Methods and apparatus to generate audience measurement data from population sample data having incomplete demographic classifications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018332177-A1
Application number	US-201816003720-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 8, 2018
Priority date	Dec 23, 2015
Publication date	Nov 15, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to generate audience measurement data from population sample data having incomplete demographic classifications are disclosed. An example method includes improving an accuracy of the first impressions counts by: determining a database proprietor frequency value for ones of demographic groups for a first one of time segments; calculating a distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments; determining adjusted unique audience sizes based on the distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments; for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments, calculating adjusted impressions counts by determining a product of the adjusted unique audience sizes and the database proprietor frequency value; determining a scaling factor for the first one of the time segments by determining a ratio between site census impressions counts and a summation of the adjusted impressions counts associated with the ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments; applying the scaling factor to the adjusted impressions counts associated with the ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments to generate adjusted and scaled impressions counts; and determining an adjusted and scaled duration for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments by multiplying the adjusted and scaled impressions counts associated with the first ones of the demographic groups by a corresponding time value associated with the first one of the time segments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method to improve an accuracy of online audience measurement, the method comprising:
receiving, via a first server at an audience measurement entity, first network communications including first beacon request messages, the first beacon request messages indicating first impressions corresponding to an episode of media accessed on devices via the Internet, the first beacon request messages identifying time segments of the episode presented at the devices; in response to receiving the first beacon request messages, sending, via the first server, second network communications to the devices, the second network communications including first re-direct response messages redirecting the devices to a database proprietor; accessing, with a processor at the audience measurement entity, first demographic information received via third network communications from the database proprietor, the first demographic information including first impressions counts attributed to respective demographic groups by a computer at the database proprietor, the first impressions counts based on the first impressions of the episode and corresponding to the time segments of the episode; and improving an accuracy of the first impressions counts by:
determining a database proprietor frequency value for ones of the demographic groups for a first one of the time segments;
calculating a distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments;
determining adjusted unique audience sizes based on the distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments;
for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments, calculating adjusted impressions counts by determining a product of the adjusted unique audience sizes and the database proprietor frequency value;
determining a scaling factor for the first one of the time segments by determining a ratio between site census impressions counts and a summation of the adjusted impressions counts associated with the ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments;
applying the scaling factor to the adjusted impressions counts associated with the ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments to generate adjusted and scaled impressions counts; and
determining an adjusted and scaled duration for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments by multiplying the adjusted and scaled impressions counts associated with the first ones of the demographic groups by a corresponding time value associated with the first one of the time segments.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the database proprietor frequency value includes calculating a ratio of the first impressions counts and the unique audience sizes provided by the first demographic information from the database proprietor for ones of the demographic groups corresponding to the first one of the time segments.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further including adjusting the first demographic information from the database proprietor for demographic misattribution and database proprietor non-coverage for the first one of the time segments prior to determining the database proprietor frequency value.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the adjusting of the first demographic information includes:
based on the first beacon request messages received via the first server of the audience measurement entity, detecting that second impressions counts for the first one of the time segments of the episode occurred; detecting that no impressions for the first one of the time segments of the episode were detected by the database proprietor; determining respective percentages of exposures of the episode that are attributable to corresponding ones of the demographic groups, the determining of the respective percentages being based on the first demographic information provided by the database proprietor for exposures of other time segments of the episode; determining respective portions of the second impressions counts corresponding to the demographic groups based on the respective percentages; and generating corrected impressions counts corresponding to the episode by adding missing impressions counts to the first impressions counts.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a first one of the adjusted unique audience sizes for a first one of the demographic groups is a ratio between a raw database proprietor unique audience for the first one of the demographic groups and the distributor-level audience adjustment factor.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further including determining the adjusted and scaled impressions counts for the first one of the time segments by taking the product of the scaling factor and the adjusted impressions counts.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further including determining a mismatch error in the first impressions counts produced by the computer, the mismatch error arising from the devices reporting the first impressions to a second server of the database proprietor in fourth network communications and a portion of the fourth network communications dropped over a public network so that a portion of the first impressions are not included in the first impressions counts, the fourth network communications including second beacon request messages sent by the devices to the second server of the database proprietor in response to the devices receiving the first re-direct response messages.

8 . An audience measurement apparatus to improve an accuracy of online audience measurement, comprising:
a first impressions collector to:
receive, via a first server at an audience measurement entity, first network communications including first beacon request messages, the first beacon request messages indicating first impressions corresponding to an episode of media accessed on devices via the Internet, the first beacon request messages identifying time segments of the episode presented at the devices;
in response to receiving the first beacon request messages, send, via the first server, second network communications to the devices, the second network communications including first re-direct response messages redirecting the devices to a database proprietor;
a second impressions collector to access, with a processor at the audience measurement entity, first demographic information received via third network communications from the database proprietor, the first demographic information including first impressions counts attributed to respective demographic groups by a computer at the database proprietor, the first impressions counts based on the first impressions counts of the episode and corresponding to the time segments of the episode; a calibrator to improve an accuracy of the first impressions counts, the calibrator to determine a database proprietor frequency value for ones of the demographic groups for a first one of the time segments; an audience adjustor to:
calculate a distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments; and
determine adjusted unique audience sizes based on the distributor-level unique audience adjustment factor for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments;
an impressions adjustor to, for ones of the demographic groups for the first one of the time segments, calculate adjusted impressions counts by determining a product of the adjusted unique audience sizes and the database proprietor frequency value; an impressions scaler to:
determine a scaling factor for the first one of the time segments by determini

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Shah Dipti Umesh
• Toupet Antonia

Classifications

• H04N21/25883

  being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address (arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52) · CPC title

• H04H60/37

  for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · 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

• H04H60/66

  for using the result on distributors' side · CPC title