Patent Publication Number: US-2006015891-A1

Title: Television audience reporting system and method

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a television audience reporting system, and more particularly, to a system for providing a summary of real-time audience viewing information to client computers.  
      2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information  
      Television audience information is used to rank programs and to set rates for advertising commercials. Current rating services have been criticized with respect to accuracy and effectiveness. Also, current rating services generally provide audience information in a format this is only useful in future programming and advertising rate decisions.  
      Accordingly, there exists a need for a system that may provide audience viewing information in a more effective and timely manner. The present invention satisfies these needs.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention may be embodied in a television audience reporting system and related method. The television audience reporting system includes a plurality of audience monitoring devices, a database server, and an internet server. The plurality of audience monitoring devices are located at a respective plurality of viewing locations for providing real-time program viewing information based on television channel selection by viewers at the respective viewing locations. The database server gathers the real-time program viewing information from the plurality of audience monitoring devices and generates a program viewing summary from the real-time program viewing information. The internet server provides the program viewing summary in real-time to client computers.  
      In more detailed features of the invention, the data base server may correlate the real-time program viewing information with viewer characteristics to generate real-time audience profile information. The internet server may provide, in real-time, the real-time audience profile information only to client computers of profile information subscribers. The internet server may be a web server or a streaming media server.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a television audience reporting system for providing a real-time program viewing summary, according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing a television audience viewing summary in real-time, according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  is an exemplary program viewing summary, according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 4  is an exemplary detailed program viewing summary, according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 5  shows popup menus for customizing a program viewing summary.  
       FIG. 6  is an exemplary custom viewer segment selection screen. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the present invention may be embodied in a television audience reporting system  10  and related method  30 . The television audience reporting system  10  includes a plurality of audience monitoring devices  12 , a database server  14 , and an internet server  16 . The plurality of audience monitoring devices  12  are located at a respective plurality of viewing locations for providing real-time program viewing information based on television channel selection by viewers at the respective viewing locations (step  32 ). The database server  14  gathers the real-time program viewing information from the plurality of audience monitoring devices  14  and generates a program viewing summary from the real-time program viewing information (step  34 ). The internet server  16  provides the program viewing summary in real-time to client computers  18  (step  36 ).  
      Further, the data base server  14  may correlate the real-time program viewing information with viewer characteristics to generate real-time audience profile information. The database server  14  has access to television program information such as program name, type (drama, suspense, comedy, etc.), episode name and number, program length, and syndication status. The viewer characteristics may relate to demographics such as age, gender, income, marital status profession, hobbies, affiliations, and the like. The viewer characteristics may also relate to household information such as household net worth, presence of children, region, state, market, or psycho-demographic cluster. The real-time program viewing summary may be useful to program providers and to viewers. For example, a viewer in a particular demographic category may be interested in determining which television programs currently being delivered have a high audience rating in the viewer&#39;s demographic category. The viewer may access the real-time program viewing summary using the internet  20  and then select a television program of interest based on the audience rating for the particular demographic category. Similarly, a television program provider may set advertising rates in real-time based on the audience rating. In a program in which contestants compete for prizes, the television program provider may award a prize having a value based on the program viewing summary. A higher value prize may be awarded during a television program having a higher viewing audience.  
      The monitoring devices  12  may implement any of a variety of techniques for obtaining the real-time programming viewing information. Advantageously, the monitoring device may be a set-top box located between a viewer&#39;s television set and the incoming signal from a television antenna or cable system. The set-top box transmits the program viewing information in real-time over the internet  20  or other suitable communication facility to the database server  14 . The program viewing information may include the television channel viewed, channel changes, time stamp, etc. for each television in a household, and may be updated about every second or faster, depending on network conditions. The database server may store a copy of the real-time program viewing information in persistent storage  22 , such as a database cluster having hard-disk drives. The viewer characteristics also may be stored in the persistent storage. The database server also has access to television program provider information such as station name, code, call letters, type (cable, direct-broadcast satellite, analog or digital broadcast, etc.) network affiliation, market, cost (basic/premium), or subscribers.  
      The internet server  16  may provide detailed real-time audience profile information only to client computers  18  of profile information subscribers. Advantageously, a television program provider may become a subscriber allowing it to obtain a real-time program viewing summary having detailed audience profile information that is not available to a non-subscriber. A non-subscriber may still access a less detailed program viewing summary available for free over the internet  20 .  
      Additional functionality may be performed using an application server  24  situated between the database server  14  and the outgoing internet server  16  and/or an incoming internet server  16 ′ situated between the internet  20  and the database server  14 . Each internet server may be a web server and/or a streaming media server, as appropriate. A “server” may be virtual and the described servers may denote parallel logical processes running on the same physical processor, box, or blade frame. Also, based on system load levels, each server may be implemented by several physical processors operating simultaneously and/or in parallel, and additional physical data paths may be constructed between the audience monitoring devices  12 , the client computers  18 , and the database servers  14 .  
      The client computers  18  may present the program viewing summary using a streaming data client or using a web browser. The client computers  18  may communicate with the internet server  16  in real-time using the http and/or TCP/IP protocols, or future methods. The internet server  16  may “push” the summary to the client computers, or may provide the summary based on a browser request. The additional data paths may be dedicated only to streaming data or only to browser data.  
      An exemplary program viewing summary is shown in  FIG. 3 . The summary may list the network/station, program name, program type, households, household rating, viewers, and viewer rating. The summary may also provide the number of viewers, televisions tuned to a program, households watching a program, etc. An exemplary detailed program viewing summary shown in  FIG. 4 . The detailed program viewing summary has the real-time viewing information broken down based on particular demographic characteristics. A program viewing summary may be further customized by market, program provider, viewer and household segments, etc., using popup menus  42  shown in  FIG. 5 . An exemplary custom viewer segment selection screen is shown in  FIG. 6 . The custom viewer segment may be used to generate custom detailed reports and analysis that may be available only to a subscriber.  
      The real-time program viewing summary allows for more timely and effective programming and advertising rate decisions. The program summary is generated as fast as possible in real-time subject to communication and processing latency. Depending on the data complexity, a real-time program viewing summary may be generated within one or two seconds of gathering of the real-time program viewing information from the audience monitoring devices. Based on network load conditions, the browser may update the program viewing summary as often as every second, or less frequently, such as about every ten seconds. “Push” technology may allow the internet server  16  to control the summary update rate. After about a minute, the data in a program viewing summary may become stale, and may lose its real-time value.