Method and System for Use of Network Affiliation as Basis to Determine Channel Rendered by Content Presentation Device

A computing system comprising:

• at least one a network communication interface;
• at least one a processing unit;
• at least one non-transitory data storage;
• and
• program instructions stored in the at least one non-transitory data storage and executable by the at least one processing unit to carry out operations including:
• receiving from a content presentation device, via the at least one network communication interface, query fingerprint data representing a channel of content rendered by the media presentation device,
• detecting a channel multi-match with non-matching programs, wherein detecting the channel multi-match with non-matching programs includes (i) detecting, based on digital-fingerprint comparison, a channel multi-match in which the received query fingerprint data matches multiple instances of reference fingerprint data corresponding respectively with multiple channels, the multiple channels defining a multi-match group, and (ii) detecting that, at a time of the detected channel multi-match, the channels of the multi-match group were scheduled to be presenting different programs than each other, and
• responsive to at least detecting the channel multi-match with non-matching programs, carrying out a channel-determination process to determine the channel rendered by the content presentation device, the channel-determination process including (a) determining that channels of the multi-match group are affiliate channels of a same network as each other and (b) based on the determining that channels of the multi-match group are affiliate channels of the same network as each other, determining, as the channel rendered by the content presentation device, an affiliate channel of that network based on a determination that the affiliate channel serves a location of the content presentation device,
• wherein the determined channel is useable as a basis for carrying out at least one channel-specific operation.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a processing unit to carry out operations including:

• detecting a channel multi-match with non-matching programs, wherein detecting the channel multi-match with non-matching programs includes (i) detecting, based on digital-fingerprint comparison, a channel multi-match in which query fingerprint data representing a channel rendered by a content presentation device matches multiple instances of reference fingerprint data corresponding respectively with multiple channels, the multiple channels defining a multi-match group, and (ii) detecting that, at a time of the detected channel multi-match, the channels of the multi-match group were scheduled to be presenting different programs than each other, and
• responsive to at least detecting the channel multi-match with non-matching programs, carrying out a channel-determination process to determine the channel rendered by the content presentation device, the channel-determination process including (a) determining that channels of the multi-match group are affiliate channels of a same network as each other and (b) based on the determining that channels of the multi-match group are affiliate channels of the same network as each other, determining, as the channel rendered by the content presentation device, an affiliate channel of that network based on a determination that the affiliate channel serves a location of the content presentation device,
• wherein the determined channel is useable as a basis for carrying out at least one channel-specific operation.