Nielsen today finalized its acquisition of media and entertainment provider Gracenote.
The acquisition was announced in December 2016.
Nielsen says that Gracenote’s capabilities will give Nielsen deeper analytics on consumer behavior and offer new views of audience engagement from discovery to consumption. Nielsen will integrate Gracenote’s metadata into its Total Audience measurement framework and Gracenote's long-term client relationships across TV, audio, sports and auto will be “further amplified through Nielsen's global reach and position as the leader in audience measurement and intelligence.”
"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," said Karthik Rao, president of Expanded Verticals at Nielsen, 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."
"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," said Gracenote CEO John Batter in a statement.
According to a news release, Gracenote will operate as a business unit within Nielsen's Watch segment. Nielsen doesn’t expect the Gracenote acquisition to impact its 2017 GAAP EPS, and that it will be slightly accretive in 2018.
Gracenote was not included in Nielsen's previously provided 2017 outlook. Nielsen plans to offer up more details on the expected impact of Gracenote when it reports results for the fourth quarter of 2016 on Feb. 9.
RELATED: Comcast replaces TiVo/Rovi with Gracenote for metadata
One potential impact for Nielsen is that Gracenote just scored a significant customer when Comcast reportedly opted to go with Gracenote over TiVo for its metadata needs.