NEW YORK—A pair of moves is pushing Nielsen toward a focus on addressable advertising for Smart TVs. The first was the acquisition of Sorenson Media, an addressable TV technology provider, which will assist with Nielsen’s launch of its new division, Nielsen Advanced Video Advertising.
According to Variety, Nielsen acquired Sorenson in a bankruptcy court proceeding with a winning bid of $11.25 million.
Nielsen is combining the addressable TV ad platform of Sorenson with its own Automatic Content Recognition technology, which it acquired as part of its acquisition of Gracenote two years ago. Another previous acquisition that will assist with this latest effort was the purchase of Qterics, a Smart TV software and privacy management company.
“[W]ith the Sorenson Media acquisition, we can create improved value and efficiency across the entire media chain—from ad targeting and delivery to measurement and attribution—and make addressable TV more of a reality,” said David Kenny, CEO of Nielsen.
Through its new Advanced Video Advertising initiative, Nielsen will aim to make every addressable TV ad transacted in a way so that it is transparent and drives value for the TV industry.
Nielsen launched a five market addressable TV pilot across two OEMs in 2018 with CBS, A+E Networks and other broadcasters with the goal of further understanding consumer’s experience and the impact of broadcast workflow. Sorenson’s addressable technology will be added to the next phase of the pilot, along with additional programmer participation.
