Using viewership profiles for targeted promotion deployment

Abstract

A system for generating viewership profiles to facilitate distributing promotions based on the profiles to one or more network devices, such as set top boxes. The system includes a promotion agent associated with each network device which collects viewing activity data of the network device. For example, the viewing activity data may include a channel the network device was tuned to, a time when the network device was tuned to the channel, and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel. The collected viewing activity data is then transmitted, for example, every twenty-four hours, to a life-cycle manager server, which also periodically receives a program schedule. The program schedule typically specifies the channel on which a particular program was displayed, as well as the time the program was shown. The life-cycle manager server correlates the viewing activity data with the program schedule to generate the viewership profile of the network device. The life cycle manager server determines the viewing behavior for four, eight, and twelve week periods, for example, or for a time period specified by a user.

1 . A system for distributing promotions to network devices, comprising:
 a promotion agent, embedded in each of the network devices, for collecting data corresponding to viewership activity at each of the network devices;   a life-cycle manager server, for receiving the viewership activity data from the promotion agents and correlating the viewership activity data with a program schedule, to determine viewer behaviors associated with the network devices;   the life-cycle manager server also for matching the determined viewer behaviors to group profiles, to determine at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;   the life-cycle manager server also for generating viewership profiles for the network devices based on the viewer behaviors and the at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;   a promotion manager, for matching the viewership profiles with promotion group membership criteria, to determine a promotion group that includes network devices that are to receive a promotion intended for viewers matching the viewership profile; and   the promotion manager also distributing the at least one promotion to the network devices.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity data of the network device includes a program channel on the network device. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity data includes a time at which the network device was tuned to the channel. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity includes a time at which the network device was tuned away from the channel. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity data is collected if the difference between a time the network device was tuned to the channel and a time the network device was tuned away from the channel is greater than a configurable time period. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity data is collected by the promotion agent over a twenty-four hour period before the viewership activity data is received by the life-cycle manager. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership activity data includes a program viewed by a viewer. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time the program was viewed by the viewer. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the program belongs to a genre. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the viewership activity data provides a percentage of time which the genre is viewed. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the percentage of time is precise to within about one percent. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the program belongs to multiple genres. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the viewership profile data is matched with a promotion group profile. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the promotion group profile is based on viewer attributes. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the viewer attributes include a geographic location. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the viewer attributes include demographic characteristics. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the viewer attributes include a genre of programs. 
     
     
         18 . A method for distributing promotions to at least one network device, comprising the steps of:
 collecting viewership activity data of work devices;   correlating the viewership activity data with a program schedule to determine viewer behaviors associated with the network devices;   matching the determined viewer behaviors to group profiles to determine at least one class of viewer associated with the network devices;   generating viewership profiles for the corresponding network devices based on the correlation and the matching steps, the generated viewership profiles including the viewer behaviors associated with the corresponding network devices and the classes of viewer associated with the network devices;   using the viewership profiles to determine a type of individual presently interacting with one of the network devices, the determined type of individual used to match one of the viewership profiles with a promotion group membership criteria, to determine a promotion group that includes network devices that are to receive a promotion intended for viewers matching the viewership profile; and   distributing one or more promotions to the promotion group so determined.