Monitoring streaming media content

• US 9,515,904 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Besehanic, Jan, Ramaswamy, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US13/341,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007794A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• 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 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to monitor streaming media content are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to monitor streaming media content comprises extracting first metering data from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the first metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, combining the first metering data with second metering data obtained independently of the media content, the combined metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device, and transcoding the combined metering data to form transcoded metering data having a format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device.

Claims

1. A method to monitor streaming media, the method comprising:

extracting, by executing an instruction with a processor, first metering data from first media to be provided to a media presentation device via a transport stream, the first metering data identifying at least one of the first media or a source of the first media;

combining, by executing an instruction with the processor, the first metering data with second metering data obtained independently of the first media to form combined metering data, the combined metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the media presentation device;

transcoding the combined metering data, by executing an instruction with the processor, to form transcoded metering data having a format decodable by the meter associated with the media presentation device;

encoding the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel associated with the transport stream; and

streaming the transport stream and the metadata channel to the media presentation device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second metering data obtained independently of the first media is substantially similar to the first metering data extracted from the first media.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the combined metering data includes a delimiter to identify a portion of the combined metering data corresponding to the second metering data.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the metadata channel corresponds to at least one of an external metadata channel associated with the transport stream carrying the first media or an internal metadata channel including a data field of the transport stream carrying the first media.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further including streaming secondary media to the media presentation device, the secondary media being selected based on the combined metering data.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further including:

decoding media identifying metadata associated with the transport stream carrying the first media, the media identifying metadata provided by a provider of the first media;

verifying the media identifying metadata using the first metering data extracted from the first media.

7. The method as defined in claim 6, further including reporting the results of verifying the media identifying metadata to a media monitoring facility to enable validation of metering results reported by the meter associated with the media presentation device.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first metering data extracted from the first media comprises watermark data embedded in the first media, and the transcoded metering data is represented in a text format.

9. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

extract first metering data from first media to be provided to a media presentation device via a transport stream, the first metering data identifying at least one of the first media or a source of the first media;

combine the first metering data with second metering data obtained independently of the first media, the combined metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the media presentation device;

transcode the combined metering data to form transcoded metering data having a format decodable by the meter associated with the media presentation device;

encode the combined metering data into a metadata channel associated with the transport stream; and

stream the transport stream and the metadata channel to the media presentation device.

10. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the second metering data obtained independently of the first media is substantially similar to the first metering data extracted from the first media.

11. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the combined metering data includes a delimiter to identify a portion of the combined metering data corresponding to the second metering data.

12. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the metadata channel corresponds to at least one of an external metadata channel associated with the transport stream carrying the first media or an internal metadata channel including a data field of the transport stream carrying the first media.

13. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to stream secondary media to the media presentation device, the secondary media being selected based on the combined metering data.

14. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

decode media identifying metadata associated with the transport stream carrying the first media, the media identifying metadata provided by a provider of the first media;

verify the media identifying metadata using the first metering data extracted from the first media.

15. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 14, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to report the results of verifying the media identifying metadata to a media monitoring facility to enable validation of metering results reported by the meter associated with the media presentation device.

16. The tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 9, wherein the first metering data extracted from the first media includes watermark data embedded in the first media, and the transcoded metering data is represented in a text format.

17. An apparatus to monitor media, the apparatus comprising:

an extractor to extract first metering data from first media to be provided to a media presentation device via a transport stream, the first metering data identifying at least one of the first media or a source of the first media;

a combiner to combine the first metering data with second metering data obtained independently of the first media to form combined metering data, the combined metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the media presentation device;

a transcoder to transcode the combined metering data to form transcoded metering data having a format decodable by the meter associated with the media presentation device;

an encoder to encode the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel associated with the transport stream; and

a streamer to stream the transport stream and the metadata channel to the media presentation device.

18. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the second metering data obtained independently of the first media is substantially similar to the first metering data extracted from the first media.

19. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the combined metering data includes a delimiter to identify a portion of the combined metering data corresponding to the second metering data.

20. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the metadata channel corresponds to at least one of an external metadata channel associated with the transport stream carrying the first media or an internal metadata channel including a data field of the transport stream carrying the first media.

21. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, further including a streamer to stream secondary media to the media presentation device, the secondary media being selected based on the combined metering data.

22. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, further including:

a decoder to decode media identifying metadata associated with the transport stream carrying the first media, the media identifying metadata provided by a provider of the first media;

a verifier to verify the media identifying metadata using the first metering data extracted from the first media.

23. The apparatus as defined in claim 22, further including a reporter to report the results of verifying the media identifying metadata to a media monitoring facility to enable validation of metering results reported by the meter associated with the media presentation device.

24. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the first metering data extracted from the first media includes watermark data embedded in the first media, and the transcoded metering data is represented in a text format.