Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media

• US 9,332,035 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2013
• Issued: 05/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Arun, Bosworth, Alan N., Gaynor, Kevin K., Narasimha, Goli Reddy
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US14/144,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20150106505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• 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 21/25883 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 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media are disclosed. An example method includes detecting an ID3 tag associated with streaming media presented at a client device. A first request is sent from the client device to a first internet domain, the first request identifying the streaming media. A redirection message is received from the first internet domain. In response to the redirection message, a second request is sent to a second internet domain specified by the redirection message. A cookie is provided identifying the client device to the second internet domain.

Claims

1. A method to measure exposure to streaming media, the method comprising:

detecting, with a processor, an ID3 tag associated with streaming media presented at a client device;

extracting, with the processor, data from a first field of the ID3 tag;

processing, with the processor, the data from the first field of the ID3 tag to generate a first request directed to a first internet domain, the first internet domain based on the data, the first request including a media identifier from a second field of the ID3 tag, the second field of the ID3 tag separate from the first field of the ID3 tag, the media identifier identifying the streaming media;

sending, in response to the detection of the ID3 tag, the first request from the client device to the first internet domain;

receiving a redirection message from the first internet domain;

sending, in response to the redirection message, a second request to a second internet domain specified by the redirection message; and

providing a cookie identifying the client device to the second internet domain.

2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the media is received from a service provider, and the first internet domain is determined based on information provided by the service provider.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the first internet domain is specified by a universal resource locator.

4. The method as described in claim 1, further including extracting the ID3 tag from a metadata stream of the streaming media.

5. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the ID3 tag is to cause the client device to send a request for a monitoring instruction, the monitoring instruction to cause the client device to send the first request.

6. The method as described in claim 1, further including gathering operational information of a media presenter of the streaming media, the first request to include the operational information.

7. An apparatus to measure exposure to streaming media, the apparatus comprising:

a metadata retriever to retrieve metadata associated with media presented at a client device, the metadata located in an ID3 tag, the metadata retriever to extract data from a first field of the metadata;

a metadata transmission location determiner to determine a location to transmit the metadata, the location determined based on the data from the first field of the metadata; and

a transmitter to transmit a request to the location, the request including a media identifier from a second field of the metadata and user-identifying data, the user-identifying data being accessible at the location, the second field of the metadata separate from the first field of the metadata, the media identifier identifying the streaming media.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 7, further including a media presenter to present the media at the client device.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 8, further including an event listener to listen for an event triggered by the media presenter, the metadata retriever to retrieve the metadata in response to detection of the event.

10. The apparatus as described in claim 9, wherein the event is a media presentation event.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 7, further including a metadata converter to convert the metadata in the ID3 tag into a payload of the request.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 7, further including a user-identifying information store to store the user-identifying data.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 12, wherein the user-identifying data is cookie data.

14. A tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a client device to at least:

detect an ID3 tag associated with streaming media;

extract data from a first field of the ID3 tag;

process the data from the first field of the ID3 tag to generate a first request directed to a first internet domain, the first internet domain based on the data, the first request including a media identifier from a second field of the ID3 tag, the second field of the ID3 tag separate from the first field of the ID3 tag, the media identifier identifying the streaming media;

send, in response to the detection of the ID3 tag, the first request to the first internet domain;

receive a redirection message from the first internet domain;

send, in response to the redirection message, a second request to a second internet domain specified by the redirection message; and

provide a cookie identifying the client device to the second internet domain.

15. The tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device as described in claim 14, wherein the media is received from a service provider, and the instructions cause the client device to determine the first internet domain based on information provided by the service provider.

16. The tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device as described in claim 14, wherein first internet domain is specified by a universal resource locator.

17. The tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device as described in claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed cause the client device to extract the ID3 tag from a metadata stream of the streaming media.

18. The tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device as described in claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the client device to gather operational information of a media presenter of the streaming media, the first request to include the operational information.