The Nielsen Comapny (us), LLC

The Neilsen Company (us), LLC

Jerome Samson

David Henry Harkness

Arun Ramaswamy

Venugopal Srinivasan

Alexander Pavlovich Topchy

Jan Besehanic

Francis Gavin McMillan

Daozheng Lu

William Feininger

Manish Bhatia

Francis G McMillian

Example methods disclosed herein include accessing a secondary content schedule based on one or more watermarks detected in primary media content, the secondary content schedule to identify (i) one or more secondary content items and (ii) one or more first time values associated with the one or more secondary content items. Disclosed example methods also include comparing the one or more first time values associated with the one or more secondary content items in the secondary content schedule to second time values provided by a clock to determine whether to present a first one of the one or more secondary content items, the second time values based on a timestamp associated with the one or more watermarks detected in the primary media content. Disclosed example methods further include causing a media presentation device to display the first one of the secondary content items according to the secondary content schedule.

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide secondary content in association with primary broadcast media content

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide media content are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein include means for identifying primary media content presented on a first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus also include means for accessing a secondary content schedule associated with the primary media content. The secondary content schedule includes a plurality of secondary content items and time values associated with the secondary content items. The secondary content items are also associated with a loyalty value for a user of the first media presentation device. Disclosed example apparatus further include means for selecting one of the secondary content items to be accessed in response to a timestamp associated with the primary media content being between time values associated with the selected one of the secondary content items in the secondary content schedule.

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide media content are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving an audio signal output by a first media presentation device, the audio signal being associated with first media content, decoding the audio signal to extract a code from the audio signal, the code identifying at least one of the first media content or a broadcaster of the first media content, setting a clock using a timestamp associated with the code, obtaining second media content based on the code and the timestamp, the second media content comprising a plurality of pieces of secondary content for respective ones of a plurality of timestamps, and presenting, at a second media presentation device, a first of the plurality of pieces of secondary media when its respective timestamp substantially corresponds to a time value obtained from the clock.

A metering system meters usage of on-line and local services by way of interactive service devices. An example metering system includes a first data acquisition module configured to copy usage data associated with a first interactive service device and a second data acquisition module configured to copy usage data associated with a second interactive service device different than the first interactive service device. Each of the data acquisition modules is configured to distinguish between on-line communications associated with access to an on-line service and local communications associated with a local application program. In addition, each data acquisition module is configured to extract the usage data based whether an on-line communication or a local communication is identified.

Interactive service device metering systems

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to provide media content are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving audio output by a first media presentation device, obtaining at least one of a Nielsen code or an Arbitron&#xae; code from the audio, the obtained code being representative of at least one of the first media content or a broadcaster of the first media content, obtaining second media content based on the extracted code, and presenting the second media content on a second media presentation device different from the first media presentation device.

Methods and apparatus for classifying data for use in data fusion processes are disclosed. An example method of classifying data selectively groups nodes of a classification tree so that each node is assigned to only one of a plurality of groups and so that at least one of the groups includes at least two of the nodes. Data is classified based on the classification tree and the selective grouping of the nodes, and the results displayed.

Data classification methods and apparatus for use with data fusion

Methods and apparatus for fusing multiple databases into a single database are disclosed. A disclosed method determines a ranking of a plurality of matching variables associated with first and second datasets and generates a hierarchical matching grid including a plurality of levels based on the ranking of the plurality of matching variables. The example method identifies first and second sets of match candidates from the first and second datasets based on successive levels of the hierarchical matching grid and fuses records in the first and second sets of match candidates based on probabilities associated with the records.

Methods and apparatus for fusing databases

A metering system meters usage of on-line and off-line services by way of interactive service devices. Interactive service devices may include personal computers and non-personal-computers. Non-personal-computers may include network computers, gaming devices, Internet televisions, Internet telephones, and the like. The on-line service usage may include Internet usage such as which home pages, advertisements, and other Internet resources are accessed by a user. The off-line service usage may include application program usage such as which application programs are executed by a user.

Methods and apparatus for classifying data for use in data fusion processes are disclosed. An example method of classifying data identifies classification tree information and assigns values to each of a plurality of nodes associated with the classification tree information. Each of the values is indicative of a relationship between its respective node and one of a plurality of classes. The example method also assigns each node to one of the classes based on a comparison of at least two of the assigned values and classifies the data based on the assignment of the nodes to the classes.

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Belleair, FL, United States of America

Jerome Samson