Methods and apparatus to determine a conditional probability based on audience member probability distributions for media audience measurement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12198077-B2
Application number	US-202318544671-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2023
Priority date	Jun 29, 2016
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems to determine a conditional probability based on audience member probability distributions for media audience measurement are disclosed. Disclosed example methods for media audience measurement include determining a first audience probability distribution for a first member of a household and determining a second audience probability distribution for a second member of the household. Disclosed example methods also include calculating probabilities for audience combinations of the first member and the second member of the household based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution. Disclosed example methods further include determining a household audience characteristic probability based on the calculated probabilities of the audience combinations of the household. The household audience characteristic indicates likelihoods of different possible audience compositions of the household for a media event.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a processor, cause performance of operations comprising:
obtaining, over a network, and from a computing system located at a household, household data associated with presentation of a media event at the household;
based on the household data, determining, for a first member of the household, a first audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the first member was exposed to the media event;
based on the household data, determining, for a second member of the household, a second audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the second member was exposed to the media event; and
based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution, determining a co-viewing likelihood that the first member and the second member were exposed to the media event.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the household data comprises exposure data indicating exposure of one or more members of the household to the media event.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the exposure data comprises one or more of:
presence data indicating presence of the one or more members of the household relative to a television that presented the media event, or
identity data identifying the one or more members of the household exposed to the media event.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the household data comprises tuning data collected by a set-top box at the household.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the household data comprises presentation data collected by a meter at the household,
the computing system comprises the meter, and
the meter is configured to monitor media presented by a television at the household.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein determining the co-viewing likelihood based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution comprises:
calculating a respective exposure probability for each of at least three different sets of members, the at least three sets of members including the first member alone, the second member alone, and the first and second members together; and
based on calculated exposure probabilities, determining the co-viewing likelihood that the first member and the second member were exposed to the media event.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the first audience probability distribution is based on (i) a first number of occurrences in which the first member was exposed to the media event and (ii) a second number of occurrences in which the first member was not exposed to the media event, and
determining the second audience probability distribution is based on (i) a first number of occurrences in which the second member was exposed to the media event and (ii) a second number of occurrences in which the second member was not exposed to the media event.

8. A computing system comprising:
a network interface;
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause performance of operations comprising:
obtaining, via the network interface and over a network, household data associated with presentation of a media event at a household;
based on the household data, determining, for a first member of the household, a first audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the first member was exposed to the media event;
based on the household data, determining, for a second member of the household, a second audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the second member was exposed to the media event; and
based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution, determining a co-viewing likelihood that the first member and the second member were exposed to the media event.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the household data comprises exposure data indicating exposure of one or more members of the household to the media event.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the exposure data comprises one or more of:
presence data indicating presence of the one or more members of the household relative to a television that presented the media event, or
identity data identifying the one or more members of the household exposed to the media event.

11. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the household data comprises tuning data collected by a set-top box at the household.

12. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein:
the household data comprises presentation data collected by a meter at the household,
the computing system comprises the meter, and
the meter is configured to monitor media presented by a television at the household.

13. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein determining the co-viewing likelihood based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution comprises:
calculating a respective exposure probability for each of at least three different sets of members, the at least three sets of members including the first member alone, the second member alone, and the first and second members together; and
based on calculated exposure probabilities, determining the co-viewing likelihood that the first member and the second member were exposed to the media event.

14. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein:
the household data is obtained over the network from a meter located at the household,
the computing system comprises the meter.

15. A method performed by a remote computing system, the method comprising:
obtaining, over a network, from a local computing system at a household, household data associated with presentation of a media event at the household;
based on the household data, determining, for a first member of the household, a first audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the first member was exposed to the media event;
based on the household data, determining, for a second member of the household, a second audience probability distribution indicating a likelihood that the second member was exposed to the media event; and
based on the first audience probability distribution and the second audience probability distribution, determining a co-viewing likelihood that the first member and the second member were exposed to the media event.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the household data comprises exposure data indicating exposure of one or more members of the household to the media event.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the exposure data comprises one or more of:
presence data indicating presence of the one or more members of the household relative to a television that presented the media event, or
identity data identifying the one or more members of the household exposed to the media event.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the household data comprises tuning data collected by a set-top box at the household.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein:
the household data comprises presentation data collected by a meter at the household,
the computing system comprises the meter, and
the meter is configured

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Sheppard Michael
• Donato Paul
• Doe Peter C

Classifications

• 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

• H04N21/44226

  on social networks · CPC title

• H04H60/45 Primary

  for identifying users · CPC title

• H04N21/4532

  involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title

• H04N21/44204

  Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31) · CPC title