Incentive rewards obtainable automatically by an audience tuned to a broadcast

An apparatus for providing a reward as an incentive for a person to become an audience member of at least one program being performed by reproduction equipment, comprising:

• means for providing a programming signal for broadcasting the program with a programming signal source;
• means for encoding said programming signal with discrete code signals, such that a preset number of said code signals occur within a given period of time, to produce an output signal, wherein each of said discrete code signals identifies at least one of a broadcast source and a program;
• means for broadcasting the output signal;
• means for receiving the broadcast output signal and detecting the code signals therein;
• means for determining the number of occurrences of said discrete code signals received while the person is an audience member of the at least one program as an indication of a time duration;
• means for comparing the indication of a time duration that is based on the number of occurrences of said detected discrete code signals with predetermined time-based reward issuance criteria;
• and
• means for issuing a reward when the time-based reward issuance criteria are met by the indication of a time duration that is based on the number of occurrences of said detected discrete code signals.