System and method of determining viewership information

• US 8,925,015 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Van Vleck, Paul, Devlin, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): SALCE, JASON P
• Application Number:
  US11/880,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20090025025A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,720 Days
• Field of Search: 725/14, 725/16, 725/25, 725 27- 28, 725/32, 725 34- 36, 725/40, 725/44, 725/46, 725/50, 709217-219, 709/224, 370/352, 370/395.31
• US Class Current: 725/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing

Abstract

Systems and methods of determining viewership information are provided. A method of determining viewership information includes determining viewership information from multicast routing table data associated with one or more edge routers of a media content delivery service. Each edge router of the one or more edge routers is adapted to transmit media content streams to multiple devices via a first network. The method also includes sending data related to the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

Claims

1. A method of determining viewership information, the method comprising:

retrieving multicast routing table data via a first network by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers;

determining viewership information based on the multicast routing table data retrieved from the plurality of edge routers; and

sending the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a request for the multicast routing table data to each of the plurality of edge routers; and

receiving the corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data from each of the plurality of edge routers in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the viewership information comprises analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data further comprises:

determining the viewership information associated with a plurality of channels, each channel of the plurality of channels related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to a particular set-top box device of the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregating the viewership information for each channel of the plurality of channels.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for the viewership information from the requesting device via the second network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the viewership information comprises:

generating a graphical user interface based on the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device and wherein sending the viewership information comprises sending a graphical user interface including statistics related to the viewership information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises a private network and wherein the second network comprises a public network.

10. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

an interface to communicate with a plurality of edge routers via a private network; and

a data analyzer coupled to the interface, the data analyzer adapted to;

retrieve multicast routing table data via the interface by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of the plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers; and

determine viewership information based on the multicast routing table data.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a second interface responsive to a second network, wherein the data analyzer is adapted to send the viewership information to a requesting device via the second interface.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the multicast routing table data comprises a device identifier, date information, time information, and media content information.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the private network comprises an internet protocol television access network.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the viewership information is determined by:

calculating device viewership data associated with each of a plurality of customer premises equipment devices; and

aggregating the device viewership data to produce viewership data and including the viewership data in the viewership information.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the viewership information is further determined by determining statistical information related to the viewership data and including the statistical information in the viewership information.

16. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

processing logic and memory accessible to the processing logic, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processing logic to perform a method comprising;

retrieving multicast routing table data via a first network by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers;

determining viewership information based on the multicast routing table data retrieved from the plurality of edge routers; and

sending the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein determining viewership information comprises

analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine viewership data associated with a particular program.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the viewership information comprises analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

determining the viewership information associated with a plurality of channels, wherein each channel of the plurality of channels is related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregating the viewership information for each channel of the plurality of channels.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device associated with a subscriber to a media content delivery service.

22. A method comprising:

receiving multicast routing table data via a network by receiving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers; and

analyzing the received multicast routing table data to determine viewership information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data comprises mapping the multicast routing table data to specific media content data streams from a media content delivery service.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising sending the viewership information to a requesting device in response to a request from the requesting device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the requesting device comprises one of a network monitoring system, a customer premises equipment device, and a computing device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein sending the viewership information comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including data related to the viewership information, wherein the data comprises statistics determined from the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device via a public network.