Estimation and use of nested merge ratios for audience measurement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12229790-B2
Application number	US-202218051294-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2022
Priority date	Dec 22, 2021
Publication date	Feb 18, 2025
Grant date	Feb 18, 2025

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to estimate and use nested merge ratios (e.g., nested Fréchet ratios) for audience measurement are disclosed herein. Example apparatus disclosed herein are to identify a first merged media event for which a first census audience value is to be determined, the first merged media event based on a union including a second merged media event. Disclosed example apparatus are also to determine whether the first merged media event satisfies a mutual exclusivity condition. Disclosed example apparatus are further to, in response to the first merged media event satisfying the mutual exclusivity condition, estimate the first census audience value for the first merged media event based on at least a merge ratio and a second census audience value previously estimated for the second merged media event.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An audience measurement system comprising a processor and a memory, the audience measurement system configured to perform a set of operations comprising:
receiving, from a plurality of meters via a network, metering data for a plurality of media events;
storing the metering data in a datastore managed by an audience measurement entity;
obtaining, from one or more service providers, return path data for the plurality of media events;
identifying a first merged media event for which a first deduplicated reach value is to be determined, the first merged media event based on a union including a second merged media event;
determining whether the first merged media event satisfies a mutual exclusivity condition;
in response to the first merged media event satisfying the mutual exclusivity condition, estimating the first deduplicated reach value for the first merged media event based on at least a merge ratio and a second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, wherein the estimating is carried out in a manner that satisfies logical constraints on the first deduplicated reach value, and wherein the logical constraints are derived from a union inequality; and
outputting the first deduplicated reach value.

2. The audience measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the merge ratio is based on a first panel audience value obtained for the first merged media event and a plurality of panel audience values obtained for media events included in the union, the plurality of panel audience values including a second panel audience value obtained for the second merged media event.

3. The audience measurement system of claim 2 , wherein the merge ratio is further based on a universe estimate obtained for a panel associated with the first panel audience value and the plurality of panel audience values.

4. The audience measurement system of claim 3 , wherein the set of operations further comprises:
determining a lower bound and an upper bound for the first panel audience value based on the plurality of panel audience values and the universe estimate; and
determining the merge ratio based on the first panel audience value, the lower bound and the upper bound.

5. The audience measurement system of claim 4 , wherein the set of operations further comprises dividing a first difference between the first panel audience value and the lower bound by a second difference between the upper bound and the lower bound to determine the merge ratio.

6. The audience measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the union further includes a third individual media event, and the set of operations further comprises estimating the first deduplicated reach value for the first merged media event based on at least the merge ratio, the second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, a third deduplicated reach value obtained for the third individual media event, and a universe estimate obtained for a population associated with the third deduplicated reach value.

7. The audience measurement system of claim 6 , wherein the set of operations further comprises:
determining a lower bound and an upper bound for the first deduplicated reach value based on the second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, the third deduplicated reach value obtained for the third individual media event, and the universe estimate; and
adding the lower bound to a product of the merge ratio and a difference between the upper bound and the lower bound to estimate the first deduplicated reach value.

8. The audience measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the set of operations further comprises outputting at least one of an instruction or a signal in response to the first merged media event not satisfying the mutual exclusivity condition, the at least one of the instruction or the signal to cause the audience measurement system to at least one of halt or skip audience measurement processing associated with the first merged media event.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to at least:
receive, from a plurality of meters via a network, metering data for a plurality of media events;
store the metering data in a datastore managed by an audience measurement entity;
obtain, from one or more service providers, return path data for the plurality of media events;
identify a first merged media event for which a first deduplicated reach is to be determined, the first merged media event based on a union including a second merged media event;
determine whether the first merged media event satisfies a mutual exclusivity condition;
in response to the first merged media event satisfying the mutual exclusivity condition, estimate the first deduplicated reach value for the first merged media event based on at least a merge ratio and a second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, wherein the estimating is carried out in a manner that satisfies logical constraints on the first deduplicated reach value, and wherein the logical constraints are derived from a union inequality; and
output the first deduplicated reach value.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the merge ratio is based on a first panel audience value obtained for the first merged media event and a plurality of panel audience values obtained for media events included in the union, the plurality of panel audience values including a second panel audience value obtained for the second merged media event.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the merge ratio is further based on a universe estimate obtained for a panel associated with the first panel audience value and the plurality of panel audience values.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions are to cause the one or more processors to:
determine a lower bound and an upper bound for the first panel audience value based on the plurality of panel audience values and the universe estimate; and
determine the merge ratio based on the first panel audience value, the lower bound and the upper bound.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions are to cause the one or more processors to divide a first difference between the first panel audience value and the lower bound by a second difference between the upper bound and the lower bound to determine the merge ratio.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the union further includes a third individual media event, and the instructions are to cause the one or more processors to estimate the first deduplicated reach value for the first merged media event based on at least the merge ratio, the second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, a third deduplicated reach value obtained for the third individual media event, and a universe estimate obtained for a population associated with the third deduplicated reach value.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions are to cause the one or more processors to:
determine a lower bound and an upper bound for the first deduplicated reach value based on the second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, the third deduplicated reach value obtained for the third individual media event, and the universe estimate; and
add the lower bound to

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Sheppard Michael
• Joseph Marissa
• Kim Susan
• Sissenich Beate

Classifications

• G06Q30/0203

  Market surveys; Market polls · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201

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

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/251

  Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies (details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08) · 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