Method and system for re-identifying broadcast segments using statistical profiles

A method for detecting a segment in a broadcast signal, the method comprising steps of:

• generating a mean display attribute stream of at least approximate mean values of a display attribute of respective frames of the broadcast signal;
• extracting transition points in the mean display attribute stream, the transition points having, within a margin, mean values of a segment transition;
• detecting intervals delimited by the transition points that have, within a tolerance, expected durations for segments in broadcast signals;
• applying rules describing how segments are usually arranged in broadcast signals, to each detected interval;
• and
• assigning a confidence measure to the detected interval using a result of the application of the rules.

A method for generating a statistical profile of a segment of successive frames, comprising steps of:

• calculating at least an approximate mean value of a display attribute of each frame in a predefined set of the frames of the segment;
• binning the mean values of the frames, to derive at least one attribute distribution;
• and
• applying a statistical analysis to each of the at least one attribute distribution in order to produce a plurality of values of statistical properties that characterize the segment to be used to form the statistical profile.

A broadcast signal analysis system comprising:

• a receiver for receiving a stream of mean display attribute values concurrent with a detected time code interval;
• a tally sub-system for binning the mean display attribute values to generate at least one attribute distribution for the time code interval;
• a statistical value calculator for deriving a value of at least one statistical property of each of the at least one attribute distribution, so that a plurality of statistical values are derived for each interval;
• and
• a statistical value assembler for generating a statistical profile of each interval using the plurality of statistical values.