Determining automatically generated channel tunes based on channel tune dwell times

• US 8,966,516 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2014
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Geoffrey R., Merrick, Iain, Killianey, Michael A., Hawkins, John Alastair, Hecht, Greg, Rowe, Simon M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry, Hunter B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ryan, Patrick A
• Application Number:
  US14/248,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20140223458A1
• Time in Patent Office: 321 Days
• Field of Search: 725 9- 22, 725/32, 725/36, 705/7, 705/10, 705/14.69, 705/14.72, 705/14.73, 348/E5.097
• US Class Current: 725/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• 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

Abstract

Set top box logs are received from a television provider and processed to identify channel tunes and channel tune times. The channel tunes and channel tune times of the log data can be compared to expected air times of television advertisements on channels, and an impression values, e.g., projected viewers, can be generated for each television advertisement.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving reporting data, by an advertising system, related to television processing devices from a television provider;

identifying channel tunes and corresponding tune times of the television processing devices from the reporting data;

identifying channel tunes for dwell times, the identifying the channel tunes for the dwell times comprising;

determining, from the reporting data, dwell times for the television processing devices, each dwell time being a time a television processing device remained tuned to a particular channel before tuning to another channel;

identifying a number of television processing devices per dwell time from the reporting data; and

identifying dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time; and

determining that the channel tunes corresponding to the identified dwell times are automatically generated channel tunes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time comprises:

determining whether the increase exceeds a threshold; and

identifying the channel tunes if the increase exceeds the threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting an advertising cost for an advertisement that aired on the channel defined by the channel tune and during a time period defined by the channel tune cluster pairs when the channel tunes are determined to be automatically generated channel tunes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises one of discounting the advertising cost, delaying the advertising cost, or waiving the advertising cost.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises discounting the advertising cost in substantial proportion to a length of the dwell time to which the channel tunes correspond.

6. A system, comprising:

an automated tuning detection engine implemented in a computer processing system configured to cause the computer processing system to perform operations comprising;

receive reporting data related to television processing devices from a television provider;

identify channel tunes and corresponding tune times of the television processing devices from the reporting data;

identify channel tunes for dwell times, the identifying the channel tunes for the dwell times comprising;

determine, from the reporting data, dwell times for the television processing devices, each dwell time being a time a television processing device remained tuned to a particular channel before tuning to another channel;

identify a number of television processing devices per dwell time from the reporting data; and

identify dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time; and

determine that the channel tunes corresponding to the identified dwell times are automatically generated channel tunes; and

an accounting engine configured to adjust advertising costs associated with advertisements based on the identified automatically generated channel tune times.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein identifying dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time comprises:

determining whether the increase exceeds a threshold; and

identifying the channel tunes if the increase exceeds the threshold.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising adjusting an advertising cost for an advertisement that aired on the channel defined by the channel tune and during a time period defined by the channel tune cluster pairs when the channel tunes are determined to be automatically generated channel tunes.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises one of discounting the advertising cost, delaying the advertising cost, or waiving the advertising cost.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises discounting the advertising cost in substantial proportion to a length of the dwell time to which the channel tunes correspond.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a data processing apparatus and that upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving reporting data related to television processing devices from a television provider;

identifying channel tunes and corresponding tune times of the television processing devices from the reporting data;

identifying channel tunes for dwell times, the identifying the channel tunes for the dwell times comprising;

determining, from the reporting data, dwell times for the television processing devices, each dwell time being a time a television processing device remained tuned to a particular channel before tuning to another channel;

identifying a number of television processing devices per dwell time from the reporting data; and

identifying dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time; and

determining that the channel tunes corresponding to the identified dwell times are automatically generated channel tunes.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein identifying dwell times which have an increase in a number of television processing devices relative to a number of television processing devices at a prior dwell time and a subsequent dwell time comprises:

determining whether the increase exceeds a threshold; and

identifying the channel tunes if the increase exceeds the threshold.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising adjusting an advertising cost for an advertisement that aired on the channel defined by the channel tune and during a time period defined by the channel tune cluster pairs when the channel tunes are determined to be automatically generated channel tunes.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises one of discounting the advertising cost, delaying the advertising cost, or waiving the advertising cost.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein adjusting an advertising cost comprises discounting the advertising cost in substantial proportion to a length of the dwell time to which the channel tunes correspond.