Using viewership profiles for targeted promotion deployment

• US 7,370,073 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2001
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Navic Systems, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Cameron, Kirk, Yen, Felix, Fagnani, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): DUONG, OANH L
• Application Number:
  US09/873,786
• Publication Number:
  US 20020073419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,528 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/203, 725/32, 725 45- 46, 705/14
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• 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 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system for generating viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles to one or more network devices, such as set top boxes. The system includes a promotion agent associated with each network device which collects viewing activity data of the network device. For example, the viewing activity data may include a channel the network device was tuned to, a time when the network device was tuned to the channel, and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel. The collected viewing activity data is then transmitted, for example, every twenty-four hours, to a life-cycle manager server, which also periodically receives a program schedule. The program schedule typically specifies the channel on which a particular program was displayed, as well as the time the program was shown. The life-cycle manager server correlates the viewing activity data with the program schedule to generate the viewership profile of the network device. The life cycle manager server determines the viewing behavior for four, eight, and twelve week periods, for example, or for a time period specified by a user.

Claims

1. A system for generating and using viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles of at least one network device, comprising:

a promotion agent embedded in a network device for collecting viewership activity data of the network device;

a life-cycle manager server which receives the viewership activity data from the promotion agent and correlates the viewership activity data with program schedules to determine a viewer behavior associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server matches the determined viewer behavior to a group profile to determine a class of viewer associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server generates a viewership profile for the network device based on the correlated viewer behavior and the matched class of viewer associated with the network device, the generated viewership profile including the viewer behavior associated with the network device and the class of viewer associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server informing the network device of a type of individual on which distribution of promotions to the network device is based, by forwarding the viewership profile to the promotion agent, the viewership profile including long-term viewership activity data of the network device; and

the promotion agent collecting short-term viewership activity data of the network device and comparing the collected short-term activity data with the long-term activity data of the viewership profile in order to determine a type of individual presently interacting with the network device, the determined type of individual used to match the viewership profile with a membership criteria to generate a promotion group for distributing promotions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data of the network device includes a program channel on the network device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data includes a time at which the network device was tuned to the channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity includes a time at which the network device was tuned away from the channel.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data is collected if the difference between a time the network device was tuned to the channel and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel is greater than a configurable time period.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data is collected by the promotion agent over a twenty-four hour period before the viewership activity data is received by the life-cycle manager.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership activity data includes a program viewed by a viewer.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time the program was viewed by the viewer.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the percentage of time is precise to within about one percent.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the program belongs to a genre.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time which the genre is viewed.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the percentage of time is precise to within about one percent.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the program belongs to multiple genres.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile data is matched with a group profile.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the group profile is based on viewer attributes.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the attributes include a geographic location.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the attributes include demographic characteristics.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the attributes include a genre of programs.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the short-term viewership activity data spans over a time period of about one minute.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the short-term viewership activity data spans over a time period of about one hour.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile includes viewership activity data spanning a time period of about four weeks.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile includes viewership activity data spanning a time period of about eight weeks.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile includes viewership activity data spanning a time period of about twelve weeks.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewership profile includes viewership activity data spanning a time period defined by a user of the system.

25. A method for generating and using viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles to at least one network device, comprising the steps of:

collecting viewership activity data for a network device;

correlating the viewership activity data with program schedules to determine a viewer behavior associated ,with the network device;

matching the determined viewer behavior to a group profile to determine a class of viewer associated with the network device;

generating a viewership profile for the network device based on the correlation and the matching, the generated viewership profile including the viewer behavior associated with the network device and the class of viewer associated with the network device;

informing the network device of a type of individual on which distribution of promotions to the network device is based, by forwarding the viewership profile to the network device, the viewership profile including long-term viewership activity data of the network device;

collecting short-term viewership activity data of the network device; and

comparing the collected short-term viewership activity data with the long-term viewership activity data of the viewership profile in order to determine a type of individual presently interacting with the network device, the determined type of individual used to match the viewership profile with a membership criteria to generate a promotion group for distributing promotions.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data further includes collecting channels selected on the network device.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data further includes collecting a time at which the network device was tuned to the channel.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data further includes collecting a time at which the network device was tuned away from the channel.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data collects viewership activity data if the difference between a time the network device was tuned to the channel and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel is greater than a configurable time period.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data is performed over a twenty-four hour period.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of collecting viewership activity data includes collecting a program viewed by a viewer.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of matching the viewership profile of each network device with a group profile.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of matching includes matching to the group profile based on viewer attributes.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of matching includes matching to viewer attributes based on a geographic location.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of matching includes matching to viewer attributes based on demographic characteristics.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of matching includes matching to viewer attributes based on a genre of programs.

37. The method of claim 25, wherein the short-term viewership activity data spans over a time period of about one minute.

38. The method of claim 25, wherein the short-term viewership activity data spans over a time period of about one hour.

39. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of generating the viewership profile is based on viewership activity spanning a time period of about four weeks.

40. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of generating the viewership profile is based on viewership activity spanning a time period of about eight weeks.

41. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of generating the viewership profile is based on viewership activity spanning a time period of about twelve weeks.

42. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of generating the viewership profile is based on viewership activity spanning a configurable time period.

43. A system for generating and using viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles of at least one network device, comprising:

a promotion agent embedded in a network device for collecting viewership activity data of the network device;

a life-cycle manager server which receives the viewership activity data from the promotion agent and correlates the viewership activity data with program schedules to determine a viewer behavior associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server matches the determined viewer behavior to a group profile to determine a class of viewer associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server generates a viewership profile for the network device based on the correlated viewer behavior and the matched class of viewer associated with the network device, the generated viewership profile including the viewer behavior associated with the network device and the class of viewer associated with the network device;

the life-cycle manager server informing the network device of a type of individual on which distribution of promotions to the network device is based, by forwarding the viewership profile to the promotion agent, the viewership profile including long-term viewership activity data of the network device; and

the promotion agent collecting short-term viewership activity data of the network device and comparing the collected short-term activity data with the long-term activity data of the viewership profile, transmitted from the life-cycle manager server to the promotion agent as a compressed version of the long-term activity data, in order to determine a type of individual presently interacting with the network device, the determined type of individual used to match the viewership profile with a membership criteria to generate a promotion group for distributing promotions.

44. A method for generating and using viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles to at least one network device, comprising the steps of:

collecting viewership activity data for a network device;

correlating the viewership activity data with program schedules to determine a viewer behavior associated with the network device;

matching the determined viewer behavior to a group profile to determine a class of viewer associated with the network device;

generating a viewership profile for the network device based on the correlation and the matching, the generated viewership profile including the viewer behavior associated with the network device and the class of viewer associated with the network device;

informing the network device of a type of individual on which distribution of promotions to the network device is based, by forwarding the viewership profile to the network device, the viewership profile including long-term viewership activity data of the network device;

collecting short-term viewership activity data of the network device; and

comparing the collected short-term viewership activity data with the long-term viewership activity data of the viewership profile, transmitted to the network device as a compressed version of the long-term activity data, in order to determine a type of individual presently interacting with the network device, the determined type of individual used to match the viewership profile with a membership criteria to generate a promotion group for distributing promotions.