NEW YORK—As the political debate over the amount of major sports on streaming platforms continues to heat up, a new analysis by Gracenote shows that sports has quickly become a foundational part of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content mix and now makes up 5% of overall programming on leading services.

That is a major change from just 18 months ago. In November 2024, sports made up just 1.4% of the Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ catalogs, according to the inaugural Gracenote Data Hub analysis. In the past 18 months, these five providers have more than doubled that distribution to 3.3%. With HBO Max now included in Gracenote’s analysis, sports rises to 5% of all content. There are now nearly 38,500 sports shows, episodes, sports games and events on the leading global SVOD services.

HBO Max currently offers the most sports content among major global streamers tracked by the Gracenote Data Hub, accounting for 35% of available sports. At the individual game and event level, HBO Max offers 42% of sports content.

After HBO Max, the next most sports-heavy destinations are Amazon Prime Video (25%), Netflix (16%) and Disney+ (14%). Focusing on the individual game and event level, Paramount+ emerged as the leader in sports programming in the Q1 2026 Data Hub, released in February. Now, Paramount+ is home to 30% of games, events and sports show episodes.

Newly added HBO Max jumps ahead of Paramount+ by offering 42% of this sports content. Paramount Skydance’s impending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery should make the new combined company a key player for streaming sports content globally.

Another key finding from the Q2 update is the number of FAST channels has increased by 19% year-over-year. Entertainment, sports, news and reality are the most predominant channel genres, with news channels exhibiting the most annual growth (57%) year-over-year. At the same time, FAST serves as a significant distribution channel for live sports from all over the world. More than one-third of content on sports channels on FAST (37%) is live sports events.

The Gracenote Data Hub analysis was expanded to include HBO Max as of the just released Q2 2026 update. Going forward, the service’s programming will be tracked quarterly alongside that of Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+.

Launched in November 2024, the Gracenote Data Hub provides insight into the content available on the now six leading global SVOD services and 2,120 FAST channels. The resource taps Gracenote Global Video Data, the industry’s most comprehensive trove of content intelligence powering advanced content search, discovery and recommendations capabilities. Updated quarterly, the resource tracks how leading SVOD catalogs and FAST channels are evolving over time and what these shifts signal.

For more information, visit Gracenote.com.

NEW YORK—A new study from Gracenote highlights how ongoing problems with data and measurement are limiting the shift of ad budgets from linear TV to CTV advertising.

The new "TV Audiences Have Shifted. Ad Dollars Have Not: The Need for Content Intelligence in the CTV Era," report finds that 86% of U.S. media planners would move more linear budgets to CTV if show-level targeting and reporting were available.

The reallocation would not stop at traditional TV. Sixty-five percent say they would also consider shifting spend from programmatic video and 63% from display, suggesting richer content intelligence could help CTV win a greater share of digital ad spend across the broader media mix.

"Buyers aren't asking for more complexity — they're asking for the same transparency they've relied on for decades in linear TV," said Ryan Moore, chief business officer at Gracenote. "Bringing show-level visibility to CTV gives the channel a clearer path to bigger budgets, not just from linear but across the digital video ecosystem. When buyers have the insight to validate placement quality and prove impact, CTV becomes more accountable and competitive."

The report spotlights a major blind spot in connected TV that Gracenote defines as the CTV Data Gap.

While advertisers have embraced CTV's audience targeting, the market still lacks a standardized view of the programming attributes behind each ad impression. Without that content layer, buyers lose confidence at every stage — from planning to post-campaign reporting. This uncertainty makes decision-makers hesitant to fund CTV at scale, the researchers reported.

They also argue that the Gracenote Content Graph helps close this gap by giving advertisers a source-validated view of CTV inventory, including descriptors such as genre, rating and language, along with program-level metadata and unique content identifiers.

Additional findings from the report include:

• 89% of media planners anticipate shifting more budget from linear TV to CTV over the next 12 to 24 months, underscoring CTV's continued momentum.
• 100% of programmatic traders say show-level transparency is very or extremely important for ensuring brand safety and inventory quality in CTV.
• 95% of programmatic traders agree that the absence of show-level signals prevents them from advocating for more CTV budget during planning.
• 80% of traders would shift budget from audience-targeted to contextually targeted CTV with actionable content signals.
• 47% of media planners cite limited show- or content-level data as a primary barrier to moving more spend into CTV.

Advertisers, agencies and media partners can download the full report here.

NEW YORK—Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced that it is working with consumer electronics giant Samsung to create improved AI-enabled search and discovery features on Samsung smart TV.

“Samsung is committed to delivering the most useful and engaging entertainment experiences to our users,” said Bongjun Ko, corporate executive vice president at Samsung Electronics. “By combining our AI technology with Gracenote’s industry-leading metadata, we aim to push content search and discovery to new heights, delighting viewers by empowering them to find the entertainment they love intuitively and naturally.”

Accurate metadata regarding entertainment content is increasingly important for the training and deployment of large language models or LLMs for content discovery.

Samsung reported that using Gracenote metadata will help it deliver advanced search capabilities enabling users to find precisely the TV shows, movies and sports programs they want through more intuitive, conversational interactions.

In addition, its work with Gracenote will allow Samsung to offer new content discovery capabilities that will create more compelling carousels and recommendations of programs to viewers in lean-back experiences.

Beyond powering outstanding consumer-facing experiences that maximize engagement, the new agreement also allows Samsung to leverage Gracenote to develop innovative new offerings and realize AI-driven operational efficiencies.

“The structured nature of Gracenote’s entertainment metadata and the scale of our content coverage put us in a unique position to power LLM-driven use cases,” said Jared Grusd, CEO at Gracenote. “We’re pleased to join forces with Samsung and are confident our collaboration will yield innovative user experiences and benefits extending far beyond.”

NEW YORK—In a notable new analysis of the programming trends that are reshaping the streaming industry, Nielsen’s Gracenote is reporting that sports program offerings across the top five subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services jumped 52% year-over-year (YoY) and that news content on FAST channels was up 58%.

The sharp increase in sports content, which is based on the latest Gracenote Data Hub information, underscores the importance of sports content (live games + related content) to providers’ audience engagement strategies.

In the new analysis, Gracenote found that over the past year, Paramount+ has vaulted past Amazon Prime Video and Netflix to lead in streaming sports programming at the individual game and event level.

Following its acquisition of UFC broadcast rights from ESPN starting in January 2026, the service now delivers more than twice the sports content of any SVOD platform, up 219% YoY. During the same period, the Disney+ sports catalog contracted by 23%.

The new study also highlighted the proliferation of FAST channel, led by news and sports services. Gracenote’s analysis of 2,060 FAST channels available worldwide revealed that sports content on FAST grew 30% YoY. With more than 200 dedicated news channels now available, news programming on free ad-supported streaming services increased 58%. Movies and TV shows available on FAST rose 26% and 24% YoY respectively.

The data comes from the Gracenote Data Hub, which was launched in November 2024. It provides insight into the content available on leading global SVOD services and FAST channels. The resource taps Gracenote Global Video Data, the industry’s most comprehensive database of TV and movie information which powers advanced content search, discovery and recommendations capabilities. Updated quarterly, the Hub’s visualizations reveal how leading SVOD catalogs and FAST channels are evolving over time and what these shifts signal, the company said.

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s Gracenote has announced new capabilities for its Gracenote on Sports solution that it says will help TV providers build engagement outside of live games and deliver improved, visually rich sports hub experiences.

More specifically, new enhancements to the Gracenote On Sports solution covering 160+ of the world's most popular sports leagues and competitions in 50+ countries globally, allow TV providers to make sports documentaries, event highlights, game analyses and other related content seamlessly accessible through unified sports hubs. In addition, the improvements provide game, team and athlete imagery that capture sports action and the personalities of favorite players, making user interfaces more visually rich and personalized than ever.

"From casual viewers to passionate fans, consumers are engaging with sports content in every way possible," said Tyler Bell, senior vice president of product at Gracenote. "Platforms have big opportunities to become go-to sports hubs for these valuable users, and Gracenote is uniquely positioned to help them realize these ambitions."

Gracenote On Sports powers universal search capabilities and unique sports hub experiences by delivering enriched sports data, live sports schedules as well as league and team data through a single API. Providing unmatched coverage of the world's most popular sports leagues and competitions, including the NFL, NBA, Premier League and Formula 1, the solution helps TV providers provide experiences that leverage the power of sports to drive viewer engagement and monetization.

The new On Sports capabilities help streaming platforms, CE device-makers and pay TV services adapt to the evolving ways people want to experience sports and stay connected to the competitions, teams and athletes they love. Gracenote said that will strengthen return on investment through deeper user engagement, increased advertising opportunities and improved content library monetization.

To help TV providers leverage the power of sports, Gracenote seamlessly links games to:

• Related content – programming including scripted and documentary TV shows and movies focusing on sports leagues, teams or general sports topics.
• Shoulder content – programming complementing or extending a live sporting event, typically airing just before or after, but also including delayed recap shows.

One particularly promising area for improving viewer engagement is sports documentaries. Total viewing for streaming sports documentaries reached 16.9 million minutes among U.S. viewers in 2024, up nearly 260% from 4.7 million minutes in 2021, according to the 2025 Nielsen Tops of Sports report. At the same time, pre- and post-game shows offering recaps, highlights and analysis are increasingly critical touchpoints for fans and communities.

Based on growing consumer interest in related and shoulder content tied to live sports events, platforms have a significant opportunity to become comprehensive hubs for modern sports experiences. The newest Gracenote On Sports enhancements help customers go beyond game availability so they can deepen fan engagement and increase stickiness. Streamlined integration of Gracenote sports data delivered alongside video data by way of a single API makes the turnkey solution easy to implement.

Gracenote will demo On Sports on an appointment-only basis at CES running January 6 – 8, 2026.

To schedule a meeting, click here.

NEW YORK—Nielsen's Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) with easy access to Gracenote's standardized program-level metadata. That access facilitates precise program-level ad targeting, better CTV campaign performance and transparent post-campaign reporting, the company said.

Gracenote said that Media buyers can use Gracenote Content Connect in a range of ways to suit their workflows. They can either directly access the platform for "hands-on-keyboard" creation of private marketplace (PMP) and programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals, or they can leverage their partner SSPs or DSPs to create, manage and activate deals on their behalf.

The flexible platform taps Gracenote's proprietary content ID graph made up of standardized program metadata organized in a structured taxonomy and connected by unique identifiers. This ensures both ad buyers and sellers are using a common language in relation to programming, a key necessity when shows are widely available across different ad-supported CTV platforms and services, the company explained.

"Gracenote data is widely recognized as the media industry's gold-standard for powering consumer entertainment search and discovery broadly," said Kanishk Prasad, vice president of product at Gracenote. "By opening up access to content-based signals which enable smarter CTV ad targeting and better campaign performance, we're taking a big step towards giving advertisers transparency, control and maximum scale across all CTV platforms."

Gracenote also reported that the platform provides users with visibility into key content signals such as genre, rating and mood, as they bid on CTV inventory and target messages at the program level. This gives them full control over brand safety and ensures privacy-compliant placements while still delivering the scale needed to meet campaign objectives.

Gracenote will preview the new Content Connect platform on an appointment-only basis at CES running January 6 - 8, 2026.

For more information, visit Gracenote.com.

NEW YORK—Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2023.

These insights and more are captured in the latest release of the Gracenote Data Hub covering Q3 2025. Gracenote is the content data business unit of Nielsen.

In releasing the data, Gracenote also announced that it has expanded its Data Hub resource to include insights on nearly 1,850 active FAST channels for a broad understanding of global streaming trends and the programs that keep audiences engaged.

The addition of FAST insights to the Gracenote Data Hub makes possible new comparisons with SVOD content and a holistic view of the global streaming landscape. First launched in November 2024, the resource was developed to provide insight into the catalogs of subscription video on demand (SVOD) leaders, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+. Now, the enhanced Data Hub enables visibility into more than 645,000 TV, movie and sports programs and episodes on SVOD platforms and more than 197K programs across global FAST channels.

In the new analysis, Gracenote reported that FAST channels offer a greater percentage of more recent content than SVOD services. Nearly half of current FAST programming was produced in the last 5 years compared to nearly one third on premium SVOD. Focusing on content produced in the last 15 years, the numbers jump to nearly 80% for FAST and 68.5% for SVOD.

Given the linear, scheduled nature of FAST channels, the prevalence of TV programming is significant, the data also showed. Nearly 93.1% of available content on FAST is TV programming (when individual episodes are counted). Comparatively, 88.8% of available content on top SVOD services is TV programming.

Gracenote also reported that sports accounted for the largest increase among all content types for SVOD in the last three months, a jump of 13.2%. By comparison, movie content on SVOD grew 10% while TV content increased 9.2%. Focusing on FAST, sports programming was down 3.7% over the same period but up 14% year-to-date.

Other findings in the new Data Hub update include the following:

• Focusing on FAST genre composition, documentary accounted for the largest concentration of programming at 16.1%.
• Drama was the second most prevalent genre at 10.6% while news was third at 9.9%.
• Looking at FAST genre growth, news led all categories with a 37% programming increase followed by horror with a 30% increase.
• In terms of SVOD, major platforms grew their overall content offerings by 9.8% in the last three months.
• Amazon added the most titles quarter-over-quarter (12.6%) followed by Paramount+ (6.4%).

Drawing on the Gracenote Global Video Data covering content in more than 70 languages and more than 80 countries, Gracenote reported that the Data Hub is designed to help video services, content owners and advertisers develop smart content distribution, licensing and media buying strategies. In addition, the resource provides trustworthy data to media and analysts seeking to understand the evolution of streaming.

NEW YORK—New research from Nielsen’s Gracenote highlights the growing importance of sports related programming on the major SVOD services, with total sports programming growing by 7.8% in Q2 2025 compared to the previous quarter among Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+, five of the top global subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services.

Three of those services, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix were the leading sports players in Gracenote's analysis, serving as home to 92% of available streaming sports programming. Gracenote defines that category as including live games, sports-related news, highlight shows and documentaries.

Warner Bros. Discovery's Max, which has a large offering of live sports, was not included in the data Gracenote made public to the media.

Overall, the total number of unique TV, movie and sports titles offered by these services increased approximately by 4,500, or 5%, from February to May according to a new Gracenote Data Hub release, which tracks quarterly content trends.

Netflix significantly outpaced all tracked services in total catalog growth during Q2, increasing available content by 18.2%. The next biggest relative gains were posted by Apple TV+ (3.7%), Amazon Prime Video (3.2%), Disney+ (1.6%) and Paramount+ (1%). Currently, Netflix offers 20.1% of the TV shows, movies and sports programs available on major streaming services, up from 17.9% in the previous quarter.

At the program level, the five top SVOD services grew sports content by 7.8% in Q2. This was almost 2 times the rate of movie expansion and nearly one percentage point more than the rate of TV expansion.

In terms of other content types, TV programs were up 6.9% across all tracked services while movies were up 4%.

"In the big picture for SVOD, overall content volume continues to rise but the CTV apps making this content available continually shift," said Bill Michels, chief product officer at Gracenote. "Regardless of program type or any other attribute, effective content discovery helps streamers connect viewers to the entertainment they'll enjoy most and get the most value out of each of the assets in their catalogs."

The Gracenote Data Hub provides interactive visualizations of SVOD content volume, program genre and mood trends as well as exclusivity and country of origin insights. Tapping industry-leading Gracenote Global Video Data covering content in 35 languages and more than 80 countries, the Data Hub helps video services, content owners and advertisers develop smart content distribution, licensing and media buying strategies.

More information is available at Gracenote.com.

NEW YORK—A new report from Nielsen’s Gracenote highlights the ongoing shift of sports content to streaming services with data showing that the streaming industry’s leading global subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+, have significantly grown their sports programming over the last quarter.

These five providers collectively increased sports programs by more than 72% in the recent quarter, underscoring the value of sports as a driver of live, real-time viewership and critical component of their content strategies, the researchers found.

The new data is from an update of the Gracenote Data Hub. Since the first Gracenote Data Hub release in October 2024, sports programming, including exclusive NFL games, WWE RAW events, U.S. Open tennis tournament matches and more, has become increasingly available across streaming platforms.

Notably, four of the five SVOD services tracked by Gracenote have bolstered their sports programming, led by Disney+ and Netflix, with increases of 471% and nearly 100%, respectively. While Apple TV+ did not increase its sports content in the recent quarter, that will change as the new MLS and MLB seasons get underway and live games air on the service.

“Live sports programming continues to be an important driver of user growth, retention and engagement for streaming services,” said Bill Michels, chief product officer at Gracenote. “We are also seeing that relevant metadata, such as synopses, scores, highlights and imagery have the power to help streamers build world-class user experiences that keep users engaged beyond the live game.”

The data also showed that on a quarter-over-quarter basis, these services have added 6.7% more content to their catalogs, with increases of 5.4% and 7.6% for TV and movies, respectively.

Other highlights from the data include:

• The increase in content across global SVOD services includes approximately 3,000 movies, 2,000 TV shows and 500 sports shows.
• A dramatic increase in sports programming on Disney+, largely the result of adding select ESPN programming, has shifted the distribution of sports programming across the five services.
• Disney+ now accounts for nearly 33% of available sports programming, just behind Amazon (35%), which previously distributed 54% of sports programming.
• Netflix accounts for just over 23% of sports programming.
• Overall, Amazon Prime Video remains the largest distributor of video content, offering nearly 69% of the available programming, up from 67.8% in Q1 2024.
• An increase in French content and a notable decrease in content produced in India on Disney+ has made France the third-biggest producer, accounting for 5.6% of the total.
• Drama remains the top genre across the five services, but it has dropped from the No. 1 position on Disney+, where it has been overtaken by documentary, comedy, children and adventure.

Gracenote program metadata covers more than 40 million titles in 260+ streaming catalogs in 35 languages and 80+ countries. The same metadata that powers the user experiences of the world’s biggest and most innovative TV providers also enables data-driven decision-making to help content distributors and owners succeed amid rapid change. The Gracenote Data Hub is updated quarterly and future releases will include data from other segments of the TV ecosystem.

NEW YORK—Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has launched Gracenote On Sports, a new solution designed to make it easier for viewers to find sports content.

The solution aims to fix common consumer complaints about the difficulty of finding sports content by providing streaming and linear video platforms with an easy-to-implement metadata solution that connects the entire sports video ecosystem, Gracenote said.

Gracenote will showcase new live sports discovery experiences made possible by On Sports at CES in Las Vegas from Jan. 7-9, 2025.

The launch is notable because sports has become a key driver of viewing and advertising on linear and streaming platforms but the movement of more sports to streaming services has made it harder for consumers to find the sports they want to watch.

For example, of the 2,430 Major League Baseball games played during the 2024 regular season, only 150 were carried nationally on traditional broadcast or streaming channels. With 93% of games spread across regional sports networks, local channels, streaming services and league-developed direct-to-consumer offerings, many baseball fans faced difficulty finding out where to watch games.

“Sports programming has the unique ability to attract large and passionate audiences making it invaluable to video providers seeking to drive engagement and time spent with their services,” Gracenote Chief Product Officer Bill Michels said. “With Gracenote’s new solution, customers can now deliver innovative discovery experiences leveraging sports content and win the competition for viewers and their attention.”

The new Gracenote on Sports allows video services to use a single API to access Gracenote sports data covering 150-plus leagues and competitions connected to Gracenote video data, including imagery and content IDs. The enriched sports data, live sports schedules and team and league data can then be used to power next-generation universal search capabilities and unique sports experiences to attract and retain viewers. Future product enhancements will enable display of real-time game scores and standings as well as athlete appearances in other entertainment content, Gracenote said.

More specifically, On Sports offers video providers these capabilities:

• Personalize the sports experience by providing tailored recommendations for live games based on preferences and viewing history.
• Create a comprehensive sports hub that aggregates live events and related content across different platforms.,
• Enhance pregame engagement by helping fans discover upcoming live games across multiple channels and streaming platforms.
• Elevate the live game experience by displaying real-time scores and league standings in the user interface.
• Enrich postgame content by presenting related viewing options such as recap shows, highlights and postgame analysis.

On Sports covers more than 150 of the world’s most popular sports leagues and competitions including the NFL, NBA, Premier League and Formula 1 in more than 50 countries globally. As the entertainment industry continues its evolution, Gracenote is transforming its offerings in step to ensure customers can effectively leverage programming to maximize engagement and monetization. Learn more at https://gracenote.com/on-sports/.

NEW YORK—While streaming services have been cutting back on original programming and related expenditures to reduce losses, a new report from Nielsen’s Gracenote indicates the major SVOD services are still offering an immense amount of content to subscribers, with more than 550,000 TV show episodes, movies and sports-related programs available across the five major platforms tracked by the company.

The data comes from Gracenote's newly launched Data Hub, designed to provide insight into the current state of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) programming and to identify global content trends and changes over time.

Along with the launch of the Data Hub, Gracenote also released its 2024 State of Play report, which provides insights into the Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ content data, examines notable programming trends and offers new insights to help guide business decisions. This marks the third installment of the report.

Other key insights from the report and the Data Hub include:

• Episodic TV programming accounts for 89% of the overall content available on these platforms.
• Total number of unique movie, sports and program-level TV titles (excluding individual episodes) in this analysis is just over 84,000.
• Among the five providers analyzed, 93% of the programs distributed are exclusive to just one service.
• More than 70% of the content available on these platforms has been released since 2010.
• Original programming accounted for just one-fourth of U.S. audiences’ time with streaming video content in 2023, per the Nielsen National TV Panel.
• 36% of streaming users say that their preferred user experience has a significant impact (per Nielsen’s 2023 U.S. Streaming Consumer survey).
• Three-fourths of streaming viewers aren’t sure what they want to watch when they start a streaming session (according to Nielsen’s 2023 U.S. Streaming Consumer survey).
• Across all five SVOD catalogs analyzed, only 44.2% of the content was produced in the U.S.
• Drama is the most prevalent genre globally, accounting for 23.6% of catalogs among tracked SVOD services.

The new Data Hub taps into the Gracenote Global Video Data database of TV show and movie information, and is intended to complement Nielsen’s The Gauge and The Media Distributor Gauge, which measure time spent by audiences on individual streaming platforms and aggregated at the media company level, Nielsen said.

With the Gracenote Data Hub, the industry can better understand the content catalogs of global SVOD providers, whch helps to reduce churn and grow time spent viewing. The Data Hub includes SVOD catalogs across 23 countries for unique insights on movie, TV and sports programming content volume, genre, mood, exclusivity and country of origin.

“Gracenote data has long been trusted by the global video ecosystem to power advanced content discovery and engaging entertainment experiences,” Chief Product Officer Trent Wheeler said. “Through new resources tapping our data, we're enabling clear visibility into catalog volume and composition as well as content makeup and characteristics to help inform business decisions that drive success.“

Platform-specific Insights include:

• Amazon Prime Video: Amazon Prime Video distributes more than two-thirds of the video content offered by the five global SVOD platforms tracked in our analysis. Prime Video distributes 73% of the movie content and nearly 57% of the unique TV shows offered by the five global SVOD platforms. 55% of its SVOD content was produced outside of the U.S.
• Apple TV+: Animated and children's genres each make up about a fifth of the Apple TV+ catalog, around three times the average across the five providers. More than 98% of the content that Apple TV+ distributes is exclusive. A significant percentage of the content that Apple TV+ distributes is in the comedy, children’s or animated genres.
• Disney+ (including Hulu): More than half of the content that Disney+ distributes is TV shows (55%). 79% of the content that Disney+ distributes is exclusive to Disney+. Across the five global SVOD platforms, Disney+ has the highest percentage of content in the action, adventure and fantasy genres.
• Netflix: Netflix’s catalog has the greatest percentage of global content, as 68% of its offerings were produced outside of the U.S. 74% of the content that Netflix distributes is exclusive. One-fourth of Netflix content has an Emotional mood, the highest percentage across the global five.
• Paramount+: 72% of the content in the Paramount+ SVOD catalog was produced in the U.S. More than 64% of the content that Paramount+ distributes is exclusive. Paramount+ has the highest share of content within the comedy genre (22.4%).

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s Gracenote unit has launched Gracenote Watch Prompts, a new dataset that allows global video platforms and services to offer facts about TV programs and movies. 

Designed to be paired with viewer preference and consumption behavior data, the new provides streamers and other video content providers with the ability to deliver more personalized viewer experiences that can increase audience tune-in and time spent.

The launch comes at a time when many surveys are reporting that consumers find it difficult to decide what to watch and traditional recommendation offerings aren't very effective. 

According to Nielsen's 2023 U.S. Streaming Content survey, 74% of consumers either don't know at all or only have a vague idea about what they want to watch when starting a streaming session, meaning a large majority are making on-the-fly viewing decisions. Furthermore, fewer than three in 10 feel that recommendations are useful in helping them find compelling content. As video platforms and services seek to monetize viewers through engagement, effective content discovery and personalized promotion are more important than ever, Gracenote explained. 

Gracenote Watch Prompts aims to overcome those issues by complementing both basic program metadata and Video Descriptors with additional information on individual TV programs and movies to drive viewer consideration. Developed using a combination of Gracenote's unmatched machine learning capabilities and human editorial expertise, the solution presents the following:

• Critical facts: Prominent award wins and praise from renowned TV and film critics, providing evidence of content quality
• Talent spotlights: Showcases popular actors and creators to appeal to viewer preferences
• Content comparisons: Analogies based on thematically similar content presenting new frames of reference

For example, the information page for the TV show "Succession" could highlight its 13 Emmy Award wins, including two in the prestigious "Outstanding Drama Series" category, to educate a potential viewer on the show's critical acclaim and motivate sampling. Or the "Barbie" page could describe the offering as "Legally Blonde" meets "The Lego Movie," providing a relatable analogy based on beloved films to pique interest, the company explained. 

Gracenote leverages a mix of machines and humans to bring Watch Prompts to customers. Advanced machine learning techniques help to automate creation of content snippets based on the company's unmatched video data on millions of program titles. Human editors with language, market and content expertise review outputs to ensure accuracy and quality, creating a feedback loop that helps the algorithms continually improve over time.

"Streaming services are challenged to continually enhance the user experiences they offer to delight viewers, increase time spent and reduce churn," said Trent Wheeler, chief product officer at Gracenote. "Watch Prompts leverages the expertise of Gracenote's human editors along with scalability enabled by machine learning to deliver an entirely new dataset that will help our customers evolve and meet these challenges."

Gracenote has a long history of powering the user experiences of the world's biggest and most innovative TV providers. The company's gold-standard program metadata, imagery and ID offerings fuel modern video user experiences and contextual advertising capabilities. As the entertainment industry continues its evolution, Gracenote is transforming its offerings in step to ensure customers can effectively leverage programming to maximize engagement and monetization.

Gracenote will exhibit at IBC 2024 in Amsterdam from September 13 - 16.

Missed any of our recent product news? Here is TV Tech's weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between July 22 and July 26. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday July 26, day by day back to our stories from Monday July 22.

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Alibaba Cloud, OBS Launch AI-Fueled OBS Cloud 3.0 for Paris Olympics

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Disney+, Hulu, Max Bundle Launches

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While some news operations were affected, tech support prep and Macs limited the problems.

Astera to Showcase LunaBulb LED Light at 2024 IBC Show

Astera, a German-based developer of light solutions for film, event and TV markets, will showcase its range of LED-based lighting gear, including its new LunaBulb, at the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam.

Brazil’s SBTVD Forum Recommends ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer For Nation’s TV 3.0 OTA Service

The SBTVD Forum, the non-profit organization that advises the Brazilian government on digital television and policy matters, is recommending the selection of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer as the over-the-air transmission system for the nation’s TV 3.0 next-generation terrestrial broadcast service, ATSC said.

RAI Taps Clear-Com for New Intercom Setup

Clear-Com has announced that it worked with Video Progetti to deliver an advanced intercom solution for Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), Italy’s state broadcaster.

Sencore to Feature Latest Internet Distribution, Contribution Advancements at IBC Show

The company also will show its latest developments in encoding, decoding and monitoring.

NBC Sports Taps Comcast Technology Solutions for Olympics Coverage

NBC Sports has announced that it will be using Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) to provide multiscreen video management and delivery for its production of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

QuickLink To Highlight StudioPro 4K Video Production Solution At IBC Show

QuickLink will show its QuickLink StudioPro 4K video production platform at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

IBC 2024 Sees European Debut of Proton Cam, World’s Smallest Camera

Miniaturized camera specialist Proton Camera Innovations will be bringing Proton Cam, which the company bills as the world’s smallest broadcast camera, to the IBC Show, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

Gray Television To Enhance Paris Olympics NextGen TV Signal With HDR, Immersive Audio

The broadcast group will offer NextGen TV viewers in eight of its NBC markets the Paris Olympics in HDR when they open Wednesday, July 24. Viewers in three of those markets also will be able to listen to immersive audio of the games.

Lawo To Launch Home mc² DSP App Audio Engine At IBC Show

Lawo will make the official launch of HOME mc² DSP app, first announced at the NAB Show in April, at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

DMC Productions Leverages GV AMPP-Based Workflow for Nordic Tennis Tournament

DMC Productions has deployed a remote production workflow that processes all signals on site as opposed to transporting them for off-site processing based on Grass Valley AMPP for the 2024 Nordea Open tennis tournament, July 8-21, the company said.

Amazon Prime Video Acquires Bray Film Studios in the U.K.

The studio has been the production home for the second season of the Prime Video series `The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ since 2022.

Paramount Advertising Brings AI-Generated Ads to Pluto TV, Paramount+

Powered by generative AI partner Waymark, Paramount's new Paramount Ads Manager creates CTV ads based on images, text, and videos derived from a business’s website.

Perifery Introduces AI+ 2.0 Suite of Tools

Perifery has launched AI+ 2.0, an AI-powered suite for media professionals to revitalize their existing content libraries with AI-generated metadata.

FOR-A to Spotlight Software-Defined IP Solutions At IBC Show

FOR-A will show spotlight software-defined IP solutions and hybrid production at the IBC Show, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

 NEW YORK—As part of a push into the contextual advertising business, Nielsen’s Gracenote has announced that it is developing new contextual categories to give advertisers greater visibility into the content that their messages run against on connected TV (CTV) and that it is working with a number of partners on the effort.

High quality Gracenote metadata has long been trusted by the world’s leading publishers and streamers to power innovative video experiences and advanced content discovery, Gracenote reported. With this announcement, Gracenote is making its program genres, ratings, content types and advisories available as the common taxonomy for media buyers and sellers to transact direct and programmatic CTV buys.

For the push into contextual advertising, Gracenote said it is teaming with Peer39, the leading global provider of contextual suitability and quality solutions for modern marketers, to make Gracenote-powered contextual CTV categories available on Peer39 partner DSP platforms. 

In addition, Gracenote has tapped Magnite, the largest independent omnichannel sell-side advertising company, as the first SSP to support and scale these new CTV categories.

Gracenote reported that the result allows such publishers as Cineverse, DirecTV Advertising, Philo, Tastemade and Xumo to enhance their programming with Gracenote Contextual Video Data. Gracenote Contextual Data describes individual TV shows and movies in ways that provide more visibility and transparency for media buyers who want additional signals around content. 

Such agencies including Cannella Media and Ocean Media also intend to use Gracenote CTV categories to optimize targeting and deliver incremental reach, Gracenote also said. 

“For CTV advertising to reach its full potential, scale and transparency are critical,” said Trent Wheeler, chief product officer at Gracenote. “Gracenote is uniquely positioned to become the taxonomy for the CTV marketplace providing program-level metadata for sellers and buyers to transact on. The insight into content enabled by Gracenote Contextual Video Data will help publishers optimize their CTV inventory and advertisers reach target audiences at scale.”

Gracenote data provides unprecedented granularity at scale for programmatic ad buys. Publishers can use Gracenote’s deep descriptive metadata to package ad inventory to unlock incremental revenue for content catalogs. Magnite’s controls allow publishers to determine when this content metadata is shared with advertisers. 

For example, if a sports documentary is only identified as a "documentary," it may miss out on suitable bids for “sports enthusiasts” and other sports categories, limiting incremental reach. A “drama” set in Paris could have multiple sub-genres such as “fashion” and “travel” that would appeal to luxury goods or airline advertisers opening new ad matching opportunities. CTV publishers and content owners can be assured that media buyers will not have access to show, series or episode titles for targeting.  

“CTV represents the future of television advertising and the ability to pass standardized contextual data signals at scale will improve results for advertisers and lead to more investment for publishers,” said Mario Diez, CEO of Peer39. “We’ve spent the past several years looking to bring more effectiveness to CTV ad targeting. Together with Gracenote, we hope to create a strong ecosystem where advertisers, publishers and consumers all benefit from content supported through contextually relevant advertising.”

Making Gracenote’s contextual CTV categories available through Peer39 will allow advertisers and agencies to better understand available programming and more effectively target audiences to achieve their advertising goals. Media buyers can also use keyword targeting to match against or exclude actor, director, sports type, mood, theme, subject, location and other types of in-content metadata. Gracenote’s program ratings and parental advisory categories give brands the confidence to lift channel blocks while avoiding unsuitable content. 

NEW YORK—Nielsen has named Jared Grusd CEO of Gracenote, effective July 8, 2024.

It also announced that Sujit Dasmunshi will assume the role of COO for Gracenote and will continue to play a critical role in growing the business.

“I’m honored to join Nielsen and build on the tremendous innovation and growth that Gracenote has achieved under Sujit’s strong vision and strategy,” said Jared Grusd, CEO of Gracenote. “This is an exciting time as our industry embraces advanced technologies and we look for new ways of working with clients and increasing the value we bring to market. I’m excited to help define the next chapter of Gracenote.”

Most recently, Grusd served as the co-founder of Ethiqly AI, a venture-backed educational technology company that leverages AI to elevate human expression and empowerment. He previously served as chief strategy officer at Snapchat, Chime, and AOL, as well as chief legal officer at Spotify and CEO at HuffPost. In addition, Jared also held senior executive roles at Google, among others.

“Gracenote is a critical part of Nielsen and our strategy as we look to grow in streaming and lead the advancement of Convergent TV in the media measurement industry,” said Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. “Jared’s background and passion for transforming businesses to improve society is aligned with our future and I’m grateful for his partnership as we transform our industry together.”

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s Gracenote content data business unit has announced that it is expanding its FAST Program into the U.S.

The FAST Program is designed to help content owners and providers more easily launch new free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels. The expansion means that U.S.-based content owners can distribute their TV programs and movies to leading streaming platforms along with industry-standard Gracenote metadata ensuring their offerings are discoverable and monetizable.

In announcing the expansion, Gracenote noted that FAST channels are undergoing rapid growth and it cited data from eMarketer showing that nearly one-third of the U.S. population or 114.5 million viewers are expected to watch FAST channels by 2027.

First introduced in Europe in late 2023, the Gracenote FAST Program will help U.S.-based content owners navigate the process of launching and distributing their FAST channels with the enriched metadata attributes that are critical in driving viewer discoverability. The program leverages Gracenote's existing distribution network which comprises leading streaming platforms, facilitating seamless onboarding and immediate content availability for participants, Gracenote reported. 

"Go-to-market complexity in the FAST ecosystem can slow the process of launching channels and getting content in front of entertainment-hungry viewers," said Tim Cutting, chief revenue officer at Gracenote. "By removing obstacles for content owners in the U.S., the Gracenote FAST Program facilitates wider content distribution, better content discovery and deeper viewer engagement. Ultimately, this helps participants maximize ad monetization against their valuable content assets and position themselves for success now and into the future."

While data requirements differ by streaming platform, Gracenote ensures relevant metadata and assets are available to the Gracenote distribution network of platforms for FAST channel deployment. Once content owners submit their programs and schedules, Gracenote distributes enriched, normalized program data and EPG data directly to the streaming platforms. 

Qualifying Gracenote FAST Program participants will benefit from:

• Ingestible schedules: Standardized date and time formats for each program airing ensure linear schedule accuracy and aid tune-in.
• Enhanced merchandising assets: Enriched program synopses and visual imagery that power program presentation regardless of platform and draw viewers in.
• Expanded metadata coverage: Standardized genre categorizations and more advanced data tags leveraging Gracenote taxonomy make your content findable in current and future discovery experiences.

 For more information is available here.  

PARK CITY, Utah—Gracenote, the content metadata business unit of Nielsen, has announced that it is joining forces with leading advocates for equitable representation in media to offer a new Studio System feature, Diversity Spotlight. 

The enhancement leverages insights from IllumiNative, Gold House, RespectAbility, National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) to highlight people and projects that meet a range of diversity-specific criteria and open new casting, funding and collaboration opportunities.

"In conversations with the industry, we've heard repeatedly that difficulty finding diverse creators to work with and inclusive projects to bring to screens is slowing the transformation everyone agrees is needed," said Trent Wheeler, chief product officer, Gracenote. "The expertise of our advocacy group partners combined with the unmatched scale of Gracenote data and the reach of Studio System hold the promise to accelerate representative content creation and bring real change to Hollywood."

Despite the industry's pledges to improve diversity, equity and inclusion, people of color, people with disabilities as well as members of the LGBTQIA community still remain underrepresented in TV content compared to their respective population estimates. 

For example, Latinx representation in programming is only 5.7% although the group makes up 20% of the U.S. population according to Gracenote Inclusion Analytics data. Similarly, representation of disabled people is only 6.6% despite the fact that one in four Americans has a disability.

The lack of diversity also hampers efforts by media companies to reach wider audiences. A recent Attitudes on Representation Study conducted by Nielsen found that a majority of U.S. audiences wanted to see more of their identity group in programming, underscoring the demand and highlighting the opportunity.

Gracenote and its partners said that effort would help address those problems by raising the visibility of diverse talent and representative projects among Studio System's broad industry user base and strengthen efforts to bring more equitable representation and authentic content to viewers. 

"As we are working to drive representation of Native talent and projects in entertainment, a solution like Gracenote Diversity Spotlight takes our work to the next level — where Native creatives can be discovered with a tool that is already a trusted source for the decision makers in the industry," said Crystal Echo Hawk, CEO and founder of IllumiNative.

"Gold House is excited to partner with Gracenote to launch Diversity Spotlight during Sundance," said Bing Chen, CEO and co-founder of Gold House. "The discovery of diverse talent is critical for impactful Asian American Pacific Islander representation on screen, and resources, such as Diversity Spotlight, are important for casting agents, producers, and executives to connect the right talent with the right story."

The Latinx House and IllumiNative will host Nielsen to celebrate the new Diversity Spotlight at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Nielsen will also share fresh insights on diverse representation in content at Sunrise Collective and Indigenous House.

In the run-up to the January 15th Emmy Awards show on Fox, Nielsen’s Gracenote has released a new study showing that streaming services garnered a record share of the shows nominated for the major Emmy awards recognizing outstanding Acting, Directing, Writing and Shows this year.

The Television Academy which administers the Primetime Emmy Awards decided to push back the 2023 ceremony from its usual September window to January 15, 2024 due to the Hollywood labor disputes. The awards will cover programming from June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023.

Analysis from Nielsen’s Gracenote has found that 41 shows have been nominated in the 22 categories of major Emmy awards recognizing outstanding Acting, Directing, Writing and Shows this year. Streaming services accounted for 27 of these shows, the highest share in Emmy history from the streamers. 

Nine are from premium cable networks, two from broadcast networks, one from a basic cable network and two from Free Advertising Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels. The nomination of Jury Duty, the first series from a FAST channel, is particularly noteworthy because its channel Freevee broadcast only six original scripted series in the nomination period, the researchers noted. 

The 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards mark the fifth year in succession in which more shows from streaming services than other distributors have received nominations in major categories. More shows than ever from streamers were nominated for major awards this year.

Other key highlights from their analysis include: 

• Streaming shows captured 27 Emmy nominations in major awards categories, a new record high. Just six years ago, only 10 shows from streaming services were nominated in these categories.
• Major nominations for streaming series have remained relatively stable for five successive Emmy award cycles at between 10 and 14 different shows. This year’s 14 nominated series from streamers for major awards equal the 2021 record.
• The recent increase in Emmy nominations in major categories for streaming shows has been driven by limited or anthology series and TV movies. The 13 nominated shows in 2023 are nearly three times as many as the five in 2019 and represent a new high for the streamers.
• Showtime’s George & Tammy and NBC’s Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas are the only limited series or TV movies from premium cable or broadcast networks nominated for major Emmys at this awards ceremony.
• Streaming services have triple the number of programs with major nominations of premium cable services for the first time this year. Nearly two-thirds of programs nominated for major Emmy awards are from streaming services, the highest proportion achieved so far by this group.
• It was only two years ago that streaming services had over 50% of the nominated programs in major categories for the first time.
• Only one series from a broadcast network - ABC’s Abbott Elementary - has been nominated for major Emmy awards this year. Broadcast networks have never had such little success with series. Just three years ago, this segment accounted for seven major Emmy awards nominations for series.
• This year premium cable services have received their lowest number of nominated programs in major Emmy award categories (9) since streaming services received their first major Emmy nominations in 2013. The previous low for premium cable programming was 10 major award nominees in 2021.
• The 41 programs nominated for major Emmy awards in 2023 is consistent with the last two years (39 in 2021 and 40 in 2022). However, this is a smaller number of nominated programs than in the peak years of the last decade as 55 different shows and TV movies were nominated in 2015 and 50 in 2018.
• Jury Duty is the first series from a FAST channel to be nominated for a major Emmy award. Its creator Freevee made only five other original series which were released during the nomination period. The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the second TV Movie from a FAST channel to receive Emmy recognition, after last year’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, also from the same channel. 

 As part of its analysis of the nominations Gracenote researchers also provided a bit of historical background for the rise of streaming services. 

They noted that six years after its launch as a subscribed video on demand streaming service, Netflix picked up its first major Emmy nominations in 2013. "House of Cards" was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. "Arrested Development" received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. David Fincher won the directing award for the pilot episode of House of Cards, delivering Netflix’s first major Emmy.

Awards data analyzed by Gracenote reveals that, in addition to those two Netflix programs, 20 shows from premium cable companies received major Emmy award nominations in 2013, broadcast networks had nine shows acclaimed in this way, basic cable providers had seven and PBS had one for Downton Abbey, a show co-produced with UK commercial broadcaster ITV.

Two years later, Amazon became the second streaming service to produce a major Emmy-nominated show. "Transparent" joined five series and one TV movie from Netflix to receive nominations in Show, Acting, Directing or Writing categories. The seven streaming shows nominated for major awards in 2015 meant that only premium cable and broadcast networks had more acclaimed shows than the streamers. Amazon became the second streaming service to win a major Emmy as Jeffrey Tambor was given the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award and Joey Soloway won the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series award.

Streaming services had 10 shows nominated for major Emmy awards in 2017 with Hulu joining Netflix and Amazon amongst the acclaimed streamers. Only premium cable services now had more nominated programs than the streamers. Hulu’s acclaimed adaptation of "The Handmaid’s Tale" became the first streaming series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. The San Junipero episode of Netflix’s "Black Mirror" series won the Outstanding Television Movie Emmy. Other major Emmy awards went to streaming services for "The Handmaid’s Tale", "The Crown" (Netflix) and "Master of None" (Netflix), the study reported. 

Two years later, in 2019, streaming services became the segment of the TV market with the most programs nominated for major Emmy awards. Netflix produced nine of these acclaimed shows, Amazon (now rebranded as Prime Video) made four and Hulu three. Premium cable services made 15 shows acclaimed in this way with 10 from HBO, two from Showtime, two from FX and one from Pop TV. Streamers led the way in the series categories but premium cable was still on top for limited series and TV movies.

Seven different programs from streamers won major Emmy awards in 2019, one more major Emmy award winning show than the premium cable companies’ six. 

In 2020, streaming services had the most major Emmy-nominated shows in both the series and limited series/TV movie categories for the first time. Twelve streaming series and eight limited series/TV movies received major Emmy nominations that year. Apple TV+ and Disney+ became the fourth and fifth streamers to produce nominated programs in a major Emmy award category with "The Morning Show" and "The Mandalorian" respectively. A year later, Peacock and Max became the sixth and seventh streaming services to achieve this and in 2022, BET+ and Paramount+ increased that number to nine.

Since 2020, streaming services have continued to lead premium cable in Emmy-acclaimed programming. This year’s nominated shows in major categories have been dominated more than ever by the streamers which have produced a record 27 nominated shows this year, a new streaming high of 66% of nominated programs. Broadcast networks are down to two nominated shows and basic cable nets have just one, compared to 10 and six respectively just five years ago. ABC’s "Abbott Elementary" is the only series from a broadcast network to be nominated for major Emmys, a new low for the segment of the market which previously dominated the Emmys. 

Fewer segments of the TV industry producing shows with major award potential signals a shift. In 2015 and 2018, commercial broadcasters and basic cable networks still had plenty of shows receiving major nominations and this led to 55 and 50 shows respectively receiving Emmy acclaim in the most important categories. In four of the five years since 2018, only 39 to 41 different shows have received this recognition as the influence of those segments of the market have declined.

This year, there is a new entry in the major Emmy nominations for Series as Amazon Freevee’s "Jury Duty" has become the first series from a FAST channel to receive major Emmy acclaim with nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. 

LONDON—MetaBroadcast, the UK's leading metadata management specialist, and Nielsen’s Gracenote have announced that they have been awarded a three year contract renewal by Barb, the U.K. audience measurement service, to operate its combined content ID and genre allocation system from January 2025.

Barb is the main provider of TV measurement in the U.K. 

As part of the deal, MetaBroadcast will use industry-leading Gracenote schedule metadata and unique content identifiers to reduce timescales for accurate programme identification, validation, enrichment and genre classification, as well as improve coverage and accuracy of broadcaster IDs. 

The inclusion of Gracenote will also allow Barb to better deduplicate content and accelerate reporting from seven days to three days after programmes are first made available on linear channels or streaming services.

"MetaBroadcast is delighted to continue supporting Barb by leveraging the robust metadata management capabilities of Atlas, our cloud-based active data platform, and by now working with premier global metadata provider Gracenote to improve content ID coverage and classification," said Jamie Mackinlay, CEO, MetaBroadcast. "We recognise the importance of accurate, consistent, and timely programme data that allows Barb to fulfill the needs of its audience measurement customer base. We look forward to continuing our collaboration."

"By leveraging Gracenote's unique content IDs and programme metadata, measurement providers can quickly identify and better understand what people are watching across different services and platforms," said Tim Cutting, chief revenue officer at Gracenote. "We look forward to working with MetaBroadcast and enabling Barb to deliver new levels of speed, accuracy, consistency and completeness in their multi-screen audience measurement."

Barb's audience measurement relies on a system for identifying and classifying traditional linear broadcast, catch up or streaming viewing. Using Gracenote data as a key system input will ensure consistent programme titles and genres, accurate connections between programmes and episodes and linkages to broadcasters' linear and streaming content across platforms, the companies added. 

AMSTERDAM—Nielsen’s Gracenote unit has unveiled a new offering to help content publishers and broadcasters get their Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels and programming distributed by major streaming platforms more easily. 

The Gracenote FAST Program, which Gracenote will be showing during IBC2023, uses advanced data enrichment services to help Gracenote customers accelerate time-to-market for their FAST offerings.

“The rapid rise of FAST has been one of the most notable recent developments in the global video ecosystem,” said Vikram Kulkarni, vice president, strategic initiatives, EMEA at Gracenote. “Based on our position at the heart of this ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to help content publishers from small to large benefit from the maturation of FAST and we look forward to helping them achieve better FAST content visibility, consumption and monetization through our Program.”  

In announcing the launch, Gracenote highlighted the growing importance of FAST offerings in the streaming landscape and cited data from Statista projecting that revenue generated by FAST channels worldwide will reach $18 billion by 2028 with the U.S., U.K., South Korea, Germany, India, Canada and Brazil the leading markets.

To capitalize on that growth, Gracenote explained that content owners need high-quality normalized metadata and connected content IDs to facilitate distribution on streaming platforms, drive program and channel visibility as well as increase viewership.

Gracenote FAST Program participants that submit their channel portfolios directly to Gracenote benefit from expert enrichment of editorial and contextual data plus access to rich program imagery which drive increased channel engagement. Assignment of Gracenote IDs to participants’ content streamlines placement on major streaming platforms through Gracenote Listing Distribution Services and enables easier content discovery, the Nielsen unit said. 

In addition, Program participants receive a “Gracenote Certified” designation giving them an advantage when pitching their FAST offerings to platforms which prefer and in some cases require standardized Gracenote metadata and IDs. This label ensures that all data meets the various requirements for the streaming platforms resulting in a turnkey program for participating content providers.

Gracenote will exhibit at IBC in Amsterdam from 15 - 18 September. Company executives will also participate in a fireside chat titled “FAST Talk: A Discussion on Global Expansion Challenges and Opportunities” and deliver a presentation titled “Metadata: The Essential Building Block for FAST.”  To learn more, visit https://events.nielsen.com/ibc2023. 

NEW YORK—A new report highlights the frustration many consumers face in an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape with the finding that streaming viewers are spending a record 10.5 minutes per session deciding what to watch. 

The 2023 State of Play report on the fast-evolving streaming video landscape from Nielsen’s Gracenote  found that that there were 1.9 million video titles available to viewers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico and Germany in July 2021, a number that had swelled to 2.7 million titles by June 2023. 

Of the total count, a whopping 86.7% were available on streaming services. Compounding complexity, many popular shows now appear in multiple streaming catalogs, as the industry pivots from offering content exclusivity to broad distribution strategies that companies hope will balance massive streaming loses, the report noted. 

The Gracenote analysis also found that audiences now have nearly 40,000 individual FAST channels, streaming providers and aggregators to choose from. 

The complexity and fragmentation of the streaming landscape has become a particularly thorny problem given that new Nielsen data from The Gauge revealed that streaming accounted for 38.7% of total TV usage in July, a new record high. That same month, traditional TV viewing across broadcast and cable dropped below 50% for the first time.

Other data also highlights ongoing consumer frustration with streaming services. Recently Parks reported that nearly half (47%) of consumers churn in and out of services on an annual basis. 

"As it was during the age of broadcast television, content is the lifeblood of the digital, streaming-first media ecosystem," said Filiz Bahmanpour, vice president of product at Nielsen’s Gracenote, the content solutions business unit of Nielsen providing entertainment metadata, content IDs and related offerings to the world's leading creators, distributors and platforms.  "So a clear understanding of content – where it's available, what it's about and whom it's attracting – is more critical than ever."

The full report along with recommendations of how companies can improve content discovery and retain streaming subscribers can be accessed here. 

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen's Gracenote has launched Gracenote ID Distribution System, a new platform that enables program owners and creators to leverage Gracenote IDs to manage their content, streamline distribution and ensure their content brands are well represented and easily discoverable on major streaming services, connected TV devices and MVPDs. 

The product is designed to help content owners make their entertainment offerings more successful and improve return on investments, Gracenote said. 

“With streaming reaching maturity, more focus than ever is placed on securing positive return on investment on programming,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote. “To achieve this, content sources need their offerings to be easily discovered and appropriately represented in distribution channels and their user interfaces. Gracenote ID Distribution System leverages our deep metadata and content ID expertise to streamline this process for content sources, ultimately helping them drive maximum engagement and monetization.”

At launch, Gracenote ID Distribution System is available in North America, Europe and Latin America.

Gracenote IDs are unique identifiers for TV shows and movies that are broadly deployed throughout the global entertainment ecosystem and act like Universal Product Codes for content. 

hese IDs link data assets related to programs such as descriptions, genres, cast lists, vibrant imagery, and program availability on a platform. In addition, they power personalized recommendations within individual video services and universal content search and discovery across streaming, MVPD, CTV, on-demand and linear platforms, the company said. 

Using Gracenote ID Distribution System, programming sources can submit their content metadata and imagery via a web application or API to ensure its association with normalized Gracenote metadata and IDs and manage its distribution, all through a single point of integration, the company said. 

The majority of the world’s leading video discovery experiences running on Gracenote metadata and IDs can then present resonant content and metadata in program guides and recommendations to drive viewing and engagement.

The company said that key benefits include: 

• Greater visibility and ownership: Powerful tools help users better manage their metadata and understand its distribution on downstream platforms. They can obtain Gracenote IDs earlier in the content lifecycle enabling them to track programming at every subsequent stage.
• Optimized discovery: Users can ensure optimal availability of their programming in Gracenote datasets elevating discoverability. Upon request, first-party metadata variations can be delivered to specified video discovery platforms to maximize regional relevance or satisfy branding requirements.
• Streamlined distribution: The platform enables programming sources to efficiently secure broad distribution across Gracenote’s global customer base and engage their end users.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen’s Gracenote has launched its Distribution Dynamics and Program Availability Archive, new datasets designed to help content owners and buyers optimize program licensing and acquisition strategies by analyzing such factors as bingeability, audience loyalty and availability of content on streaming platforms. 

“As the streaming business continues to put huge investment into creating content, we are seeing the need for new metrics and insights to help guide monetization efforts,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote. “Gracenote’s Content Analytics solutions, including our new Distribution Dynamics and Program Availability Archive datasets, meet these needs by providing owners and buyers trusted data and intelligence to inform decision-making around their content strategies.” 

The new offerings are designed to complement Gracenote’s existing Content Analytics offerings with syndicated datasets providing the content marketplace insights into characteristics of programming that drives consumption.  

Gracenote Distribution Dynamics datasets shed light on how individual streaming and broadcast programs are consumed by evaluating the following characteristics:

• Bingeability - Measures the average number of TV show episodes watched per day to quantify viewer propensity to consume multiple episodes in a row;
• Loyalty - Captures the number of minutes and percentage of available content viewed per month to highlight viewer likeliness to stick with a program;
• Program Similarity - Identifies programs that resemble other programs based on lookalike thematic characteristics, viewing audiences and historical performance. 

The company noted that streaming services and networks can leverage this information to optimize slate management through visibility into what content is better suited for viewer acquisition versus viewer retention, or what types of programming better resonate with certain audiences. Media companies and studios can solve content distribution challenges by understanding what programming to create or license to maximize viewership. Studios, streaming services and networks can answer content development questions by identifying underserved viewership segments. 

The Gracenote Program Availability Archive providing historical information for the past five years includes:

• Program and episode titles;
• Unique Gracenote content identifiers (IDs);
• Original air dates;
• Availability start and end dates;
• Season and episode numbers.

Using the Gracenote Program Availability Archive, content creators, licensors and buyers can see program release scheduling, stacking, windowing and removal information and develop go-forward content strategies. Additionally, this information enables whitespace analysis capabilities and comparisons between owned content catalogs and those of competitors, the company reported. 

Gracenote will showcase its Content Analytics solutions and datasets to video content production and distribution executives at NATPE Hollywood in Los Angeles on June 1, 2022. More information is available at https://www.natpe.com/hollywood/.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen’s Gracenote has launched Gracenote Streaming Channels Data, a solution that enables content discovery platforms to connect consumers to programs on free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels as well as linear channels on virtual MVPD (vMVPD) services. 

Integrating Gracenote Streaming Channels Data into their workflows allows content aggregators to serve as one-stop shops for viewers who increasingly are turning to free services for programming to augment premium streaming service content, the company said.

Streaming Channels Data provides content discovery platforms with access to Gracenote's database of schedules for linear streaming channels. Each airing includes a Gracenote ID and normalized channel and program metadata enriched with imagery, descriptions and celebrity information. The rich dataset enhances content discoverability and enables more personalized program recommendations across different services, ultimately improving the user experience, it said.

"As consumers look for free ad-supported TV content to complement their on-demand services, easy integration and discovery options become more important than ever for aggregator platforms," said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote. "By solving for these challenges, Gracenote Streaming Channels Data helps platform customers work towards optimizing their user experiences and securing their positions as go-to destinations for viewers." 

The launch of Gracenote Streaming Channels Data expands the company’s Streaming Video suite of datasets built to assist entertainment services around the world engage with audiences with compelling content from a variety of sources. Available now in the U.S. and Europe, the new solution joins existing Gracenote offerings which improve search and discovery of entertainment and sports programming across all platforms, it said.

More information is available online. 

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen’s Gracenote has unveiled Audience Predict, a new content analytics tool that forecasts the potential future performance of entertainment programming. 

Audience Predict draws on Gracenote content metadata, Nielsen’s audience measurement data and advanced machine learning technology to provide content distributors and owners with predictive insights that will help them maximize their return on programming investments, the company said. 

Audience Predict joins Inclusion Analytics in Gracenote’s new Content Analytics suite of offerings that are designed to equip the entertainment industry with tools to help companies better understand what to produce, whom to cast and where to place programming to maximize audience reach and return on investment, Gracenote said. 

“The media ecosystem primarily associates Gracenote with advanced search and content discovery enabling TV providers to connect viewers to programming, but our industry-leading entertainment metadata and IDs have equally strong applications powering new analytics which inform smarter business decisions,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer, Gracenote. “By helping the content community see into the future around program performance today, we’re helping them solve one of the most vexing issues they face—distribution complexity. This expands our larger Content Analytics offerings which help the entire media industry make more informed decisions.”

Audience Predict analyzes relationships between streaming service or network distribution outlets and the anticipated potential program performance utilizing years of proprietary Nielsen viewership data, the company said. 

The solution forecasts potential audience size, composition, reach, and viewing minutes under different distribution scenarios by considering program genre and drop patterns for streaming content or airdate, airtime and lead-in for linear content. Using machine learning, the model will iteratively improve and can be trained to output new program performance metrics based on customer needs.

In addition, Gracenote said that Audience Predict can help content creators and owners identify the most potentially advantageous streaming platforms or networks for their content and develop compelling program packages for target buyers. The solution enables data-driven decision-making on program acquisitions, renewals or cancellations for streaming and linear content distributors, forecasting which shows have the potential to draw the largest overall audience or best target segments.

More information on Audience Predict is available at www.gracenote.com/video/audience-predict/.

LONDON, LOS ANGELES, & EMERYVILLE, Calif.—ThinkAnalytics and Gracenote have launched a new solution to improve personalized video search and recommendations.

The offering builds on the two companies’ expertise. ThinkAnalytics’ powerful Personalized Images content recommendations algorithm built on advanced AI techniques and data science is integrated with Gracenote’s Personalized Imagery offering, which offers a differentiated set of images for each TV and movie title. 

With this combined offering, cable and satellite TV services and streaming platform customers have a new, easy-to-implement solution to optimize visual content merchandising and personalize the user experience, the companies said. 

“We have proved that viewers connect with content in different ways through visual images, which is a breakthrough for how service providers can recommend content via their UX – and keep viewers engaged,” said Peter Docherty, CTO of ThinkAnalytics. “We are excited to leverage Gracenote’s all-new sets of program imagery and associated metadata to bring the gold standard of personalized TV experiences to market.”

“Improving content discovery by making it more personal and visually driven holds the potential to help entertainment providers of all sizes move the needle on key business metrics,” added Simon Adams, chief product officer, Gracenote. 

The two companies also noted that the turnkey solution will help video service providers to positively impact key consumption and engagement indicators. Independent testing of these targeted program images versus standard imagery has shown measurable increases in time spent watching content and number of titles watched.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Gracenote, a Nielsen company, is rolling out its new Personalized Imagery tool for video services, which is designed to curate program images to drive user engagement and content discovery. Personalized Imagery is a new addition to Gracenote’s Advanced Discovery suite of services.

Personalized Imagery allows linear and streaming TV providers, as well as connected device makers, to dynamically display program images showing different aspects of content based on viewer preferences and previous viewer consumption. These images can be shown on user interfaces, content carousels and program guides.

The Personalized Imagery service uses Gracenote Video Descriptors like mood, theme and scenario, in conjunction with cast information, to select imagery based on the individual user.

“Viewers looking for new shows to watch today rely on program guides and UIs to browse available content choices,” said Kamran Lotfi, vice president, Product at Gracenote. “But a huge opportunity exists to deliver highly personalized user experiences that highlight content in ways that resonate more with viewers. With Gracenote Personalized Imagery, we are offering TV providers a proven way to increase engagement with their content and maximize viewership on their platforms.”

For more information, visit www.gracenote.com.  

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Gracenote, which is owned by Nielsen, has announced the launch of new sports-driven widgets delivering real-time statistics and other sports-related content to TV and home video screens, as well as auto infotainment systems. This will be done by using Gracenote Global Sports Data.

Through Gracenote Sports Data plug and play widgets, viewers can access content including game previews, game updates, notifications on how to access the game broadcast or stream. In the car, games scores and league standings can be delivered in real-time.

At launch, the Gracenote Sports widgets will cover the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL, as well as international sports leagues like the English Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga, Ligue 1 in France, Serie A in Italy, Spain’s La Liga, Brasileirão Assaí in Brazil, Mexico’s Liga BBVA and the Korean baseball league KBO. Additional coverage is expected to be added throughout the year.

Languages offered for the widgets will include English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

"For years, Gracenote has powered sports viewing experiences for the largest TV providers in the world,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer of Gracenote.  With Gracenote Global Sports Widgets, CE companies and automakers can easily launch new sports experiences which maximize audience engagement and drive consumption while minimizing development costs and engineering resources."

For more information, visit www.gracenote.com. 

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen-owned company Gracenote is bringing its Electronic Program Guides for OTT to Europe in its latest expansion, the company announced on Thursday.

With recent reports detailing that 45% of U.S. viewers in 2019 subscribed to three or more streaming services, Gracenote looks to offer assistance to on-demand video streaming services, Smart TV makers and cable and satellite operators with delivering next-gen content navigation, search and discovery capabilities.

“While much of the focus in the ‘Streaming Wars’ conversation has been on the largest catalogs and original content, the winners will also understand how to successfully integrate with a diverse set of video platforms,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote.

To help meet these goals, Gracenote provides interested parties with the following services: 

• Unique Gracenote IDs, which provide connectivity between related content assets to power universal search capabilities across different services; 
• Deep descriptive metadata to enable intuitive content navigation and recommendations based on advanced video descriptors like mood, theme, setting and character attributes; 
• Custom content imagery to populate OTT guide interfaces and carousels with images for visual navigation; and 
• Streaming service feeds that provide deep linking, audio/video quality, content availability and a critical data structure required to integrate a streaming service into mobile, set-top boxes and Smart TVs.

With its expansion into Europe, Gracenote offers coverage of more than 200 catalogs in 13 markets across North America, Europe, Latin America and APAC.

AMSTERDAM—Nielsen’s Gracenote has launched a new video ID distribution system to make it easier for creators and content owners to distribute movies, TV shows, short-form videos and other types of content to global OTT services, smart device makers and cable and satellite TV service providers.

Gracenote is showing the new ID system and other solutions at the ongoing IBC 2019 convention at the RAI Amsterdam.

Studios and networks that use the Gracenote ID Distribution system can register their content with Gracenote’s Video Database and obtain connected Gracenote IDs to make better search and discovery in program guides, interfaces and OTT catalogs, the company said. They also can submit descriptive metadata, tags and imagery that Gracenote will review and prepare from an editorial point of view for broad distribution.

With Gracenote ID Distribution, content owners and creators can:

• Submit movies, TV programs or short form video content for inclusion in Gracenote’s Video Database;
• Receive certified Gracenote IDs at the beginning of the content lifecycle; and
• Drive the widest possible distribution of their video content to the world’s top VOD and OTT services and smart device manufacturers.

“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,” said Gracenote Chief Product Officer Simon Adams.

“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.”

On average, video streaming services are home to an average of 40,000 TV episodes and movies, the company said. This can make it challenging for subscribers to discover long-tail programming.

Short-form videos that delve more deeply into storylines, themes and characters of popular TV shows have proven to be effective in captivating audiences and attracting new fans. Connected content IDs and metadata from Gracenote makes it easy to display episodes of short-form content alongside episodes of related long-form content, the company said.

This allows video services providers to drive deeper viewer engagement and offer a one-stop shop for all related content, it said.

See Gracenote at IBC 2019 stand 14.G29.

For more information visit the company’s website. 

EMERYVILLE, CA.—How good is the experience viewers are having watching streaming mobile videos? Gracenote, a Nielsen company, aims to find.

Gracenote today announced its new Mobile Video Analytics Solution for MVPDs, mobile operators, streaming services and hardware. The product gives them a way to better understand how the performance of mobile apps is affecting the way users behave, their attitudes about the experience and how consumer engagement with an app stacks up against competitors, the company said.

“In a hotly-contested marketplace for subscribers, it is critical to understand the factors that drive engagement and retention,” said Mike Greenawald, senior vice president, connectivity at Gracenote.

The in-depth examination of user interaction and engagement with mobile apps includes key performance metrics, such as the name of the wireless/internet service provider and type of streaming content.

The Mobile Video Analytics Solution provides insights into the performance quality of mobile video services, which is the greatest contributor to a viewer’s experience and satisfaction.

It also collects analytics on engagement, which include how, when and where viewers watch, how long they watch and other factors like stickiness of content, payload, network access and speed.

With the Mobile Video Analytics Solution, the attitudes of mobile users also can be measured on pricing and why viewers choose to subscribe or drop subscriptions as well as their intention to switch to another service.

Insight on these metrics can be measured against the performance of competitors with their subscribers, allowing streaming services to make course corrections to remain competitive.

When engagement is low, the new solution offers support for passive video tests and survey responses to examine behavior and find out the reason for disengagement and churn.

With the new analytics solution, wireless service providers also have the ability to detect areas of network congestion, which can guide them on where to add capacity.

More information is available on the Gracenote website. 

NEW YORK—CBS and Nielsen are working together to deliver Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) in live linear national broadcast television, helping to actualize and progress addressable advertising. The platform will use frame-accurate video recognition technology for precise ad detection and content insertion in live TV powered by Nielsen Gracenote ACR (Automatic Content Recognition).

CBS already delivers addressable advertising to millions of users across CBS Interactive's portfolio of digital properties including OTT brands; CBSN, the 24/7 digital news network, CBS Sports HQ, the 24-hour streaming sports news network; and CBS All Access, CBS' digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service.

[Read: Broadcasters Eye DAI To Compete With Online]

"CBS has been at the forefront of using Nielsen data and measurement to prove the value of television, and now we are working on taking the next step with Nielsen to go beyond age and gender by bringing targeted dynamic ad insertion to national live TV inventory," said Jo Ann Ross, President and Chief Advertising Revenue Officer, CBS Corporation. "This will create a more relevant ad experience for our viewers and better outcomes for our clients."

Gracenote ACR is integrated into millions of smart TVs from major manufacturers, and uses anonymized information from smart TVs with advanced personalization features. By combing Gracenote’s ACR platform with Nielsen's technology, CBS will be able to offer impressions segmented by behavioral attributes, beyond age and gender, within a live national television program to advertisers, allowing them to reach the appropriate segments of households with the most relevant ad creative.