US 12,229,790 B2
Estimation and use of nested merge ratios for audience measurement
Michael Sheppard, Holland, MI (US); Marissa Joseph, Monroe Township, NJ (US); Susan Kim, Mercer Island, WA (US); and Beate Sissenich, New York, NY (US)
Assigned to The Nielsen Company (US), LLC, New York, NY (US)
Filed by The Nielsen Company (US), LLC, New York, NY (US)
Filed on Oct. 31, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/051,294.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/292,991, filed on Dec. 22, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0199240 A1, Jun. 22, 2023
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/0202 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0201 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0203 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0202 (2013.01) [G06Q 30/0201 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0203 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An audience measurement system comprising a processor and a memory, the audience measurement system configured to perform a set of operations comprising:
receiving, from a plurality of meters via a network, metering data for a plurality of media events;
storing the metering data in a datastore managed by an audience measurement entity;
obtaining, from one or more service providers, return path data for the plurality of media events;
identifying a first merged media event for which a first deduplicated reach value is to be determined, the first merged media event based on a union including a second merged media event;
determining whether the first merged media event satisfies a mutual exclusivity condition;
in response to the first merged media event satisfying the mutual exclusivity condition, estimating the first deduplicated reach value for the first merged media event based on at least a merge ratio and a second deduplicated reach value previously estimated for the second merged media event, wherein the estimating is carried out in a manner that satisfies logical constraints on the first deduplicated reach value, and wherein the logical constraints are derived from a union inequality; and
outputting the first deduplicated reach value.