Methods and apparatus to verify and/or correct media lineup information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9420323-B2
Application number	US-201414473639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2014
Priority date	Dec 19, 2013
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to verify and/or correct media lineup information are disclosed. An example method includes comparing presentation data representative of media output by a first set top box (STB) to reference data corresponding to a first station to determine whether the media presentation data corresponds to the reference data, the presentation data collected while the first STB was tuned to a first channel. The method further includes determining a second station that corresponds to the presentation data when the presentation data does not correspond to the reference data. The method further includes correcting a first channel map that relates the first channel to the first station by relating the first channel to the second station to create a second channel map, and correcting clickstream data that represents commands to other STBs using the second channel map.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
comparing, by executing an instruction with a processor, media presentation data representative of media output by a first set top box to reference data corresponding to a first station to determine whether the media presentation data corresponds to the reference data, the media presentation data collected while the first set top box was tuned to a first channel number;
when the media presentation data does not correspond to the reference data, determining a second station that corresponds to the media presentation data;
correcting, by executing an instruction with the processor, a first channel map that relates the first channel number to the first station based on channel lineup information for the first set top box, the correcting including relating the first channel number to the second station to create a second channel map, the channel lineup information corresponding to a geographic area in which the first set top box is located; and
correcting, by executing an instruction with the processor, clickstream data that corresponds to the first channel map using the second channel map, the clickstream data representing commands to other set top boxes at designated households in the geographic area.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media presentation data includes a first watermark extracted from the media, the reference data includes a second watermark corresponding to the first station, and the method further includes determining the reference data based on the first channel map by A) looking up the first station in the first channel map in a database and B) setting the second watermark as the reference data when the second watermark corresponds to the first station in the database.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining of the second station includes looking up the first watermark in the database to identify the second station as corresponding to the first watermark in the database.

4. The method of claim 2 , further including determining a second channel number that corresponds to the first station by:
comparing the second watermark to additional watermarks in the media presentation data to determine a third watermark that matches the second watermark;
determining a time at which the third watermark was collected; and
determining the second channel number as the channel to which the first set top box was tuned at the time based on a script used to control tuning of the first set top box to a set of channels including the first and second channels.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the media presentation data includes an ID3 tag.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the ID3 tag contains the first watermark.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media presentation data includes first signatures representative of the media, the reference data includes second signatures representative of reference media scheduled to be presented on the first station according to a program schedule, and the method further includes:
looking up the first station in the program schedule in a database based on times at which the first signatures were generated; and
setting the second signatures as the reference data when the second signatures correspond to the first station and to the times at which the first signatures were generated according to the program schedule.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the determining of the second station includes:
identifying third signatures in the database that match the first signatures;
determining second reference media corresponding to the third signatures based on the database; and
determining the second station that was scheduled to present the second reference media at the times at which the first signatures were generated based on the program schedule.

9. The method of claim 7 , further including determining a second channel number that corresponds to the first station by:
comparing the second signatures to third signatures in the media presentation data, the third signatures generated when the set top box was tuned to the second channel number;
when the second signatures match the third signatures, determining a time at which the third signatures were generated from media output by the first set top box; and
determining the second channel number as the channel to which the first set top box was tuned at the time the third signatures were generated based on a script used to control tuning of the first set top box to a set of channels including the first and second channels.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media presentation data is generated from audio output from a media presentation device, the media presentation device outputting the audio based on the media output by the first set top box.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media presentation data is generated from ID3 tags associated with the media output by the first set top box.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media presentation data includes at least one of a signature representative of the media output by the set top box, a code embedded in the media output by the set top box, or metadata transmitted with the media.

13. An apparatus, comprising:
a script generator to generate a script including instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to issue a sequence of commands to a first set top box;
a media data comparator to:
compare media presentation data representative of media output by the first set top box to reference data corresponding to a first station to determine whether the media presentation data corresponds to the reference data, the media presentation data collected while the first set top box was tuned to a first channel number;
when the media presentation data does not correspond to the reference data, determine a second station that corresponds to the media presentation data; and
correct a first channel map that relates the first channel number to the first station for the first set top box by relating the first channel number to the second station to create a second channel map; and

a clickstream media crediter to correct clickstream data using the second channel map, the clickstream data representing commands to second set top boxes at households in a geographic area corresponding to the first set top box.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , further including a lineup interpreter to identify the first channel map based on channel lineup information for the first set top box, the channel lineup information corresponding to a geographic area in which the first set top box is located.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the media presentation data includes a first watermark extracted from the media, the reference data includes a second watermark corresponding to the first station, and the apparatus further includes a watermark identifier to:
look up the first station in the first channel map in a database;
determine the reference data based on the first channel map; and
set the second watermark as the reference data based on the second watermark corresponding to the first station in the database.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the watermark identifier is to, when the media presentation data does not correspond to the reference data:
look up the first watermark in the database to identify the second station as corresponding to the first watermark in the database; and
determine a second channel number that corresponds to the first station by:
comparing the second watermark to other watermarks in the media presentation data to determine a third watermark that matches th

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Mcmillan F Gavin

Classifications

• H04N21/44008

  involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59) · CPC title

• H04N21/4394

  involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58) · CPC title

• H04N21/2407

  Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads (arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14) · CPC title

• H04N21/4383

  Accessing a communication channel · CPC title

• H04N21/8358

  involving watermark {(protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467)} · CPC title