Digital data insertion apparatus and methods for use with compressed audio/video data

1. A method of inserting data in a compressed data bitstream, comprising:

generating audience measurement data from program information that was extracted from a compressed data bitstream;

generating interactive data;

increasing a size of an auxiliary data field of a data frame of the compressed data bitstream by:

extracting compressed audio data within the data frame;

moving the compressed audio data to occupy a data location in the data frame from which a skip byte was eliminated; and

packing the compressed audio data toward one end of the data frame; and

inserting the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field to form a modified compressed data bitstream.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising demultiplexing the compressed data bitstream to identify a plurality of programs.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the compressed data bitstream is compliant with an AC-3 format.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising re-computing an error checking value associated with the compressed data bitstream after inserting the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 , wherein the error checking value is a cyclical redundancy check value.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising broadcasting the modified compressed data bitstream.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising: modifying the program information.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising modifying the program information to update scheduling, program guides or transport stream identifiers.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using a multiplexer to form the compressed data bitstream as a multi-program bitstream from a plurality of data bitstreams.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the inserting of the data occurs after the using of the multiplexer via a single data inserter.

11. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the compressed data bitstream includes audio and video content.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:

generating broadcast information with a Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) generator;

accessing the broadcast information generated by the PSIP generator; and

correlating the audience measurement data with the broadcast information.

13. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising modifying the program information to reflect that private data has been inserted in the data bitstream.

14. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein both the audience measurement data and the interactive data are inserted into the bitstream.

15. A system for inserting data in a compressed data bitstream, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and programmed to:

generate audience measurement data from program information extracted from the compressed data bitstream;

generate interactive data;

increase a size of an auxiliary data field of a data frame of the compressed data bitstream by:

extracting compressed audio data within the data frame;

moving the compressed audio data to occupy a data location in the data frame from which a skip byte was eliminated; and

packing the compressed audio data toward one end of the data frame; and

insert the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field to form a modified compressed data bitstream.

16. A system as defined in claim 15 , wherein the processor is programmed to demultiplex the compressed data bitstream to identify a plurality of programs.

17. A system as defined in claim 15 , wherein the compressed data bitstream is compliant with an AC-3 format.

18. A system as defined in claim 15 , wherein the processor is programmed to re-compute an error checking value associated with the compressed data bitstream after inserting the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field.

19. A system as defined in claim 18 , wherein the error checking value is a cyclical redundancy check value.

20. A machine readable device or storage disk having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

generate audience measurement data from program information extracted from a compressed data bitstream;

generate interactive data;

increase a size of an auxiliary data field of a data frame of the compressed data bitstream by:

extracting compressed audio data within the data frame;

moving the compressed audio data to occupy a data location in the data frame from which a skip byte was eliminated; and

packing the compressed audio data toward one end of the data frame; and

insert the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field to form a modified compressed data bitstream.

21. A machine readable device or storage disk as defined in claim 20 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the machine to demultiplex the compressed data bitstream to identify a plurality of programs.

22. A machine readable device or storage disk as defined in claim 20 , wherein the compressed data bitstream is compliant with an AC-3 format.

23. A machine readable device or storage disk as defined in claim 20 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the machine to re-compute an error checking value associated with the compressed data bitstream after inserting the audience measurement data or the interactive data in the auxiliary data field.

24. A machine readable device or storage disk as defined in claim 23 , wherein the error checking value is a cyclical redundancy check value.

25. A digital broadcast station, comprising:

a multiplexer;

an encoder coupled to the multiplexer; and

a data inserter coupled to the multiplexer, wherein the data inserter comprises:

a program information extractor to extract program information from a compressed data bitstream;

an audience measurement data generator to generate audience measurement data from the extracted program information; and

an interactive data generator to generate interactive data, wherein the data inserter is to:

increase a size of an auxiliary data field of a data frame of the compressed data bitstream by:

extracting the compressed audio data within the data frame;

moving the compressed audio data to occupy a data location in the data frame from which a skip byte was eliminated; and

packing the compressed audio data toward one end of the data frame; and

insert the audience measurement data or the interactive data into an auxiliary data field of the data frame that increases in size as a result of packing the compressed audio data.

26. A digital broadcast station as defined in claim 25 , wherein the encoder is configured to compression encode audio/video programs.

27. A digital broadcast station as defined in claim 26 , wherein the encoder is configured to compression encode audio/video programs in accordance with a digital television broadcast standard.

28. A digital broadcast station as defined in claim 25 , wherein the data inserter is configured to re-compute an error checking value within the compressed data bitstream following insertion of the audience measurement data or the interactive data into the auxiliary data field.

29. A digital broadcast station as defined in claim 25 , further comprising a data generator coupled to the data inserter to generate the interactive data.

30. A digital broadcast station as defined in claim 29 , further comprising a user interface coupled to the data generator.

31. A method of inserting data in a compressed data bitstream, comprising:

generating interactive data;

increasing a size of a first auxiliary data field of a first data frame of the compressed data bitstream by:

extracting compressed audio data within the first data frame;

moving the compressed audio data to occupy a data location in the first data frame from which a skip byte was eliminated; and

packing the compressed audio data toward one end of the first data frame; and

inserting the interactive data in the first auxiliary data field to form a modified compressed data bitstream.

32. A method as defined in claim 31 , wherein the interactive data is one or more of a uniform resource locator, an applet or a script.

33. A method as defined in claim 31 further comprising:

generating audience measurement data from program information extracted from the compressed data bitstream;

increasing a size of a second auxiliary data field of a second data frame of the compressed data bitstream; and

inserting the audience measurement data in at least one of the first auxiliary data field or the second auxiliary data field.