Program extraction apparatus and method

A program extraction apparatus, comprising:

• an acquirer which acquires a viewing history including information on at least one program viewed by each of users, and an area code indicating a location of the each of users;
• a setting unit which sets a range of a target area by using the area code;
• a first calculator which calculates, for each program included in the viewing history of at least one user belonging to the target area, a viewing amount indicating how much the program was viewed to obtain a local area viewing amount, and calculates a viewing amount for each program included in viewing histories of all users to obtain a nation-wide viewing amount;
• a second calculator which calculates the viewing amount in the target area expected from the nation-wide viewing amount for the each program as an expected viewing amount;
• and
• an extractor which calculates an evaluation value indicating a deviation of the local area viewing amount from the expected viewing amount for the each program, and extracts at least one characterized program having the evaluation value no less than a threshold value.

A program extraction method, comprising:

• acquiring a viewing history including information on at least one program viewed by each of users, and an area code indicating a location of the each of users;
• setting a range of a target area by using the area code;
• calculating, for each program included in the viewing history of at least one user belonging to the target area, a viewing amount indicating how much the program was viewed to obtain a local area viewing amount;
• and
• extracting at least one program by referring to the local area viewing amount.

A program extraction method, comprising:

• acquiring a viewing history including information on at least one program viewed by each of users, and an area code indicating a location of the each of users;
• setting a range of a target area by using the area code;
• calculating, for each program included in the viewing history of at least one user belonging to the target area, a viewing amount indicating how much the program was viewed to obtain a local area viewing amount;
• calculating a viewing amount for each program included in viewing histories of all users to obtain a nation-wide viewing amount;
• calculating the viewing amount in the target area expected from the nation-wide viewing amount for the each program as an expected viewing amount;
• calculating an evaluation value indicating a deviation of the local area viewing amount from the expected viewing amount for the each program;
• and
• extracting at least one characterized program having the evaluation value no less than a threshold value.

A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer executable instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

• acquiring a viewing history including information on at least one program viewed by each of users, and an area code indicating a location of the each of users;
• setting a range of a target area by using the area code;
• calculating, for each program included in the viewing history of at least one user belonging to the target area, a viewing amount indicating how much the program was viewed to obtain a local area viewing amount;
• and
• extracting at least one program by referring to the local area viewing amount.