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

3 minute read | June 2019

EMERYVILLE, CA, June 19, 2019 – Gracenote, a Nielsen company (NYSE: NLSN), today announced the launch of Gracenote Video Popularity Score, a new data offering which enables entertainment providers to more effectively understand the TV shows and movies that viewers broadly want to watch so that they can promote them accordingly from within their catalogs. The new solution is part of Gracenote’s breakthrough Advanced Discovery suite of metadata products designed to help pay TV providers, OTT services and CE device makers revolutionize the digital video experience and connect viewers to TV shows and movies in innovative ways.

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more information on Gracenote Advanced Discovery suite, please visit www.gracenote.com/video/advanced-discovery.

About Gracenote

Gracenote, a Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) company, provides music, video and sports content and technologies to the world’s hottest entertainment products and brands. Gracenote is the standard for music and video recognition and is supported by the largest source of entertainment data, featuring descriptions of more than 200 million tracks, TV listings for 85+ countries and statistics from 4,500 sport leagues and competitions. Gracenote is headquartered in Emeryville, Calif. and supports customers around the globe. For more information, visit www.gracenote.com.