Gracenote unveils global OTT guide offerings for on-demand video streaming services

Helps global and regional streaming services create next generation user experiences, bridge OTT and broadcast content for seamless viewing

EMERYVILLE, CA, January 2, 2020 – Gracenote, a Nielsen company (NYSE: NLSN), is leveraging its expertise powering linear broadcast Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) to help on-demand video streaming services, smart TV makers and traditional cable and satellite operators deliver next-gen content navigation, search and discovery capabilities. Its latest expansion into Europe positions Gracenote as the leading OTT guide provider in the world with coverage of more than 200 catalogs in 13 markets across North America, Europe, Latin America and APAC.

According to Statista, the concentration of U.S. viewers that subscribe to three or more streaming services more than doubled from 21% in 2017 to 45% in 2019.  These new services seek to integrate into traditional broadcast EPGs while cable and satellite providers aim to deliver seamless experiences across linear TV and native OTT apps.  Critical to the user experience is ensuring the content displayed shares the same parental controls, universal search and similar discovery features. Meanwhile, Smart TV manufacturers are having to navigate the multitude of streaming services and managing endless proprietary feeds and ID systems.

“While much of the focus in the ‘Streaming Wars’ conversation has been on the largest catalogs and original content, the winners will also understand how to successfully integrate with a diverse set of video platforms,” said Simon Adams, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote.  “As this new generation of Video providers emerges, Gracenote is playing to its long-standing role providing the critical metadata, unique IDs and rich imagery that power killer user experiences and drive tune-in and engagement.”

Gracenote’s OTT guide offering serves as the connective tissue that helps make video content searchable across multiple services, platforms and devices.  Leveraging the offering, OTT services are better able to elevate content visibility while enabling Smart TV makers and cable and satellite operators to increase ease of use.  Gracenote IDs and metadata provide common links between TV series, seasons and episodes, as well as related TV and movie genres, celebrities, and other descriptive information. This ensures that Hollywood blockbusters, independent films and short-form videos alike are linked together to create next-generation viewer experiences in pay TV and OTT services.

To help today’s OTT services gain competitive advantages and increase viewer loyalty, Gracenote is making available:

• Unique Gracenote IDs: Provide connectivity between related content assets to power universal search capabilities which surface TV show and movie availability across different services and make possible easy one-click viewing
• Deep Descriptive Metadata: Enables intuitive content navigation and nuanced recommendations that connect viewers to the shows and movies they love – and discover new ones to enjoy – based on Advanced Video Descriptors criteria such as mood, theme, setting and character attributes
• Custom Content Imagery: Populates OTT Guide interfaces and carousels with iconic movie and TV series, season and episode-level images as well as cast/celebrity photos that capture the essence of content – enabling visual navigation and enhancing binge-viewing sessions
• Streaming Service Feeds: Provides deep linking, audio/video quality, content availability and a critical data structure required to integrate a streaming service into mobile, set-top boxes and Smart TVs

Gracenote’s deep descriptive metadata, custom TV show and movie imagery and unique content identifiers have served as the backbone for traditional broadcast guides for decades.  Now, the new generation of internet-delivered TV services are taking advantage of Gracenote’s unmatched expertise in data creation, normalization and distribution to bring their OTT Guides to life. At CES 2020, Gracenote will showcase a full range of entertainment data and analytics solutions designed to help innovative video providers optimize their offerings.

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 gracenote.com.

*This article originally appeared on Nielsen.com.