Patent ID: 7086075

Claim:
A method for evaluating the performance of a viewer watching a television programming stream, comprising the steps of: receiving a broadcast of the television programming stream, the television programming stream comprising a televised broadcast transmission of at least one of a live media session and a recorded media session; inserting an audio/video cue into the television programming stream, the audio/video cue associated with content of the television programming stream such that the audio/video cue prompts the viewer during presentment of the television programming stream to provide an indicated response to an event within an indicated time period; presenting the television programming stream and the audio/visual cue to a media delivery system device; and if the viewer responds to the cue within the indicated time period, then: detecting the indicated response to the event, measuring a response time of the indicated response to the event, wherein the response time is the time between the time which event occurred and when the viewer provided the indicated response, evaluating viewer performance based upon the response time such that the response time associated with the viewer is compared to one of another response time to another event and an averaged response time of two or more other events, and providing an incentive to the viewer based upon the viewer's performance.