JP2005020233A - System and method for investigating program rating - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To acquire a highly precise program rating investigating result without trouble when monitoring devices are arranged in respective households and a television program rating is investigated. <P>SOLUTION: The monitoring device 10 collecting sound output at the time of viewing/hearing a television receiver 4 as viewing/hearing program sound, encoding viewing/hearing program sound as viewing/hearing program sound data with collection time, sound pressure and a frequency value as a group and transmitting it outside through a communication line 40 is arranged at every household 1. A program sound learning device 20 encoding and accumulating televising time and program sound as peculiar sound data by individual program with sound pressure and the frequency value as the group by individual televising programs, and transmitting it outside through a communication line 41 is disposed in a broadcast station 2 and the like. An identification/total device 30 collating and discriminating viewing/hearing program sound data transmitted from the monitoring device 10 at every investigation household 1 with peculiar sound data by individual program, which is transmitted from the program sound learning device 20, specifying the viewing/hearing program at every investigation household 1 and calculating and totaling it as the program rating is arranged. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an audience rating survey system and a survey method, and in order to investigate an audience rating for each television program, the viewing is performed by acquiring program viewing data and monitoring the audience rating via a monitoring device installed in each household. The present invention relates to a rate survey system and an audience rating survey method.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The audience rating is an important social statistical item that reflects the social condition or social situation, for example, together with the estimation of the number of households (people) who have watched TV programs. There are currently two ways to investigate this rating:
(1) Survey by people meter (hereinafter referred to as PM) (2) Survey by online meter (3) Survey by diary questionnaire is conducted by a specialized survey company (see Non-Patent Document 1).
[0003]
For example, in a PM survey, a household or individual registered as a viewer actually inputs the viewing data into the PM device at the beginning and end of the viewed program, and the data is collected at a predetermined interval (minimum 1 minute interval). Is sent through the data communication line. In the online meter survey, data acquired from a television with a built-in or connected special sensor device for specifying received program information is collected. In a diary survey, viewing data was input to an electronic survey sheet (for example, an input tablet), the data was organized and processed by a PC, etc., and stored on a recording medium, for example, data for one week was accumulated. Recording media are collected by household.
[0004]
In addition, a high-performance PC equipped with a TV capture board, etc. is used as a TV receiver, and channel selection information when receiving TV through the PC is managed by the PC and sent to the data aggregation center via a data communication line. A method has also been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
[0005]
[Non-Patent Document 1]
Video Research, Inc. HP, “Three Survey Methods for Audience Rating Survey”, [online], searched on June 18, 2003 <URL: http: // www. video. co. jp / rating / wh / 02. htm>
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-11-355228, p. 3. Description.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, among the above survey methods, PM survey forces viewers to perform tasks such as pressing buttons on the PM device, so the viewer is bothered to input data and does not input correct information and collects correct data. There is much fear that it cannot be done. For this reason, in order to avoid this kind of trouble, it is necessary to always develop and replace a user-friendly device, and there are many problems in maintenance. In the case of online meter survey, it is necessary to install a dedicated receiver that can obtain channel selection information instead of the television receiver in each household, and there is a problem that it is difficult to obtain cooperation from the surveyed household. In the case of a receiver using the function of the PC shown in Patent Document 1, there is a similar problem in terms of equipment. Furthermore, in the case of a diary survey, there is a problem that data is not quickly reported because data for a certain period is stored in a recording medium and the collected data is processed after collection.
[0007]
In addition, it is clear that increasing the number of households (samples) to be surveyed can improve the accuracy of audience rating surveys, and therefore there is a need for an inexpensive and highly accurate audience survey system. Yes.
[0008]
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technique, and attach an inexpensive monitoring device to the television of the survey household, and based on the data obtained from the device, a larger number of survey households ( It is to provide an audience rating survey system and an audience rating survey method capable of performing audience rating survey by the number of samples).
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a system in which audio output of a television receiver at the time of viewing in a survey household is collected at a predetermined interval and at a predetermined time width, and the audio program output is collected. A monitoring device that can encode the collection time, sound pressure, and frequency values as a set and send it to the outside via a communication line, input the broadcast time and program sound for each program, and each program sound A program sound learning device that can be encoded and stored as a set of broadcast time, sound pressure, and frequency values as data, and can be transmitted to the outside via a communication line, and a viewing program sound transmitted from the monitoring device for each survey household The data and the program-specific sound data sent from the program sound learning device are collated and identified, and a viewing program at each collection time for each survey household is specified, and calculated / aggregated as audience rating data Characterized by comprising an identification collection apparatus that performs.
[0010]
At this time, it is preferable that the audio output of the television receiver is collected as a viewing program sound by an external output terminal or a microphone sound collection.
[0011]
In addition, as a method for investigating the audience rating using the above system, the audio output of the television receiver at the time of viewing in the survey household is collected at a predetermined interval and at a predetermined time width, and the program audio is collected. The time, sound pressure, and frequency values are encoded as a set and sent to the identification and aggregation device via the communication line. On the other hand, the broadcast times and program sounds of all the broadcasted programs are collected, and each program sound is broadcast as unique sound data for each program. The time, sound pressure, and frequency values are encoded and stored as a set, sent to the identification and aggregation device via a communication line, and the viewing program sound data sent to each survey household and the program-specific sound data It is characterized by comparing and identifying a viewing program at each collection time for each survey household and calculating / aggregating as audience rating data.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of an audience rating survey system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram schematically showing a system outline of an audience rating survey system according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, this audience rating survey system broadcasts and distributes a monitoring device 10 installed in each household 1 (sample location) to be surveyed and programs such as broadcasting stations and CATV companies. The program sound learning apparatus 20 installed in the place 2 to perform and the identification totaling apparatus installed in the data totaling center 3 or the like are configured. The viewing data obtained by the monitoring device 10 is transmitted to the data totaling center 3 through the data communication line 40 at a predetermined timing or continuously, and the data totaling center 3 performs audience rating survey (data totaling, editing and distribution). Done.
[0013]
Among these, the monitoring device 10 is a data acquisition device installed for each survey household 1, and specifically, is attached to the television receiver 4 used in each household which is an audience rating survey monitor. . At this time, the television receiver 4 can be attached without depending on the model. That is, the monitoring device 10 is used by being connected to the audio external output terminal 5 or the PHONES terminal which is a standard specification of the television receiver 4. If this type of terminal cannot be used, a microphone 7 (sensor) can be installed near the TV speaker 6 to cope with it. The TV program being viewed is identified from the audio output characteristics transmitted at the same time as the image, but the audio output can be directly collected as the viewing program sound through a terminal connection, so it is accurate without being disturbed by surrounding conversations. Data can be collected well.
[0014]
FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the monitoring apparatus 10 that collects viewing program sounds. The monitoring device 10 is a low-power device that can be operated with a commercial power source and is installed near the television receiver 4 of each household. As an external I / F, a micro jack terminal 11 for connection to the audio external output terminal 5 of the television receiver 4, a MIC terminal 12 for connecting a microphone cable, and a communication modem (RJ 11) terminal 13 are provided. A card slot 14 for a nonvolatile memory card as an external recording medium is also provided. Needless to say, various standard products can be used as the external storage medium.
[0015]
The functional blocks in the apparatus 10 include a band-pass filter 15 that can extract the frequency of each sound pressure signal input from the audio external output terminal 5 of the television receiver 4 or the microphone 7, and an analog sound pressure signal. A / D converter 16 that converts it into a digital signal for the encoding process of the process, and various software (software that encodes the sound pressure signal as viewing program sound data, measurement instrument control) that is ROMized and mounted on the control board Software, external medium output control software, communication control software) CPU 17, external medium recording unit 18 for recording viewing program sound data on the card medium mounted in slot 14, viewing program sound data, data communication And a data communication control unit 19 for transmitting to the data totaling center 3 via the line 40. There.
[0016]
The viewing program sound data collected by the monitoring device 10 and converted into data in a predetermined format is transmitted to the data totaling center 3 through the data communication line 40 at a predetermined timing. The communication lines include various commercial data communication networks, For example, a packet communication network such as a fixed phone, a mobile phone, and an IP phone can be used. As for the number of collected data, the standard data handling amount is 100 locations in 1 minute, 1000 locations in 1 hour unit, 1000 locations in 1 hour unit, or 3,000 to 10,000 locations in 1 day unit. As a guide.
[0017]
In the present embodiment, the program sound learning device 20 can set a capacity (for example, for 24 ch, 32 ch, 64 ch, 128 ch) according to the number of broadcasts provided from the video source (sound source) 21 and scheduled to be distributed. Audio output for learning data can be input for each channel. This apparatus is installed in a place where the audio output from the video source 21 of all distribution programs can be recorded, such as a broadcasting station that organizes, broadcasts, and distributes the target program, CATV (cable television) company 2, etc. Is preferred. When the output sound is multiplexed sound or stereo output, it is preferable to record with a mixing terminal device or to record both left and right as separate channels, and to match the data at a later data processing stage.
[0018]
The program-specific unique data that is input to the program sound learning device 20 and encoded and stored in the same manner is transmitted and output via the dedicated line 41 to the identification and totalization device 30 of the data totaling center 3. In the identification and aggregation device 30, the viewing program sound data for each household or individual is transmitted via the data communication line 40. Then, the viewing program is specified by the collation determination operation with the program specific data.
[0019]
[Sound identification technology]
Here, the sound identification technique applied to the audience rating survey of the present invention will be described. For example, for most viewers, the operation of watching a TV program is also an operation of listening to audio simultaneously. Therefore, in the audience rating survey system of the present invention, paying attention to the fact that the audio output has a sound pressure level or frequency level unique to each TV program, by comparing with the program specific data of the viewed program, I have identified. By the way, as shown in FIG. 4, the change in the sound pressure level (sound intensity) differs depending on the sound tuner characteristics of the television receiver and the volume at the time of viewing. 5), as shown in FIG. 5, it is confirmed that the influence of the volume adjustment or the like is small and can be recorded as a program-specific pattern. Therefore, in the present invention, the frequency and sound pressure are continuously measured by the monitoring device 10 described above, encoded as viewing program sound data based on the collected sound data group, and this viewing program sound data is broadcasted and distributed. The program is identified from the target viewing program sound by making a comparison with the program specific sound data generated by the program sound learning device 20 that stores all program sounds to be recorded. This method does not compress and record all voices, as in voice recognition, but performs collation / discrimination by encoding sound data groups through continuous monitoring of voice frequency and pressure, making data compact. There is an advantage that can be achieved.
[0020]
Hereinafter, the work flow of the program audience rating survey will be described with reference to FIG.
As described above, a television program has unique sound (program-specific sound data) that changes for each program and each broadcast time. This program specific sound data is composed of continuous changes in frequency and sound pressure, but in the present invention, in order to minimize the influence of disturbance, it is regarded as a change in the dominant frequency (sound level). It was. As a result, it is possible to minimize the influence of the volume adjustment of the viewer and the quality / characteristics of the tuner and the speaker, and the viewing program sound data obtained through the monitoring device 10 and the program-specific sound data set in advance. Collation discrimination can be realized with high accuracy. Specifically, in program viewing, statistical processing is performed on the basis of a prevailing frequency data group obtained by measuring a viewing program sound every 0.1 second for a certain time (for example, 30 to 40 seconds), and this is encoded. The program to be viewed is specified using the same program specific sound data as the program specific sound data.
[0021]
The viewing program sound data D is given by the following equation.
D = f (T · P · F) (1)
Here, with T (measurement time) as the time address, a statistical analysis process is performed based on P (measurement sound pressure) and F (measurement frequency) values measured about every 0.1 second, and a set of Viewing program sound data D is obtained. As a standard analysis method, four encoded data (FD _{1 to} FD ₄ ) are created as frequency statistical analysis data. Statistical analysis for performing FD encoding is basically performed based on values synthesized from three items of F (frequency), P (sound pressure), and T (time). The program specific data stored in the program sound learning device 20 can also be obtained by performing the same statistical processing. The identification totaling device 30, and four encoded data stored in the learning device as the known data _(FD 1 _{~FD 4), 4} pieces of the encoded data transmitted from the monitoring device _{10 (FD} 1 ~FD 4) Statistical processing is determined between the two. Since the program viewing data is organized as _four encoded data (FD _{1 to} FD ₄ ), the data communication load is reduced.
[0022]
As determination processing in this case, analysis in three stages of complete match, semi-match, and mismatch can be performed. For example, the judgment result that is matched by the low-level judgment criteria is “semi-match”, the judgment result that is matched by the high-level judgment criteria is “perfect match”, In the input stage, the statistical processing input values for calculating the audience rating are ranked in three stages. The audience rating as the final result is given when a determination result of two stages of “complete match” and “semi-match” is obtained in the measurement data processing stage. Of course, the audience rating can be calculated by a known data processing technique other than this technique, and the audience rating data calculated and stored is processed into a desired format and distributed to the client.
[0023]
【Example】
6A and 7B, FIG. 6A shows a program sound learning apparatus 20 that repeats the sound of an actual broadcasted program (Example 1: NHK documentary program, Example 2: animated movie) multiple times. This is frequency data that is input and acquired as program specific data. On the other hand, FIG. 5B shows frequency and sound pressure data showing an example of viewing program sound data collected by the monitoring device 10 of the viewing household and sent to the data totaling center 3. As can be seen with reference to both figures, it has been confirmed that the frequency data based on the viewing program sound data and the frequency data of the program specific data are almost completely coincident with each other. As a result, it was confirmed that an audience rating survey that accurately identified the viewing program at the data acquisition time (time zone) could be performed.
[0024]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, it is possible to accurately identify the viewing program by comparing the sound pressure data and frequency data obtained from the television receiver with the unique data for each program using an inexpensive monitoring device. Therefore, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the audience rating survey by increasing the number of samples (the number of households to be surveyed).
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an audience rating survey system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the monitoring device of the audience rating survey system of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a work flowchart of an audience rating survey method according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the volume of the viewing program sound and the frequency level.
FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the volume of the viewing program sound and the sound pressure level.
FIG. 6 is a graph showing a comparison between viewing program sound data and program-specific data in a certain program.
7 is a graph showing a comparison between viewing program sound data and program-specific data in a program different from FIG. 6. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Household 2 Broadcasting Station 3 Data Aggregation Center 4 Television Receiver 10 Monitoring Device 20 Program Sound Learning Device 30 Identification and Aggregation Device 40 Data Communication Line

Claims (3)

Audio output at the time of viewing of the television receiver in the survey household is collected as a viewing program sound at a predetermined interval with a predetermined interval, and the viewing program sound is collected as a set of collection time, sound pressure, and frequency value. A monitoring device that can be encoded as data and sent to the outside via a communication line;
Broadcast time and program sound can be input for each program, and each program sound can be encoded and stored as a program-specific sound data as a set, and sent to the outside via a communication line. A program sound learning device,
The viewing program sound data sent from the monitoring device for each survey household is compared with the program-specific sound data sent from the program sound learning device, and the viewing program at each collection time for each survey household is specified. In addition, an audience rating survey system comprising an identification and counting device that calculates and counts as audience rating data. The audience rating survey system according to claim 1, wherein the audio output of the television receiver is collected as a viewing program sound by an external output terminal or a microphone sound collection. The audio output of the television receiver at the time of viewing in the survey household is collected at a predetermined interval and at a predetermined time width to collect the viewing program sound, and the viewing program sound is encoded as a collection time, sound pressure, and frequency value as a set. While sending it to the identification and aggregation device via the communication line,
Collects airtime and program sound of all aired programs, encodes and stores each program sound as unique sound data for each program as a set of airtime, sound pressure, and frequency values, and stores them in the identification and aggregation device via a communication line Send out,
The viewing program sound data transmitted for each surveyed household and the unique sound data for each program are compared and identified, and the viewing program at each collection time for each surveyed household is specified, and calculation / aggregation is performed as audience rating data. An audience rating survey method characterized by that.

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