Methods and apparatus to determine synthetic respondent level data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11140449-B2
Application number	US-202016805361-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2017
Publication date	Oct 5, 2021
Grant date	Oct 5, 2021

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to generate synthetic respondent level data. An example apparatus includes: a comparator to compare a target rating to a computed rating to determine a comparison result, the computed rating determined based on a seed panel, the seed panel including monitored panelists associated with return path data; a seed panelist data adjuster to adjust the seed panel based on the comparison result to reduce an error between the target rating and the computed rating; and a household data adjuster to add tuning without viewing data to households of the adjusted seed panel, the tuning without viewing data for a first one of the households to represent monitored data corresponding to a media presentation device of the first one of the households being on while a media output device in communication with the media presentation device is off.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a comparator to compare a target rating to a computed rating to determine a comparison result, the computed rating determined based on a seed panel, the seed panel including monitored panelists associated with return path data;
a seed panelist data adjuster to adjust the seed panel based on the comparison result to reduce an error between the target rating and the computed rating; and
a household data adjuster to add tuning without viewing data to households of the adjusted seed panel, the tuning without viewing data for a first one of the households to represent monitored data corresponding to a media presentation device of the first one of the households being on while a media output device in communication with the media presentation device is off.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the household data adjuster is to generate the tuning without viewing data by, when the tuning without viewing data is below a threshold:
selecting a first household of a first panelist in the adjusted seed panel that (i) affects a relative error between when viewing of the first household is modified and when the viewing of the first household is not modified and (ii) affects the relative error less than a second household, and the first household included in synthetic respondent level-data; and
removing the first household from the synthetic respondent level-data to increase the tuning without viewing data.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the seed panel data adjuster is to adjust the seed panel by:
selecting a panelist from seed panelists in the seed panel that affects the error between the target rating and the computed rating; and
adjusting a weight for the selected panelist.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the target rating is determined based on the return path data and corresponds to a first percentage of persons of a first demographic exposed to first media at a first time; and
the computed rating corresponds to a second percentage of seed panelists exposed to the first media at the first time.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a data assigner to select the monitored panelists to be in the seed panel based on demographics associated with a population associated with the return path data.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the data assigner is to select a first group of the monitored panelists to be seed panelists based on a comparison of the monitored panelists and the population associated with the return path data, and further including a weighter to weight the seed panelists based on a universe estimate of media users, the universe estimate including the monitored panelists and the population.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a seed panelist replicator to at least one of replicate or down-sample seed panelists.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the seed panel data adjuster is to adjust the seed panel based on a viewership error corresponding to the seed panel, the viewership error based on a constraint corresponding to the target rating.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the seed panelist data adjuster is to adjust the seed panel based on the viewership error corresponding to the seed panel by:
when the viewership error does not satisfy a first threshold:
selecting a first panelist from seed panelists in the seed panel that (i) affects relative error between when viewing of the first panelist is modified and when the viewing of the first panelist is not modified and (ii) affects the relative error less than a second panelist; and
removing the first panelist from an audience corresponding to the target rating; and

when the viewership error does not satisfy a second threshold different than the first threshold:
selecting a third panelist from the seed panelists in the seed panel that (i) affects the relative error between when viewing of the second panelist is modified and when viewing of the second panelist is not modified and (ii) affects the relative error less than a fourth panelist; and
adding the first panelist from the audience corresponding to the target rating.

10. An apparatus comprising:
memory including computer readable instructions; and
a processor to execute the instructions to at least:
compare a target rating to a computed rating to determine a comparison result, the computed rating determined based on a seed panel, the seed panel including monitored panelists associated with return path data;
adjust the seed panel based on the comparison result to reduce an error between the target rating and the computed rating; and
add tuning without viewing data to households of the adjusted seed panel, the tuning without viewing data for a first one of the households to represent monitored data corresponding to a media presentation device of the first one of the households being on while a media output device in communication with the media presentation device is off.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor to generate the tuning without viewing data by, when the tuning without viewing data is below a threshold:
selecting a first household of a first panelist in the adjusted seed panel that (i) affects a relative error between when viewing of the first household is modified and when the viewing of the first household is not modified and (ii) affects the relative error less than a second household, and the first household included in synthetic respondent level-data; and
removing the first household from the synthetic respondent level-data to increase the tuning without viewing data.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processor is to adjust the seed panel by:
selecting a panelist from seed panelists in the seed panel that affects the error between the target rating and the computed rating; and
adjusting a weight for the selected panelist.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein:
the target rating is determined based on the return path data and corresponds to a first percentage of persons of a first demographic exposed to first media at a first time; and
the computed rating corresponds to a second percentage of seed panelists exposed to the first media at the first time.

14. An apparatus comprising:
means for comparing a target rating to a computed rating to determine a comparison result, the computed rating determined based on a seed panel, the seed panel including monitored panelists associated with return path data;
means for adjusting the seed panel based on the comparison result to reduce an error between the target rating and the computed rating; and
means for adding tuning without viewing data to households of the adjusted seed panel, the tuning without viewing data for a first one of the households to represent monitored data corresponding to a media presentation device of the first one of the households being on while a media output device in communication with the media presentation device is off.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the adding means is to generate the tuning without viewing data by, when the tuning without viewing data is below a threshold:
selecting a first household of a first panelist in the adjusted seed panel that (i) affects a relative error between when viewing of the first household is modified and when the viewing of the first household is not modified and (ii) affects the relative error less than a second household, and the first household included in synthetic respondent level-data; and
removing the first household from the synthetic respondent level-data to increase the tuning without viewing data.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Sullivan Jonathan
• Morgan Michael D
• Shankar Balachander
• Murphy Edward
• Sheppard Michael
• Downing Frank

Classifications

• H04N21/44222 Primary

  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

• H04N21/239

  Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. prioritizing client {content} requests (hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for upstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in data networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60) · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• H04N21/25891

  being end-user preferences (retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title