceding data storing step;

conducting a survey of a plurality of consumers throughout the community after the presenting step to identify their customer parameter and to identify consumer purchase data; and

analyzing the survey identified data in the market research computer system to associate each consumer purchase data with one of the zones to identify the market significance of substitute programming.

22. A method in accordance with claim 21 comprising:

identifying consumer telephone numbers as consumer parameters and associating each identified consumer telephone number with the zone including that telephone number; and

storing in the market research computer system data representing associations between consumer telephone numbers and the zones including the identified telephone numbers.

23. A method in accordance with claim 21 comprising:

identifying consumer addresses as consumer parameters and associating each identified consumer address with the zone including that consumer address; and

storing in the market research computer system data representing associations between consumer addresses and the zones including the identified consumer addresses.

24. A method in accordance with claim 21 comprising:

identifying consumer names as consumer parameters and associating each identified consumer name with the zone including that consumer name identified; and

storing in the market research computer system data representing the associations between consumer names and the zones including the identified consumer names.