Gracenote Teams with mDialog to Collaborate on Targeted Television Advertising

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracenote today announced a relationship with leading video stream management company mDialog (www.mdialog.com) to create targeted advertising solutions for traditional broadcast television. Gracenote and mDialog are developing ways to tailor advertising to viewers, bringing the unique targeting and tracking capability common with today's Internet advertising to the living room.

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Core to targeted advertising is knowing exactly what the TV viewer is watching in real time. Gracenote uses advanced video fingerprinting technology to do this, identifying TV programs and detecting any available opportunities for real-time ad insertion. mDialog's Smart Stream Platform can insert the real-time, targeted ads into cable or satellite programming. Once an ad has run, the normal cable or satellite programming will resume. The entire process promises to be seamless to the viewer, without disrupting their experience.

"Today, every new form of media specifically targets advertising to its intended audience. Being able to bring these same capabilities to cable and satellite TV will change the way we all experience programs and advertising," said Stephen White, president of Gracenote. "The combination of Gracenote recognition technology with mDialog's IP-based ad delivery platform has the potential to reach audiences they want like never before."

Historically, linear TV advertising has been limited by zone and geography, which means everyone living in a specific area receives the same TV ads regardless of their household income or unique profile. By merging IP ad delivery with the traditional broadcast, mDialog can dynamically inject a uniquely addressable IP based ad into the ad break identified by Gracenote's fingerprinting technology. The mDialog Smart Stream Platform also enables media companies to extend 1-to-1 targeting to linear and live programming across "second screen" Internet connected devices.

"The ability to scale and deliver truly relevant advertising to the living room TV is a game changer, and we're thrilled to be working with an industry leader like Gracenote to collaborate on this new technology," said Greg Philpott, Founder and CEO, mDialog.  "With addressable advertising, content and service providers can use their existing broadcast or internet ad inventory to more effectively monetize their programming with individually targeted ads, and media agencies can finally reach the individual viewer, offering highly relevant, 1-to-1 brand engagement within the linear broadcast."

About Gracenote
Gracenote, Inc. provides music and video metadata and recognition technologies to the world's hottest entertainment products and brands. The company's partners in the entertainment community include major music publishers and labels, prominent independents and movie studios and television networks. A wholly owned, independent subsidiary of the Sony Corporation of America (SCA), Gracenote has offices in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Seoul, and Taipei with worldwide headquarters in Emeryville, Calif. For more information, follow us at @GracenoteTweets andwww.facebook.com/PoweredbyGracenote

About mDialog 
mDialog (www.mdialog.com) works with the largest media companies in North America to manage, deliver, and measure video advertising across IP-connected devices, including iPad, iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Xbox, Roku and GoogleTV. The company's Smart Stream platform dynamically delivers in-stream uniquely addressable advertising within linear, live and on-demand programming. Working with mDialog, content and service providers are able to increase the value of their video streams while leveraging their existing encoding, publishing and ad-decisioning investments through Smart Stream Intelligence.

Press Contacts:

Veronica Skelton
The Concept Agency for Gracenote
veronica@conceptpr.net
415.342.3435

mDialog:
Sarah Cain
scain@mdialog.com
415-378-0775

SOURCE Gracenote