US 5,759,101 · Granted 1998-06-02

Central and remote evaluation of responses of participatory broadcast audience with automatic crediting and couponing

A system and method for evaluating responses to broadcast programs, such as television programs, includes an instructional signal modulated onto a signal transmitted concurrently with the television program, simulcast, or time-multiplexed with a television. At each of a plurality of remote receiving stations, one or more members of a remote audience has the opportunity to respond to a situation presented in the television program by entering a response on a keyboard. The system includes response evaluation circuitry which may be located at a central facility or partially at the central facility and partially at each remote receiving station, or completely within a response unit at each remote receiving station, in the latter case the response unit having a memory responsive to the instructional signal for storing acceptable responses, a comparison circuit for comparing responses entered at the keyboard with those stored in the memory, circuitry for scoring responses in accordance with commands from the instructional signal, and a recording device for providing a permanent record of the audience score at the remote station. For conducting a sweepstakes, numbers or other responses are entered at the remote stations and are stored at a central facility for verification. The program may be presented live conducted by a host at a central station, or by a prerecorded message accessible by telephone from a remote station with regulation from a central station.

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