Methods and apparatus to utilize minimum cross entropy to calculate granular data of a region based on another region for media audience measurement

1. A system for calculating granular data of a region for media audience measurement, the system comprising:

means for target region determining to:

aggregate behavioral data associated with a measurement of a media audience of a target region, the aggregate behavioral data including a first count of target region audience members satisfying a behavioral constraint; and

aggregate demographics data of the target region, the aggregate demographics data including a second count of the target region audience members satisfying a first demographic constraint and a third count of the target region audience members satisfying a second demographic constraint;

means for source region determining to determine granular data of a source region, the granular data including a fourth count of source region audience members satisfying the behavioral constraint and the first demographic constraint and a fifth count of the source region audience members satisfying the behavioral constraint and the second demographic constraint; and

means for target region calculating to calculate granular data of the media audience of the target region utilizing minimum cross entropy, the target region calculating means to apportion the aggregate demographics data and the aggregate behavioral data of the target region based on the granular data of the source region, the granular data of the media audience of the target region including a sixth count of the target region audience members satisfying the behavioral constraint and the first demographic constraint and a seventh count of the target region audience members satisfying the behavioral constraint and the second demographic constraint, the target region determining means to reduce an amount of computer memory and computer processing resources of computer networked data collection systems utilized to collect data of the target region to determine the granular data of the media audience of the target region by calculating the granular data of the target region without collecting person-specific data from members of the target region, the calculated granular data of the media audience of the target region being based on the aggregate demographics data of the target region, the aggregate behavioral data of the target region, and the granular data of the source region.

2. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first demographic constraint and the second demographic constraint are mutually exclusive.

3. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region calculating means is to calculate, by utilizing the minimum cross entropy, the granular data of the media audience of the target region by performing non-linear optimization based on the granular data of the source region, the aggregate demographics data of the target region, and the aggregate behavioral data of the target region.

4. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region calculating means is to calculate, by utilizing the minimum cross entropy, the granular data of the media audience of the target region by defining an optimization constraint based on the aggregate behavioral data and the aggregate demographics data of the target region, the non-linear optimization being limited by the optimization constraint.

5. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region calculating means is to, prior to utilizing the minimum cross entropy, determine whether to calculate the granular data of the media audience of the target region via the minimum cross entropy by evaluating the fourth count and the fifth count of the granular data of the source region.

6. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein target region determining means is to determine the aggregate behavioral data of the target region by determining tuning data of the target region and determining the granular data of the source region includes determining exposure data of the source region.

7. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region is a non-panelist region and the source region is a panelist region, the non-panelist region and the panelist region being mutually exclusive.

8. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region determining means is to:

determine impressions data of a population; and

determine the granular data of the source region by determining impressions data associated with demographics data of panelists, the target region being the population and the source region being a sub-region of panelists of the population.

9. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the target region calculating means is to increase an accuracy of the granular data of the media audience by applying the minimum cross entropy to reduce variability of the audience of the target region.

10. The system as defined in claim 9 , wherein the target region calculating means is to determine whether to utilize the minimum cross entropy to reduce the variability of the audience of the target region based a degree of confidence of at least one of the aggregate behavioral data, the aggregate demographics data or the granular data.

11. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the behavioral constraint is associated with exposure to a media program.

12. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first demographic constraint is associated with at least one demographic marginal, demographic joint-marginal, or demographic joint.

13. The system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second demographic constraint is associated with at least one demographic marginal, demographic joint-marginal, or demographic joint.