PERSISTENT CROSS PLATFORM COLLECTION OF AUDIENCE DATA

• US 20090204615A1
• Filed: 02/07/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kreth, William Eric, Murphy, Forrest M., Samame, Eduardo G.
• Application Number:
  US12/027,698
• Publication Number:
  US 20090204615A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• 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 21/44224 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Previous attempts to measure content and/or advertising consumption treat each category as a unique silo of information. A method, system, and method of doing business generate a profile by obtaining at least a first and second data measurement from a user impression of a linear source of content and a user impression of a time-shifted source of content and/or a user impression of an interactive source of content, and associating the measurements with a user ID to generate a profile.

Claims

1. A method of generating a profile comprising:

obtaining a first data measurement from a user impression of a linear source of content;

obtaining a second measurement from a user impression of a time-shifted source of content;

obtaining a third measurement from a user impression of an interactive source of content; and

associating said first, second, and third measurements with a user ID to generate a profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

comparing the generated profile to an existing profile, determining whether the generated profile contains an update to the existing profile, and updating the existing profile upon determination of an update.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the linear source, the time-shifted source, and the interactive source are all under common control of a service provider.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-shifted source of content further comprises a video-on-demand source, the interactive source of content further comprises a data source, and the linear source of content further comprises a broadcast source.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises compiling more than one profile from said first, second, and third measurements.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said data source further comprises an internet data source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

normalizing one of the first, second, and third measurements.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

collecting more than one of said profiles having a common link; and

generating a cohort which represents said collection of more than one of said profiles.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, and third measurements are augmented with enrichment data and the associating step further comprises associating the enrichment data with a user ID to generate the profile.

10. A method of generating a profile, comprising:

obtaining a first data measurement from a user impression of a linear source of content;

obtaining a second measurement from at least one of;

a user impression of a time-shifted source of content and a user impression of an interactive source of content;

associating said first and second measurements with a user ID to generate a profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the time-shifted source of content further comprises a video-on-demand source, the interactive source of content further comprises a data source, and the linear source of content further comprises a broadcast source.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises compiling more than one profile from said first, second, and third measurements.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said data source further comprises an internet data source.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

normalizing one of the first, second, and third measurements.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

collecting more than one of said profiles having a common link;

generating a cohort which represents said collection of more than one of said profiles.

16. A system for generating a profile comprising:

a linear source of content;

a time-shifted source of content;

an interactive source of content;

a content transmission network for transmitting content from said linear, interactive, and time-shifted sources of content to at least one user device;

said at least one user device further comprising a processor for receiving said transmitted content and generating a signal for display on a display device;

at least one device for rendering said transmitted content appreciable to at least one human sense;

a user-operable control device for controlling said at least one user device and sending information over said content transmission network;

wherein said content transmission network further comprises;

at least one measurement device for measuring data regarding said first, second, and third sources from said user-operable control device, said user device, and/or said content;

a memory;

a database;

a processor for associating said measured data to a user ID to generate said profile.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the linear source, the time-shifted source, and the interactive source are all under common control of a service provider.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the time-shifted source of user-interactive content further comprises a video-on-demand source, the interactive source of user-interactive content further comprises a data source, and the linear source of content further comprises a broadcast source.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein said content transmission network further comprises a hybrid fiber coax network, a fiber optic network, an Ethernet network, a wireless network, or an Internet Protocol network.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one user device is a set-top box, a cable modem, a microcomputer, a television, a gaming console, or a mobile phone.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein said user-operable control further comprises a keyboard, a remote control, a mouse, or a joystick.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein said memory stores said profile.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said memory stores more than one profile.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein said memory stores more than one profile from more than one user device.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein said measurement device measures at least one of time spent viewing, duration of asset, content metadata, source identity, dwell time, stream identity, number of clicks of said user-operable control device, frequency of clicks of said user-operable control device, information entered on said user-operable control device, number of sessions, bandwidth utilization, channel number, tuning events, page views, point-of-sale transactions, television viewing data, video-on-demand orders, interactive advertisement interactions, metadata regarding an asset, asset identification, source identification, stream identity, interactive program guide information, contemporaneous multi-source content consumption, phone usage, IP address, MAC address, interactions, user input, commercial transaction data, connected devices ID, displayed applications or overlays, and user identification.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein the interactive source of content contains a user-interactive component.

27. The system of claim 16, wherein the content transmission network further comprises:

A mediation unit; and

A profiling engine, wherein said mediation unit normalizes measurements received by the at least one measurement device, and wherein said profiling engine collects more than one of said profiles to generate a cohort.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the profile engine compares the more than one of said profiles to generate said cohort.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the mediation unit further comprises:

a memory;

a processor; and

means for receiving data from the measurement device.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor of the mediation unit receives the data, identifies whether it represents a new profile, wherein said processor directs the memory of the mediation unit to store substantially all of said data for a new profile and less than all of said data for a non-new profile.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the mediation unit sends data to an external memory store.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein said cohort is available over a web interface from a server coupled to the profiling engine.

33. A method of generating revenue comprising:

obtaining a first data measurement from a user impression of a linear source of user-interactive content;

obtaining a second measurement from a user impression of a time-shifted source of user-interactive content;

obtaining a third measurement from a user impression of an interactive source of content;

generating at least two profiles by comparing said first, second, and third measurements to at least one stored value in a database;

generating a cohort from said at least two profiles;

dynamically adjusting the pricing of said cohort depending upon a property of the first, second, and/or third measurements.