Television programming distribution network with integrated data gathering, modeling, forecasting, delivery, and measurement

1. A television programming distribution network system, comprising:

a plurality of addressable television receivers, wherein each addressable television receiver comprises: a plurality of tuners that receive television programming from a television service provider broadcast system of a television service provider;

a plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers, wherein each bi-directional communication television receiver comprises:

a plurality of tuners that receive television programming from the television service provider broadcast system of the television service provider; and

a communication interface that transmits viewership information to a viewership analysis system of the television service provider; and

the viewership analysis system comprising:

a subscriber database that relates physical addresses of structures at which the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers are installed with identifiers of the bi-directional communication television receivers; and

a viewership modeling server system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

construct a viewership target model using the viewership information received from the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and data from the subscriber database, wherein the viewership target model indicates a subset of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers;

train a differentiator model using the viewership target model, wherein the differentiator model uses demographic data and/or address data, but viewership data is unavailable, to identify addressable television receivers that fit the viewership target model;

apply the differentiator model to the plurality of addressable television receivers, wherein:

each addressable television receiver of the plurality of addressable television receivers can be addressed individually by the television service provider but cannot transmit information to the television service provider; and

distribute content to at least a subset of the plurality of addressable television receivers based on applying the differentiator model to the plurality of addressable television receivers.

2. The television programming distribution network system of claim 1 , wherein the viewership analysis system further comprises a communication interface that communicates with a demographic database, wherein the demographic database is distinct from the subscriber database and the demographic database relates demographic information with the physical addresses of structures.

3. The television programming distribution network system of claim 2 , wherein the viewership modeling server system being configured to construct the viewership target model comprises the viewership target model being constructed using demographic data from the demographic database.

4. The television programming distribution network system of claim 1 , wherein the viewership modeling server system being configured to construct the viewership target model further comprises processor readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

identify a television program;

rank the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on an amount of time the television program was viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

create the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the highest ranking based on the amount of time that the television program was viewed.

5. The television programming distribution network system of claim 2 , wherein the viewership modeling server system being configured to construct the viewership target model further comprises processor readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

identify a television program;

rank the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on a number of times episodes of the television program were viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

create the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the greatest number of times episodes of the television program were viewed.

6. The television programming distribution network system of claim 1 , wherein the information transmitted via the communication interface to the viewership modeling server system comprises: indications of television channels and durations for which the television channels were output for presentation.

7. The television programming distribution network system of claim 3 , wherein the demographic database is maintained by a third party and the communication interface is configured to communicate via the Internet with the demographic database.

8. The television programming distribution network system of claim 1 , further comprising a satellite-based television programming distribution network that broadcasts the television programming to the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers.

9. A method for using a television programming distribution network with integrated predictive data gathering for distributing content, the method comprising:

broadcasting, using a television service provider network, a plurality of instances of television programming to a plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and a plurality of addressable television receivers, wherein:

each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and the plurality of addressable television receivers comprises a plurality of tuners that receive television programming from a television service provider broadcast system of a television service provider;

collecting, from the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers, via a bi-directional network communication channel, viewership information by a viewership analysis system wherein each instance of the viewership information is indicative of television programming received and viewed using a corresponding bi-directional communication television receiver of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers;

constructing, by the viewership analysis system, a viewership target model using the viewership information received from the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and data from a subscriber database accessible by the viewership analysis system, wherein the viewership target model indicates a subset of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers;

training, by the viewership analysis system, a differentiator model using the viewership target model, wherein the differentiator model uses demographic data and/or address data, but viewership data is unavailable, to identify addressable television receivers that fit the viewership target model;

applying, by the viewership analysis system, the differentiator model to the plurality of addressable television receivers, wherein:

each addressable television receiver of the plurality of addressable television receivers can be addressed individually by the television service provider but cannot transmit information to the television service provider; and

distributing, by the viewership analysis system, content to at least a subset of the plurality of addressable television receivers based on applying the differentiator model to the plurality of addressable television receivers.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: retrieving, by the viewership analysis system, demographic information from a demographic database based on physical addresses stored in the subscriber database.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein constructing the viewership target model is at least partially based on the retrieved demographic data from the demographic database.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein constructing the viewership target model comprises:

identifying a television program;

ranking the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on an amount of time the television program was viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

creating the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the highest ranking based on the amount of time that the television program was viewed.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein constructing the viewership target model comprises:

identifying a television program;

ranking the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on a number of times episodes of the television program were viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

creating the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the greatest number of times episodes of the television program were viewed.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the viewership information comprises indications of television channels and durations for which the television channels were output for presentation.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein broadcasting, using the television service provider network, the plurality of instances of television programming to the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and the plurality of addressable television receivers comprising using a satellite-based television programming distribution network to distribute the plurality of instances of television programming.

16. A non-transitory processor-readable medium, comprising processor-readable instructions that cause one or more processors to:

collect, from a plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers, via a bi-directional network communication channel, viewership information by a viewership analysis system wherein each instance of the viewership information is indicative of television programming received and viewed using a corresponding bi-directional communication television receiver of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers, wherein

each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers comprises a plurality of tuners that receive television programming from a television service provider broadcast system of a television service provider;

construct a viewership target model using the viewership information received from the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers and data from a subscriber database accessible by the viewership analysis system, wherein the viewership target model indicates a subset of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers;

train a differentiator model using the viewership target model, wherein the differentiator model uses demographic data and/or address data, but viewership data is unavailable, to identify addressable television receivers that fit the viewership target model;

apply the differentiator model to a plurality of addressable television receivers, wherein:

each addressable television receiver of the plurality of addressable television receivers comprises a plurality of tuners that receive television programming from the television service provider broadcast system of the television service provider and each addressable television receiver of the plurality of addressable television receivers can be addressed individually by the television service provider but cannot transmit information to the television service provider; and

distribute content to at least a subset of the plurality of addressable television receivers based on applying the differentiator model to the plurality of addressable television receivers.

17. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the processor-readable instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to construct the viewership target model comprise processor-readable instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

identify a television program;

rank the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on an amount of time the television program was viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

create the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the highest ranking based on the amount of time that the television program was viewed.

18. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the processor-readable instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to construct the viewership target model comprise processor-readable instructions that cause the one or more processors to:

identify a television program;

rank the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers based on a number of times episodes of the television program were viewed with a defined time range using each of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers; and

create the viewership target model to target bi-directional communication television receivers of the plurality of bi-directional communication television receivers that have the greatest number of times episodes of the television program were viewed.

19. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising processor-readable instructions that cause the one or more processors to: retrieve demographic information from a demographic database based on physical addresses stored in the subscriber database.

20. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the processor-readable instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to construct the viewership target model comprises processor-readable instructions that cause the one or more processors to use the retrieved demographic data from the demographic database.