Audience measurement systems and methods for digital television

Abstract

A television audience measurement system measures viewing of a television program viewed on digital television located in a statistically selected site by (i) retrieving an audience measurement data packet from a television set in order to identify the television program, (ii) detecting an audio code embedded in the television program in order to identify the television program, (iii) extracting an audio signature from the television program in order to identify the television program, (iv) identifying the television program through use of a software agent, and (v) selecting at least one of the retrieving means, the detecting means, the extracting means, and the software agent in order to identify the television program.

1 . A television audience measurement system for identifying a viewer selected television program from among a plurality of television programs simultaneously broadcast in a broadcast channel, the television audience measurement system comprising: 
 a channel detector that detects the broadcast channel in which the plurality of television programs is broadcast; and,    a comparator that sequentially compares an audio component of the plurality of television programs broadcast in the detected broadcast channel with an audio signal of the viewer selected television program so as to identify the viewer selected television program.