Abstract:
A system and method for collecting viewership data. The inventive system ( 10 ) is adapted to receive a signal having multiple channels of program content and associated channel identification information. The system ( 10 ) is adapted to parse the program content and channel identification information from the received signal. The system ( 10 ) outputs selective channels of program content in response to user input and the parsed program content. The system ( 10 ) monitors the selected channels and provides viewership data with respect thereto. The viewership data includes channel identification information.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application entitled VIEWER DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM, filed Oct. 25, 2002 serial No. 60/421,264. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to communications systems and methods. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for measuring an audience for a telecast in real time.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    Viewership monitoring provides critical information for broadcasters with regard to the tastes, preferences and demographics of its audience for various programs aired during a broadcast period. This information allows broadcasters to select programs to optimize viewership and revenue from subscriptions and/or advertising.  
           [0006]    One technique for monitoring viewership is to poll the viewing habits of an audience manually. These techniques involve the use of questionnaires filled out by the viewer directly or via telephone solicitation. Unfortunately, the manual approach relies on viewer memory and requires user cooperation and feedback. Accordingly, this approach is costly, inaccurate, slow and burdensome to the viewer.  
           [0007]    Certain systems are known in the art for automatically monitoring viewership. However, what is known about these generally proprietary systems suggests that the systems are designed to work with analog tuners. Analog tuners require a separate (physical) frequency for each channel. Digital tuners, such as those employed in direct broadcast satellite networks, are designed to receive multiple (virtual) channels on a single frequency. Hence, conventional automatic systems for monitoring viewership have not heretofore been able to function with satellite direct broadcast set top decoders.  
           [0008]    Accordingly, a need exists in the art for an inexpensive, accurate system and method for automatically monitoring the viewing habits of viewers of direct broadcast satellite television programming.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    The need in the art is addressed by the system and method for collecting viewership data of the present invention. In a most general embodiment, the inventive system is adapted to receive a signal having multiple channels of program content and associated channel identification information. The system is adapted to parse the program content and channel identification information from the received signal. The system outputs selective channels of program content in response to user input and the parsed program content. The system monitors the selected channels and provides viewership data with respect thereto. In accordance with the invention, the viewership data includes channel identification information.  
           [0010]    In a specific implementation, the system includes a direct broadcast satellite set top box in which a tuner and a demodulator are disposed. The tuner and the demodulator operate with a processor programmed to parse the received signal and extract the program content and channel identification information therefrom. Inasmuch as the channel information is embedded in the received signal, the channel information is virtual. A smartcard is included for storing the viewership data. The data is selectively transmitted based on an event, time duration or command to a centralized data processing center where it is combined with demographic data to facilitate analysis thereof. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of a direct broadcast satellite system with a viewership data collection system in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of the set top box of FIG. 1 in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of a smartcard adapted for use in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates the operation of the smartcard  40  in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the data processing operation of the present invention.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 shows how viewership data is correlated to demographic data in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0017]    Illustrative embodiments and exemplary applications will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings to disclose the advantageous teachings of the present invention.  
         [0018]    While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope thereof and additional fields in which the present invention would be of significant utility.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of a direct broadcast satellite system with a viewership data collection system in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the system  10  includes a program database  12 . The program database provides program content, channel identification, date, time and other information relevant to the provision of direct broadcast satellite television programming as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art. The database  12  may be stored on a server or other suitable storage medium. The database  12  sends information to a pair of systems that, together, comprise a program data encoder  14 . The program data encoder  14  may be a proprietary security system which encodes program content with a proprietary algorithm for secure transmission and conditional access. A smartcard command generator  16  formats authorization and other commands for smartcards discussed more fully below. The smartcard command generator  16  provides the commands necessary to authorize programming and authorize the data collection capability.  
         [0020]    The program data and smartcard commands are multiplexed into a video stream at one of a number of broadcast centers  18  and uplinked to one or more direct broadcast satellites  20  in a manner well-known to those skilled in the art. In practice, multiple video and audio channels may be embedded into a single stream for a corresponding transponder on the satellite  20 . In addition, the satellite may have multiple (e.g., 34) transponders. Each transponder is adapted to receive a respective bit stream comprising, for example, 12 video channels and 20 audio channels and a separate copy of the smartcard commands. However, the uplinked streams share the smartcard commands. That is, the smartcard commands are identical on each stream. This assures that each end user receives the same command stream regardless of the transponder to which the user is tuned.  
         [0021]    Thus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in the best mode, each stream is a stream of digital data which comprises ‘meta data’—program guide and channel ID data and conditional access data. The channels are ‘virtual’ inasmuch as the multiple channels are provided on a single carrier frequency. Channel ID data is embedded in the stream and parsed out on receipt. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that this is a significant departure from conventional viewership monitoring systems in which the separate channels are transmitted on separate carrier frequencies. Hence, conventional systems operate with decoders on separate analog ‘physical’, as opposed to virtual, channels. The use of virtual channel assignment allows for an inexpensive relocation of virtual channels to other carrier frequencies without necessitating a change in an associated reporting system.  
         [0022]    In the illustrative Direct to Home (DTH) direct broadcast satellite implementation, the uplinked streams are relayed via satellite  20  to a number of home-based satellite antennas  22  to which a set top boxes  30  is connected. In the best mode, the set top box  30  is adapted to interface with a smartcard  40 . As is well known in the art, the smartcard allow for the set top boxes to be upgraded inexpensively.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of the set top box of FIG. 1 in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. The box  30  includes a digital tuner/demodulator  32  which receives, downconverts and demodulates the satellite signal from the dish antenna  22 . In the illustrative embodiment, the satellite signal is encoded in accordance with the DSS transport protocol. The tuner demodulator  32  outputs a digital baseband signal to a data processor  34 . The processor  34  parses the digital baseband signal into, inter alia, its program content and channel ID streams in a conventional manner. The program content is forwarded to a conventional video/audio decompression unit  37  based on channel selections made by the user via a user interface  36 . In accordance with the present teachings, the channel ID associated with the user&#39;s channel selections are forwarded to the smartcard  40  via a smartcard hardware and software reader or interface  35 .  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an illustrative implementation of a smartcard adapted for use in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the smartcard  40  includes an interface  42  adapted to communicate with the interface  35  of the set top box (illustrated in FIG. 2). In practice, the smartcard may be implemented in accordance with ISO standards 7810 and 7816 parts 1-3 entitled “Identification Cards-Integrated Circuit(s) Cards with Contacts”. The interface  42  effects communication between the processor  34  of the set top box  30  and a processor  44  on the smartcard  40 . The smartcard processor  44  receives and executes program instructions from a read-only memory (ROM)  46  and an electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)  48  and stores data in EEPROM ( 48 ) and in a random access memory  49 .  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates the operation of the smartcard  40  in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. At step  1 , the smartcard commands are parsed from the received baseband digital stream by the processor  34  of the set top box and sent to the smartcard  40 . The subscriber authorizations and attributes are stored in the EEPROM  48 . At step  2 , program attributes are parsed and send to the smartcard by the processor  34  of the set top box  30 . In addition to channel ID information, the program attributes may include authorization to view a particular channel, parental ratings, and pay per view information. At step  3 , the processor  44  of the smartcard compares the program attributes with the subscriber authorizations. If there is a match, at step  4 , the card processor  44  generates a descrambling key and forwards the key to the set box processor  34  via interface software  102 . The processor  34  then uses the key to descramble the selected program. If the attributes do not match, the card sends a message to the viewer via the set top box indicating that the channel is not available for viewing.  
         [0026]    In accordance with the present teachings, at step  5  viewership and pay-per-view callback data is communicated from the processor  44  of the smartcard  40  to a data processing system  17  (shown in FIG. 1) via the smartcard interface  35  and interface software  102 , processor  34  and a conventional dialup modem  39  of the set top box, a standard phone line  31 , an automated callback system  50  and the smartcard command generator  16  (FIG. 1) on a time schedule. The callback system receives the phone call at a location relatively near to the set top box  30  and forwards the data from the phone call to the smartcard command generator  16 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the smartcard may be programmed to automatically send viewership data on the occurrence of an event, expiration of a time period or other trigger function such that a command may not be required. Timing information for the smartcard is encoded into the uplinked stream by the smartcard command generator and/or the program data encoder.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the data processing operation of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the data processing system  17  receives program data from the program database  12 , smartcard viewership data from the smartcard command generator  18 , and household demographic data from a customer service facility. The processing system combines this data in the form of reports and provides reports via a user interface  19 .  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 6 shows how viewership data is correlated to demographic data in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, smartcard viewership data is correlated to demographic data via the smartcard ID number. The smartcard viewership data is correlated to the program data via the channel number, start time and program duration.  
         [0029]    Thus, the present invention has been described herein with reference to a particular embodiment for a particular application. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the present teachings will recognize additional modifications, applications and embodiments within the scope thereof.  
         [0030]    It is therefore intended by the appended claims to cover any and all such applications, modifications and embodiments within the scope of the present invention.  
         [0031]    Accordingly,