Patent ID: 7627878

Claim:
A method of automatically verifying airing times and content of advertising carried out by a digital computer system, the method comprising steps of: receiving a broadcast signal upon which an advertisement of interest is scheduled to be carried, the broadcast signal comprising a TV signal including both an audio signal and a video signal; analyzing the broadcast signal by comparing detected attributes of the broadcast signal with previously measured attributes of a reference signal representing an unmodified version of the advertisement of interest in order to determine whether the broadcast signal contains the advertisement of interest, the step of analyzing the broadcast signal comprises analyzing both the audio signal and the video signal by performing a preliminary frequency analysis on a segment of the audio signal, if the preliminary frequency analysis indicates a potential match, then performing a total profile correlation taking into account both frequency and amplitude of the audio signal over the expected duration of the advertisement of interest; if the total profile correlation still indicates the potential match, then performing a complete frequency analysis over a plurality of segments at least as long as an expected duration of the advertisement of interest; and generating a report indicating whether the broadcast signal contained the advertisement of interest.