Nielsen’s Gracenote unit has taken another step to leverage its metadata prowess for contextual connected TV ad targeting, on Thursday announcing the new Content Connect platform that can be accessed directly by media buyers and ad agencies, as well as supply- and demand-side platforms.
Gracenote’s metadata, which provides program-level information about content such as genre, mood and more, has been in use by major streaming publishers and platforms to help power content search and discovery capabilities that connect viewers to relevant content.
That same metadata has practical applications for CTV ad targeting, where advertisers can use the content signals to align ads and messages with what consumers are watching. The notion of contextual ad targeting based on content isn’t new and is seen as one way to avoid privacy concerns, maintain brand safety and also make messaging and campaigns more effective by tying them more closely to the moment consumers are in based on the program they’re viewing.
However, there are some persistent ecosystem challenges such as a lack of transparency around program-level data for ad buyers across platforms as well as standardization or a common language about content information as it moves through the ad buying and selling ecosystem.
With a variety of different ad-supported CTV platforms and services out there, as well as different buying and selling routes, it means there might be various terminology or descriptors used in terms of the information that’s passed about programming. That’s where Gracenote’s platform and metadata come in to serve a role, utilizing the vendor’s proprietary content ID graph that’s comprised of standardized program metadata that’s in a structured taxonomy and connected by unique identifiers.
Per Gracenote, “this ensures both ad buyers and sellers are using a common language in relation to programming, a key necessity when shows are widely available across different ad-supported CTV platforms and services.”
Gracenote took its first step into the contextual ad targeting space in 2024 and with Content Connect it’s now giving ad buyers and agencies, as well as SSPs and DSPs, a direct and easier way to utilize its standardized program-level content metadata – which ultimately aims to help improve CTV ad planning, buying and reporting.
Gracenote’s metadata was previously available in the form of pre-defined contextual segments that ad buyers or agencies could activate by request through the vendor’s SSP partners. Content Connect represents the launch of a user-friendly platform that’s meant to be flexible and allow agencies to be more hands on in leveraging metadata for CTV targeting if desired.
With the new platform, agencies can utilize those pre-defined contextual segments with full visibility and control over the programming within them, or they can create fully custom segments based on campaign objectives.
The platform also features advanced AI tools that allow users to describe audiences or objectives and receive specific content recommendations to target against.
And it’s meant to be flexible depending on a buyer’s workflows. For media buyers that want more control, they can leverage the platform in-house and curate their own private marketplace (PMP) and programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals, which the SSP then pushes to their DSP of choice. Or if an agency wants, they can leave the so-called hands on keyboard work to their SSP and DSP partners that can curate the contextual segments on their behalf.
Gracenote has a wide breadth of content metadata so there are a range of contextual signals agencies can tap, but genre, rating and mood are the primary ones, among others such as language, cast, inclusivity, and seasonality.
Content Connect opens new set of customers for Gracenote
Gracenote isn’t charging for access to the data but is using a CPM model similar to other data providers in the programmatic space.
That said, the contextual CTV ad platform available to agencies, SSPs and DSPs marks Gracenote’s next step in entering the CTV ad market and opens up a new customer set on the advertising side of the CTV equation for the vendor.
And while it’s not the only data player in the contextual CTV ad space, Gracenote could be well positioned to deliver as it benefits from years of metadata product development for the content and publisher side of the entertainment industry, where Gracenote IDs are already deeply integrated within the ecosystem. This helps to provide scaled and standardized metadata about content across platform for CTV ad targeting, as well as more visibility into program information in post-campaign reporting.
“Gracenote data is widely recognized as the media industry’s gold-standard for powering consumer entertainment search and discovery broadly,” said Kanishk Prasad, VP of Product at Gracenote, in a statement. “By opening up access to content-based signals which enable smarter CTV ad targeting and better campaign performance, we’re taking a big step towards giving advertisers transparency, control and maximum scale across all CTV platforms.”
With easier access to standardized content metadata and signals to target on, it could help advance the flow of ad dollars to CTV, which while growing, has been slower to shift than consumers’ consumption of video on streaming.
The Content Connect platform goes live with general availability in Q1 2026 and Gracenote is giving an advanced look and hands-on demos of the platform at CES next month.
Article updated to correct the spelling of Gracenote in the headline.