System and method of determining viewership information

1. A method of determining viewership information, the method comprising:

retrieving multicast routing table data via a first network by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers;

determining viewership information based on the multicast routing table data retrieved from the plurality of edge routers; and

sending the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending a request for the multicast routing table data to each of the plurality of edge routers; and

receiving the corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data from each of the plurality of edge routers in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the viewership information comprises analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data further comprises:

determining the viewership information associated with a plurality of channels, each channel of the plurality of channels related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to a particular set-top box device of the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregating the viewership information for each channel of the plurality of channels.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a request for the viewership information from the requesting device via the second network.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the viewership information comprises:

generating a graphical user interface based on the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device and wherein sending the viewership information comprises sending a graphical user interface including statistics related to the viewership information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network comprises a private network and wherein the second network comprises a public network.

10. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

an interface to communicate with a plurality of edge routers via a private network; and

a data analyzer coupled to the interface, the data analyzer adapted to:

retrieve multicast routing table data via the interface by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of the plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers; and

determine viewership information based on the multicast routing table data.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a second interface responsive to a second network, wherein the data analyzer is adapted to send the viewership information to a requesting device via the second interface.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the multicast routing table data comprises a device identifier, date information, time information, and media content information.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the private network comprises an internet protocol television access network.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the viewership information is determined by:

calculating device viewership data associated with each of a plurality of customer premises equipment devices; and

aggregating the device viewership data to produce viewership data and including the viewership data in the viewership information.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the viewership information is further determined by determining statistical information related to the viewership data and including the statistical information in the viewership information.

16. A system to determine viewership information, the system comprising:

processing logic and memory accessible to the processing logic, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processing logic to perform a method comprising:

retrieving multicast routing table data via a first network by retrieving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers;

determining viewership information based on the multicast routing table data retrieved from the plurality of edge routers; and

sending the viewership information to a requesting device via a second network.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein determining viewership information comprises

analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine viewership data associated with a particular program.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein determining the viewership information comprises analyzing the multicast routing table data to determine mappings between one or more multicast media content streams and one or more respective set-top box devices.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining the viewership information associated with a plurality of channels, wherein each channel of the plurality of channels is related to a particular multicast media content stream transmitted to the one or more set-top box devices; and

aggregating the viewership information for each channel of the plurality of channels.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein the requesting device comprises a set-top box device associated with a subscriber to a media content delivery service.

22. A method comprising:

receiving multicast routing table data via a network by receiving a corresponding portion of the multicast routing table data stored at each of a plurality of edge routers, wherein each retrieved portion includes a corresponding plurality of entries associated with media content distributed by a corresponding edge router of the plurality of edge routers; and

analyzing the received multicast routing table data to determine viewership information.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein analyzing the multicast routing table data comprises mapping the multicast routing table data to specific media content data streams from a media content delivery service.

24. The method of claim 22 , further comprising sending the viewership information to a requesting device in response to a request from the requesting device.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the requesting device comprises one of a network monitoring system, a customer premises equipment device, and a computing device.

26. The method of claim 24 , wherein sending the viewership information comprises:

generating a graphical user interface including data related to the viewership information, wherein the data comprises statistics determined from the viewership information; and

sending the graphical user interface to the requesting device via a public network.