Gracenote – MarTechSeries

September 19, 2019September 19, 2019

Nielsen’s Gracenote Launches ID Distribution System for Movies, TV Programs, Short-Form Video and Related Content

New Platform Empowers Content Owners to More Easily and Broadly Distribute Video Content to World’s Top TV and Video Services

Gracenote, a Nielsen company, is launching a new Video ID Distribution System enabling creators and owners of media programming to more easily distribute their movies, TV shows, short-form videos and other related content to global OTT services, smart device manufacturers and cable and satellite TV providers.

Using the Gracenote ID Distribution system, studios and networks will be able to register their content with Gracenote’s Video Database and easily obtain connected Gracenote IDs to enable better search and discovery in program guides, interfaces and OTT catalogs. In addition, they can submit their own descriptive metadata, tags and imagery which Gracenote will editorially review and prepare for broad distribution.

The entertainment industry is in the midst of a massive growth cycle as new services, platforms and devices crave more and more content to compete for audiences and mindshare. As the volume of video content grows, these services require improved descriptive metadata and universal identifiers to ensure their catalogs are well organized so that viewers can easily search for and find what they want to watch.

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Gracenote ID Distribution brings order to the chaos, providing the connective tissue that makes video content searchable across services, platforms and devices. Gracenote IDs and metadata provide common links between TV series, seasons and episodes, as well as related TV and movie genres, celebrities, and other descriptive information. This promises to improve how Hollywood blockbusters, independent films and short-form videos alike are distributed to and surfaced in pay TV and OTT catalogs, as well as accessed by fans.

“For years, the industry has relied on Gracenote to help organize numerous and vast catalogs of popular TV shows and movies,” said Simon Adams, Gracenote’s Chief Product Officer. “With the growing popularity of new original programs and short-form video, our global customers face new challenges connecting users to all the content they have to offer. The new Gracenote ID Distribution system will help creators and owners secure the broadest possible distribution of their programming while providing leading VOD and OTT services a means to easily identify and access relevant metadata for next-generation search and discovery experiences.”

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Through Gracenote ID Distribution, content creators and owners can:

Submit movies, TV programs or short form video content for inclusion in Gracenote’s Video Database which brings together metadata, linear schedules and VOD/OTT catalogs for more than 85 countries.
Receive certified Gracenote IDs at the beginning of the content lifecycle ensuring that their offerings are not just listed but also easily searchable across different Video services, platforms and catalogs.
Drive the widest possible distribution of their video content to the world’s top VOD and OTT services and smart device manufacturers.

With major Video streaming services home to so much content, on average around 40,000 TV episodes and movies, long-tail programming can face “discoverability” challenges. Professionally produced short-form videos, which delve deeper into the storylines, themes and characters of popular TV shows, have the power to captivate existing fans and attract new users to services. Through connected metadata and content IDs from Gracenote, it becomes easy to display episodes of the short-form video content alongside episodes of the related long-form content. This enables Video services to drive deeper engagement with viewers and provide a one-stop shop for all related content.

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June 20, 2019June 20, 2019

Gracenote Launches New Video Popularity Score to Surface Top Trending TV Shows and Movies for More Topical Discovery Experiences

Standardized Content Scoring Enables Entertainment Providers to Identify and Prioritize What’s Popular Right Now

Gracenote, a Nielsen company announced the launch of Gracenote Video Popularity Score, a new data offering which enables entertainment providers to more effectively understand the TV shows and movies that viewers broadly want to watch so that they can promote them accordingly from within their catalogs. The new solution is part of Gracenote’s breakthrough Advanced Discovery suite of metadata products designed to help pay TV providers, OTT services and CE device makers revolutionize the digital video experience and connect viewers to TV shows and movies in innovative ways.

Gracenote Popularity Score surfaces most popular TV and movie content.

Video Popularity Score helps to identify and surface hot content by considering recency of TV show airings and theatrical movie releases, viewership and awareness signals from Gracenote and Nielsen plus data from trusted external sources. Based on these inputs, Gracenote calculates a numerical score representing the general population’s recognition level of individual TV series or movies.

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By integrating Video Popularity Score data, entertainment providers can deliver smart guides which automatically identify the most popular programming and prioritize it in their user interfaces, personalized recommendations and search results. The new solution also enables improved voice capabilities through better understanding of user intent within spoken queries. For example, the dataset can help differentiate between the broadcast TV show and the Major League Soccer team in response to the voice command, “Watch Chicago Fire.” Additionally, Video Popularity Score can inform editorial curation efforts focused on identifying trending content as well as guide licensing activities designed to add potentially resonant TV shows and movies to customers’ catalogs.

“Gracenote continues to help customers deliver optimal entertainment discovery experiences wherein viewers are connected to the movies and TV shows they want with the least amount of friction,” said Simon Adams, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote. “Our new Video Popularity Score empowers entertainment providers to identify and put the most relevant, watched and talked about TV shows and movies front and center. By enhancing content targeting, Video Popularity Score allows for sharper search results, highly topical recommendations and more relevant viewing options from cold-starts where data on user preferences or previous consumption is not available.”

Viewership is assessed through a proprietary algorithm which analyzes consumption data covering linear TV, VOD and OTT from Nielsen Total Content Ratings, movie box office data from Gracenote plus additional raw data from third-party sources. Awareness is calculated based on social media conversation measurement from Nielsen Social Content Ratings combined with key engagement data from outside sources. Given the quality and quantity of signals, Video Popularity Score is one of the most advanced trending measures available to the market today.

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This launch marks the latest expansion of Gracenote’s Advanced Discovery suite of metadata products designed to help pay TV providers, OTT services and connected device manufacturers unlock deeper engagement with content and satisfaction with their services. In January, Gracenote introduced Video Descriptors, a new dataset which taps into the attributes of content such as mood, theme and scenario enabling more nuanced recommendations and sharper personalization.

Since Nielsen acquired Gracenote in 2017, the two companies have collaborated deeply to bring innovative new products and enhanced capabilities to market. Industry-leading Gracenote Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology powers the addressable advertising platform offered by Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising group. And now, industry currency Nielsen viewership data integrated into Gracenote’s Video Popularity Score provides a critical measure of what consumers are watching broadly.

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May 15, 2019

New Consumer Research Reveals Increasing Usage of Multiple TV Sources by Viewers in Major European Countries

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Independent Study Conducted by Gracenote and Nscreenmedia Reveals Insights into Consumer Behavior and Attitudes on Pay TV, Free-To-Air and Online TV in the UK, Germany and Sweden

Gracenote, a Nielsen company, and nScreenMedia, a leading digital media analyst firm, announced findings from a new independent survey focusing on pay TV, free-to-air and online TV viewership in major European countries. The study titled, “TV Universe – UK, Sweden, Germany: How People Watch Television Today” offers the most current and holistic view of consumption behavior and attitudes towards different TV services and features in the three key markets which combined, account for 31% of the European Union’s total population according to Statista.

The “TV Universe – U.K., Sweden, Germany: How People Watch Television Today” report reveals that TV viewing has become a complicated undertaking for European audiences who juggle multiple services to get all the video content they want and access those services across multiple devices. For instance, pay TV is currently the most popular television source in the U.K. and Sweden with nearly two in three consumers in each market using it. In Germany, however, the most popular source is free-to-air TV which accounts for the vast majority of viewers at nearly eight in ten.

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A key finding of the research conducted in Q1 2019 was the fast adoption rate of online TV. Across the board, online TV is now the second most popular source behind pay TV with usage ranging from just under 40% in Germany to more than 50% in the U.K. and Sweden. This is a remarkable rise as online TV is a relatively new offering. In fact, Netflix, the original online streaming service, only launched in the U.K. in 2012. Whereas 12 years ago most homes relied on a single-source for TV, today nearly half of viewers in all three of the countries studied are multi-source television households.

In all three European markets surveyed, consumers pointed to on-screen program guides and user interfaces (UIs) as being critical tools for finding content to watch. Six in ten viewers indicated visual imagery and TV artwork displayed in the guides exert important influence on their viewing choices. Among the 18-to-24-year-old demographic, the number jumped up to around 90%. In addition, respondents indicated TV show and movie descriptions which shed light on content are also factors in their tune-in decision-making. 70% of U.K. viewers said the program descriptions were at least somewhat important. 65% of Swedes and 57% of Germans thought the same.

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Additional themes to emerge from the report were as follows:

Free-to-air TV gaining traction on mobile: More free-to-air viewers use broadcaster apps to supplement viewing than pay TV viewers use their operator “TV Everywhere” apps. In fact, over half of free-to-air users in each country use broadcaster apps.
The smart TV wins: The TV is the preferred device to watch video content on in all three countries. A significant 70% of total viewing time is on the TV screen in the U.K. and Germany, while in Sweden, the number clocks in at 60%. Samsung is the most popular TV brand in all three countries.

“Consumer behavior relating to TV viewing is changing rapidly in Europe as it is around the world,” said Simon Adams, Chief Product Officer, Gracenote. “This new research provides the clearest, most timely snapshot of how viewers in the U.K., Germany and Sweden get the movies and TV programs they are looking for and how they discover new content. By understanding viewer needs, behaviors and attitudes, Gracenote is uniquely positioned to help the industry develop new products and features that maximize TV viewership and engagement – critical business priorities in today’s hotly competitive landscape.”

The report also delves into viewing habits by market. Among the most surprising insights:

17% of the U.K. study group use all three TV sources available to them, higher than in Sweden and Germany.
While the on-screen guide is the dominant way Swedes and Brits find content to watch, newspaper TV guides and channel flipping are the main ways for Germans.
31% of Swedes consider online TV to be their primary TV source, the highest of the three countries studied.

“The new TV Universe study shows that online TV has become the second most popular source of TV entertainment in a remarkably short period of time,” said Colin Dixon, Founder and Chief Analyst at nScreenMedia. “Also telling is the fact that, though most online viewing takes place on the television, consumers don’t have the discovery tools they need to efficiently find something to watch there. Features such as voice and cross-service search are thinly used in each country. There is also plenty of room for improvement with content recommendations as a quarter or less think they accurately reflect their interests.”

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The research was sponsored by Gracenote, the global leader in entertainment metadata powering the world’s top TV providers, music services, CE device manufacturers, media companies and automakers. The company’s Global Video Data offering, comprising TV schedules, program details and imagery covering movies and TV programming worldwide, provides a foundation for on-screen TV/video guides and UIs. In addition, Gracenote’s recently announced Advanced Discovery suite of hyper-detailed metadata is enabling smarter search and discovery features for TV and OTT platforms.

The consumer research study conducted from February to March 2019 surveyed 1,500 adult TV viewers in the U.K. Germany and Sweden. The data was weighted to represent the general population of each country. Information gathered from public and private sources, industry interviews and other research sources was also used in the study.

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018

New Gracenote Mobile Video Analytics Solution Delivers Groundbreaking View of Streaming App Performance

Gracenote Delivers Groundbreaking View of Streaming App Performance

Offers Deep Insights into How Mobile Streaming Video Performance Impacts Subscriber Engagement and Retention

Gracenote, a Nielsen company, announced a new Mobile Video Analytics solution aimed at providing visibility into the quality and performance of the most popular mobile video streaming applications. The performance analytics solution will provide mobile operators, MVPDs, video streaming services and hardware manufacturers a means to better understand how mobile app performance impacts user behavior and attitudes as well as engagement with their platforms and those of their competitors.

Gracenote’s Mobile Video Analytics provides in-depth insights into how users interact and engage with mobile video streaming services. By reporting key performance metrics by wireless/internet service provider, content type and more, Gracenote assists with everything from product development and marketing to user performance and pricing. The Mobile Video Analytics Solution focuses on three primary performance categories:

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Experience: Deep insights into the performance quality of mobile video services that have the biggest effect on a subscriber’s experience and satisfaction, such as video resolution, start-up times and buffering.
Engagement: Engagement metrics to understand how, when and where viewers tune-in, average viewing time, as well as payload, stickiness, network access and speed.
Attitudes: Reasons mobile users choose to subscribe to or disengage from specific streaming services, including their intention to switch and feedback on pricing.

Armed with these insights, streaming video services can learn how performance impacts engagement on their platforms compared to those of their competitors, allowing them to take appropriate actions if necessary to ensure high usage rates. In the case of low engagement, Gracenote Mobile Video Analytics can leverage passive video tests and survey responses to map user behavior and identify the cause of disengagement and churn. Gracenote can help wireless providers detect areas of network congestion and determine whether they need to add capacity to improve the user experience.

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“Nielsen has been at the forefront of measuring television and digital video content for decades and the new Gracenote Mobile Video Analytics solution extends our market-leadership position in the mobile streaming space,” said Mike Greenawald, Senior Vice President, Connectivity for Gracenote. “In a hotly-contested marketplace for subscribers, it is critical to understand the factors that drive engagement and retention. Gracenote Mobile Video Analytics identifies the key video performance factors that enable our customers to gain a competitive edge and make more informed business decisions.”

Gracenote Connectivity, formerly Nielsen Telecom, has provided gold-standard measurement of wireless performance and experience for nearly 20 years. The latest Mobile Video Analytics solution uses a combination of proprietary video quality and performance testing with real-time usage data from thousands of mobile consumers in over 125 national markets.

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018

Gracenote Launches New Tool to Unify Content Search

New Data Solution Sets Empower Video Streaming Services

Gracenote, a Nielsen company, is the world’s leading provider of video metadata including rich imagery, TV channel line-ups, programming and scheduling data covering 85 countries and 35 languages. Gracenote has now launched new datasets covering both On-Demand content and virtual MVPD (vMultichannel Video Programming Distributor) to completely optimize the TV Viewing experience.

A new TV metadata and electronic program guide (EPG) solution from Gracenote equips Smart TV and streaming device manufacturers who offer live TV streaming services, make their on-demand content a lot more discoverable than earlier.

To meet the ever-evolving needs of TV viewers, many of the worlds’ leading gaming console, Smart TV, and other consumer electronics (CE) makers are providing access to subscription-based vMVPD services. Though, users of these services often face challenges in finding live sports, news, and must-watch TV programming since it is based on the availability across various streaming apps and on-demand libraries.\

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Gracenote’s new data solution makes streaming possible for all services. This helps streaming services present all available shows in one unified search. This makes it simplified for users and fans to filter and watch the program they are interested in. The functioning assists Gracenote in giving their customers an optimized viewing experience.

Simon Adams, General Manager of Video and Sports at Gracenote said, “Gracenote’s mission is to help providers from all areas of the TV ecosystem make it easy for their end users to connect to great content. Our newest data solution, designed for cable and satellite operators who offer virtual services as well as standalone OTT providers, bridges the best of live linear programming with on-demand libraries to make content easier to find and watch across platforms. By empowering all players in the market to deliver outstanding user experiences, Gracenote is helping them stay ahead of shifting viewing habits and position themselves for success.”

Gracenote ID’s link programming across surface TV shows, movies, and platforms in unified search results which cover linear broadcast cable as well as on-demand availability.

Leveraging Gracenote’s latest solution, vMVPD’s can now deliver rich TV search and discovery experiences built around live TV schedules and stunning imagery.

Gracenote ID’s and video metadata serve as foundations for discovery, navigation and next-generation search offered by established vMVPDs including the world’s top satellite and cable TV operators.