Using messaging associated with adaptive bitrate streaming to perform media monitoring for mobile platforms

• US 10,855,735 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2019
• Issued: 12/01/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Besehanic, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US16/457,440
• Publication Number:
  US 20190327282A1
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Example media monitoring apparatus disclosed herein include means for accessing, at a first server, a first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected by a meter executing on a mobile platform, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected from a first message to be sent by the mobile platform to a second server to stream first media according to an adaptive bitrate streaming protocol, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL received at the first server in a report sent from the meter executing on the mobile platform. Disclosed example apparatus also include means for requesting network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL from a service provider providing network access for the mobile platform. Disclosed example apparatus further include means for monitoring presentation of the first media on the mobile platform using the network log information.

Claims

1. A media monitoring apparatus comprising:

means for accessing, at a first server, a first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected by a meter executing on a mobile platform, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected from a first message to be sent by the mobile platform to a second server to stream first media according to an adaptive bitrate streaming protocol, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL received at the first server in a report sent from the meter executing on the mobile platform, the first server different from the second server to which the mobile platform is to send the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL to stream the first media;

means for requesting network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL from a service provider providing network access for the mobile platform; and

means for monitoring presentation of the first media on the mobile platform using the network log information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network log information includes at least one of a timestamp corresponding to when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider, or location information specifying a location of the mobile platform at a time when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for requesting is to obtain demographic information, in addition to the network log information, in response to providing the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL to the service provider.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the network log information and the demographic information omit personal information related to a subscriber associated with the mobile platform.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to request the network log information, the means for requesting is to send, to the service provider, a request including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and a time range associated with when the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was detected.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to monitor the presentation of the first media on the mobile platform, the means for monitoring is to combine the network log information with media identification information associated with the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the means for requesting is to request, from the service provider, network log information corresponding to other adaptive bitrate streaming URLs included in subsequent messages originated by the mobile platform to stream the first media according to the adaptive bitrate streaming protocol; and

the means for monitoring is to determine ratings data associated with the presentation of the first media on the mobile platform using the network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and the network log information corresponding to the other adaptive bitrate streaming URLs, the ratings data to have a time granularity corresponding to time intervals between media segments of the first media identified by the first message and the subsequent messages.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the adaptive bitrate streaming protocol corresponds to at least one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) live streaming (HLS), dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), or smooth streaming.

9. A media monitoring apparatus comprising:

memory including computer readable instructions; and

a processor to execute the computer readable instructions to at least;

access, at a first server, a first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected by a meter executing on a mobile platform, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL collected from a first message to be sent by the mobile platform to a second server to stream first media according to an adaptive bitrate streaming protocol, the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL received at the first server in a report sent from the meter executing on the mobile platform, the first server different from the second server to which the mobile platform is to send the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL to stream the first media;

request network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL from a service provider providing network access for the mobile platform; and

monitor presentation of the first media on the mobile platform using the network log information.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the network log information includes at least one of a timestamp corresponding to when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider, or location information specifying a location of the mobile platform at a time when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein to request the network log information, the processor is to send, to the service provider, a request including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and a time range associated with when the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was detected.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is to:

request, from the service provider, network log information corresponding to other adaptive bitrate streaming URLs included in subsequent messages originated by the mobile platform to stream the first media according to the adaptive bitrate streaming protocol; and

determine ratings data associated with the presentation of the first media on the mobile platform using the network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and the network log information corresponding to the other adaptive bitrate streaming URLs, the ratings data to have a time granularity corresponding to time intervals between media segments of the first media identified by the first message and the subsequent messages.

13. A media monitoring apparatus comprising:

means for querying a service provider that is to provide network access for a mobile platform, the means for querying to;

access a request from a first server of an audience measurement entity (AME), the request for network log information corresponding to a first adaptive bitrate streaming uniform resource locator (URL) included in a first message sent by the mobile platform to a second server to request delivery of first streaming media according to an adaptive bitrate streaming protocol; and

query a third server of the service provider to retrieve the network log information corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL from the third server; and

means for reporting the network log information to the first server of the AME in response to the request.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the network log information includes at least one of a timestamp corresponding to when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider, or location information specifying a location of the mobile platform at a time when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the means for reporting is further to omit personal information related to a subscriber associated with the mobile platform from the network log information before returning the network log information to the first server of the AME.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the request includes the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and a time range associated with when the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was detected by a meter on the mobile platform, the meter to report the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL to the first server of the AME.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the means for querying is to:

query the third server using the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL and the time range;

obtain, in response to the query, a timestamp corresponding to when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the service provider; and

obtain, in response to the query, location information specifying a location of the mobile platform at a time when the first message including the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL was logged by the network.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the means for querying is to query a database to obtain demographic information, in addition to the network log information, corresponding to the first adaptive bitrate streaming URL; and

the means for reporting is to forward the demographic information, in addition to the network log information, to the first server of the AME.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the means for reporting is to omit personal information related to a subscriber associated with the mobile platform from the demographic information before forwarding the demographic information to the first server of the AME.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the adaptive bitrate streaming protocol corresponds to at least one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) live streaming (HLS), dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), or smooth streaming.