Gracenote brings Global Video Data to Middle East; announces deal with Etisalat

Gracenote, a Nielsen company (NYSE: NLSN), is launching its Global Video Data offering in the Middle East to help drive next-generation TV and movie search, discovery and navigation for emerging digital and IPTV platforms. Alongside this, Gracenote has also announced that Etisalat’s E-Vision, a major provider of TV content and advanced TV technologies, will be one of the first pay-TV providers to deliver Gracenote-powered viewer experiences for IPTV, OTT & VOD platforms across TV and mobile applications reaching close to one million viewers in the region.

Gracenote Global Video Data provides a global solution for over-the-air, cable and satellite TV providers, smart device manufacturers and OTT services that seek to expand internationally and require regionally relevant data.

As emerging markets move towards digital and IPTV delivery, operators and broadcasters will need to understand the value of metadata and imagery to the viewer experience as well as the role these assets play in search, discovery and navigation. Gracenote’s end-to-end solution for operators and broadcasters enables them to outsource metadata and image creation, management and delivery for next-generation TV experiences.

Leveraging Gracenote’s Global Video Data solution, operators and broadcasters can engage viewers and drive tune-in by presenting up-to-date TV schedules, deep descriptive information about TV shows and movies and high-quality episodic imagery in their program guides and user interfaces. Gracenote Global Video Data provides TV schedules for 850+ channels, multi-language Arabic & English descriptive data for TV shows and movies, and stunning imagery that powers innovative guides across Linear TV, VOD and OTT.  Gracenote’s platform-agnostic approach ensures that all broadcasters and TV operators can provide consistent experiences for programming across all services and platforms.

“Operators and broadcasters in the Middle East are looking to use deep descriptive metadata and imagery to create entirely new viewer experiences centered on engagement and interactivity,” said Geet Lulla, Managing Director, India, Middle East and Southeast Asia of Gracenote.

“Gracenote’s new Global Video Data offering is the key enabler of next-generation content search, discovery and navigation that will help TV operators and broadcasters in the region engage consumers and deliver breakthrough user experiences.”

In addition to this, E-Vision is creating next-generation TV guide experiences for over 600 channels across its IPTV, OTT, VOD and mobile platforms using Global Video Data. Etisalat will leverage a unified collection of metadata spanning TV and movie content from around the globe with country-level detail. Once implemented, the product powers advanced content search, discovery and recommendation features, using a global ID structure, which enable providers to quickly and easily connect users to TV shows and movies they’ll enjoy most.

“Gracenote was instrumental in E-Vision’s migration to a new delivery platform for our IPTV and OTT services,” said Humaid Sahoo Alsuwaidi, CEO of E-Vision, part of Etisalat.

“E-Vision creates consistent experiences across all our platforms and Gracenote helped us do just that. Gracenote powers enriched media experiences for our IPTV, OTT and VOD platforms across TV and mobile applications, and creates enriched metadata and high-quality imagery for our regional and international programs.”