Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide secondary content in association with primary broadcast media content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11004456-B2
Application number	US-201916426803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2019
Priority date	May 1, 2009
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide media content are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein include means for identifying primary media content presented on a first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus also include means for accessing a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content. The secondary content schedule includes a plurality of secondary content items and time values associated with the secondary content items. The secondary content items are also associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus further include means for selecting one of the secondary content items to be accessed in response to a timestamp associated with the primary media content being between time values associated with the selected one of the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a code frequency monitor to:
determine characteristics of frequencies in a plurality of code bands of a frequency domain representation of an audio signal that may contain a code, the code representative of at least one of a first media or a broadcaster of the first media, the code, if present, being encoded in the audio signal using a plurality of frequency components across the plurality of code bands; and
normalize the characteristics of the frequencies of respective ones of the code bands, the characteristic frequencies of a first one of the code bands being normalized against a threshold characteristic of a first frequency in the first one of the code bands;

a symbol determiner to:
compare sums of the normalized characteristics for groups of frequencies across the plurality of code bands to identify a first group of frequencies with a largest sum; and
determine that the first group of frequencies is representative of the code and decode the code from the first group of frequencies; and

a wireless interface to transmit a wireless signal to a media presentation device, the wireless signal including the decoded code, the wireless signal to 1 ) cause the media presentation device to obtain second media based on the decoded code and 2 ) determine audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second media on the media presentation device based on the decoded code.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the audience rating information includes a first reach and a second reach, the first reach corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second reach corresponding to presentation of the second media based on the decoded code.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to obtain the second media, the media presentation device is to obtain a link to the second media, the link selectable by a viewer.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the second media is determined in response to the viewer selecting the link to the second media.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second media is obtained from a secondary content server.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the secondary content server includes a customer-premises media server.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless signal includes at least one of a Bluetooth signal, a wireless local area network signal, or a cellular signal.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to at least:
determine characteristics of frequencies in a plurality of code bands of a frequency domain representation of an audio signal that may contain a code, the code representative of at least one of a first media or a broadcaster of the first media, the code, if present, being encoded in the audio signal using a plurality of frequency components across the plurality of code bands;
normalize the characteristics of the frequencies of respective ones of the code bands, the characteristic frequencies of a first one of the code bands being normalized against a threshold characteristic of a first frequency in the first one of the code bands;
compare sums of the normalized characteristics for groups of frequencies across the plurality of code bands to identify a first group of frequencies with a largest sum;
determine that the first group of frequencies is representative of the code and decode the code from the first group of frequencies; and
transmit a wireless signal to a media presentation device, the wireless signal including the decoded code, the wireless signal to (1) cause the media presentation device to obtain second media based on the decoded code and (2) determine audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second media on the media presentation device based on the decoded code.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the audience rating information includes a first reach and a second reach, the first reach corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second reach corresponding to presentation of the second media based on the decoded code.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to obtain a link to the second media, the link selectable by a viewer.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the second media is determined in response to the viewer selecting the link to the second media.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the second media is obtained from a secondary content server.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the secondary content server includes a customer-premises media server.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the wireless signal includes at least one of a Bluetooth signal, a wireless local area network signal, or a cellular signal.

15. A method comprising:
determining characteristics of frequencies in a plurality of code bands of a frequency domain representation of an audio signal that may contain a code, the code representative of at least one of a first media or a broadcaster of the first media, the code, if present, being encoded in the audio signal using a plurality of frequency components across the plurality of code bands;
normalizing the characteristics of the frequencies of respective ones of the code bands, the characteristic frequencies of a first one of the code bands being normalized against a threshold characteristic of a first frequency in the first one of the code bands;
comparing sums of the normalized characteristics for groups of frequencies across the plurality of code bands to identify a first group of frequencies with a largest sum;
determining that the first group of frequencies is representative of the code and decode the code from the first group of frequencies; and
transmitting a wireless signal to a media presentation device, the wireless signal including the decoded code, the wireless signal to (1) cause the media presentation device to obtain second media based on the decoded code and (2) determine audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second media on the media presentation device based on the decoded code.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the audience rating information includes a first reach and a second reach, the first reach corresponding to presentation of the first media and the second reach corresponding to presentation of the second media based on the decoded code.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein to obtain the second media, the media presentation device is to obtain a link to the second media, the link selectable by a viewer.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the audience rating information corresponding to presentation of the second media is determined in response to the viewer selecting the link to the second media.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the second media is obtained from a secondary content server.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the secondary content server includes a customer-premises media server.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Harkness David Henry
• Ramaswamy Arun
• Samson Jerome
• Besehanic Jan
• Srinivasan Venugopal
• Topchy Alexander Pavlovich

Classifications

• H04N21/4126 Primary

  The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones · CPC title

• H04N21/44222

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04H20/31 Primary

  using in-band signals, e.g. subsonic or cue signal · CPC title

• H04N7/17327

  with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications · CPC title

• H04N21/6582

  Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number (arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38) · CPC title