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Media Metadata Provider Gracenote Sold to Nielsen for $560M

Media Metadata Provider Gracenote Sold to Nielsen for $560M Image Credit: Gracenote

Nielsen, the TV ratings company, has reached an agreement to buy media metadata provider Gracenote from Tribune Media for $560 million in cash, the companies announced Tuesday.

 

Gracenote will continue to operate from its headquarters in Emeryville, California after the deal which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Tribune Media, a leading provider of television and movie metadata acquired Gracenote from Sony in 2014 and its music service was immediately added to Tribune Media Services.

Gracenote claims that it provides the meta data for 12 million movie and TV listings and more than 200 million music tracks. Comcast, DirecTV and other top cable and satellite TV operators leverage Gracenote data to display TV schedules and listings in their program guides and on mobile devices. Music services such as Apple and Spotify too use Gracenote data to power recommendation engines.

The company added that it is on the open road as well, with data and technologies powering the infotainment systems in 85 million cars from Tesla, Ford, BMW, Toyota and others.

Peter Liguori, Tribune Media’s president and chief executive officer
From a strategic standpoint, however, we are pleased to be streamlining our company so that we can focus even more intently on seizing future opportunities for our local television and entertainment business. 

John Batter, Gracenote’s Chief Executive Officer
Both companies have entertainment data at their core and have spent years delivering services to the world’s top media brands. Bringing together our data for driving discovery and tune-in with Nielsen’s deep insights about what people are watching, listening to and buying makes a formidable combination.

Author

Ray is a news editor at The Fast Mode, bringing with him more than 10 years of experience in the wireless industry.

For tips and feedback, email Ray at ray.sharma(at)thefastmode.com, or reach him on LinkedIn @raysharma10, Facebook @1RaySharma

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