Program promotion feedback

• US 8,544,035 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2012
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Barnett, Sharon F.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEPARD, JUSTIN E
• Application Number:
  US13/685,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20130086605A1
• Time in Patent Office: 302 Days
• Field of Search: 725/22
• US Class Current: 725/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• 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 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A user request to watch a program is received in response to a promotion for the program. One or both of recording the program and playback of the program is performed. Information regarding one or both of the recording and the playback is output, this information including an identifier of the promotion. Additionally, a report can be generated from this information output by multiple devices, the report describing the recording of the program and the playback of the program on the multiple device in response to the promotion.

Claims

1. A consumer device comprising:

one or more processors to implement computer instructions as a program recording module that is configured to;

receive a user request to playback or record a program;

determine that the user request is in response to playback of a promotion if the user request is received while the promotion is being played back or within a threshold amount of time after the promotion is played back;

output information regarding the user request in response to determining that the user request is in response to the promotion, the information including an identifier of the promotion; and

output additional information regarding the program after the program is played back or recorded, the additional information including the identifier of the promotion.

2. The consumer device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user request is a request to record the program, and wherein the program recording module is configured to output the additional information about the recording of the program.

3. The consumer device as recited in claim 2, wherein the additional information regards playback of the recorded program.

4. The consumer device as recited in claim 2, wherein the additional information identifies an elapsed time between recording of the program and playback of the program.

5. The consumer device as recited in claim 2, wherein the additional information indicates that the recorded program was deleted before it was played back.

6. The consumer device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user request is a request to immediately begin playback of the program.

7. The consumer device as recited in claim 6, wherein the additional information indicates whether the program was played back in its entirety.

8. The consumer device as recited in claim 1, wherein the playback of the promotion occurs at the consumer device.

9. The consumer device as recited in claim 1, wherein the playback of the promotion occurs at a different device.

10. The consumer device as recited in claim 9, wherein the user request is received from the different device at which the promotion is played back.

11. The consumer device as recited in claim 1, wherein the program recording module is configured to output the information and the additional information to a data warehouse that collects program information regarding recording and playback of the program in response to multiple promotions played back at multiple devices.

12. One or more computer storage devices having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

initiating playback of a promotion for a program;

receiving, from each of multiple devices, data regarding a user request to watch the program;

determining that the user request to watch the program is received in response to the promotion when the user request is received while the promotion is being played back or within a threshold amount of time after the promotion is played back;

receiving, from each of the multiple devices, additional data regarding one or both of recording of the program by the device and playback of the program by the device, both the data and the additional data including an identifier of the promotion for the program, the data received in response to the user request and the additional data received in response to one or both of the recording of the program or the playback of the program;

identifying the received data and the received additional data in response to the promotion; and

generating, using the identified data and the identified additional data, a report describing the recording of the program and the playback of the program in response to the promotion.

13. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 12, wherein the report describes how well the promotion enticed users of the multiple devices to both record the program and playback the program.

14. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to forward the report to a content source of the promotion.

15. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 12, wherein at least one of the data and the additional data comprises interval information regarding one or both of the recording of the program and the playback of the program.

16. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 12, wherein at least one of the data and the additional data comprises event occurrence information regarding one or both of the recording of the program and the playback of the program.

17. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 12, wherein at least one of the data and the additional data comprises duration information regarding one or both of the recording of the program and playback of the program.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a user request to playback or record a program at a consumer device;

determining that the user request is in response to playback of a promotion if the user request is received while the promotion is being played back or within a threshold amount of time after the promotion is played back;

outputting information regarding the user request in response to the determining that the user request is in response to the promotion, the information including an identifier of the promotion; and

outputting additional information regarding the program after the program is played back or recorded, the additional information including the identifier of the promotion.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the playback of the promotion occurs at the consumer device.

20. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the playback of the promotion occurs at a different device, and wherein receiving the user request comprises receiving the user request from the different device at which the promotion is played back.