Methods and apparatus to identify media for ahead of time watermark encoding

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to identify media for ahead of time watermark encoding. An example apparatus includes a media interface to determine a characteristic of media, the characteristic corresponding to a broadcast time of the media; and a controller to: determine an identifier corresponding to the media; transmit a query including the characteristic and the identifier prior to the media being broadcast, the query to request an indication whether the identifier is unique; and responsive to the indication that the identifier is unique, cause a watermark to be encoded in the media using the identifier prior to the media being broadcast.