Nielsen Feb. 1 completed its $560 million acquisition of media and entertainment metadata specialist Gracenote, giving Nielsen reference information for more than 12 million movies and TV episodes and 200 million-plus music tracks.
Nielsen will incorporate Gracenote’s data and technology into its multiplatform Nielsen Total Audience measurement service, with the hope of giving clients better insight into viewer behavior, along with more targeted marketing campaigns.
Gracenote will operate under Nielsen's Watch division, and will remain at its current headquarters in Emeryville, Calif.
Related: Nielsen Proceeding With 'Limited' Total Content Ratings Rollout
“Bringing Gracenote under the Nielsen umbrella creates an industry-leading media discovery, metadata and measurement business strongly positioned as the market shifts to greater personalization,” Karthik Rao, president of expanded verticals for Nielsen, said in a statement. “This acquisition combines Nielsen’s audience measurement and analytics with Gracenote’s data and technology, providing clients with deeper resources to capture consumer engagement across the evolving content ecosystem.”
Gracenote CEO John Batter added: “We’re excited to join the Nielsen family and look forward to leveraging the combined data expertise of both organizations to deliver new innovations to our clients and more engaging experiences to the millions of fans and viewers who connect with and discover TV shows, sports, movies and music they love through Gracenote-powered platforms.”
Nielsen acquired Gracenote from Tribune Media Co. Tribune picked up Gracenote from Sony for $170 million in December 2013.
