The document discusses the impact of Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology on the television advertising ecosystem, highlighting its ability to provide precise audience measurement and enhance targeted advertising strategies. It outlines how ACR data enables advertisers to track viewer behaviors across multiple devices, improve attribution models, and address privacy concerns in the advertising industry. The report predicts significant growth in the ACR market, expanding from $500 million to $5 billion by 2021 as it becomes a primary data source for understanding viewing habits and advertising effectiveness.

1. 1

2. 2
CONTENTS
3 A New Source Of Data For TV Advertisers
4 Smart TV ACR For Advertising
5 ACR Data Is Changing The Way Ads Are Bought, Sold and Measured
8 ACR For Audience Behavior Mapping And Retargeting
9 Privacy Views
10 Summary
11 Predictions
12 Key Players In The Smart TV And ACR Data Ecosystem
14 Endnotes
16 About The Authors
16 Special Thanks
17 About TV[R]EV

3. 3
Executive Summary
A New Source Of Data For TV Advertisers
The increasing adoption of smart television sets brings new
opportunity for TV advertisers. By 2021, eMarketer projects 114.3
million smart TVs will be in American homes.1
And with all of
these new sets comes a wave of data that will help advertisers
create more actionable, targeted campaigns designed to take
advantage of the new way Americans watch TV.
This newly popular method of capturing viewing data uses
Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology to track what
users are watching on smart TVs, providing second-by-second
reporting that can be used to understand viewing patterns and to
measure the effectiveness of TV advertising.
In this report we will break down the emerging smart TV advertising
ecosystem, examining how ACR provides a novel way to capture
attention data and viewing habits. We’ll look at the major players
in ACR advertising and the privacy and transparency concerns that
advertisers need to be aware of when utilizing this new kind of data.
Methodology
›› In preparing this report, TV[R]EV interviewed dozens of senior-
level executives in decision-making roles at a host of leading
companies in the advertising, agency, network and measurement
space.
›› We spoke to buyers, sellers, technology vendors and programmers,
collecting a cross-section of insights about the workings of smart
TV data.
›› No previous study has benefited from the direct participation of
multiple companies across the entire marketplace.
INTRODUCTION

4. 4
Smart TV ACR For Advertising
›› A number of companies are using ACR technology to create new
approaches to attribution, measurement, cross-screen targeting
and behavioral modeling.
›› The scale, glass-level detection and near real time nature of ACR
from smart TVs arguably results in more accurate measurements
than set-top or panel-based viewing metrics provided by Nielsen,
Comscore and others.
›› Tapping into smart TVs lets businesses capture both linear
viewing and time-shifted viewing in a device and service agnostic
environment. ACR collects data from set top boxes, smart TV apps
and connected devices like Roku and Chromecast. Regardless of
which device is being used, content and ads can be recognized
and measured.
›› This data can then be used to measure impact, to supplement
existing audience data and for targeting purposes.
Matching DNA For Ad Attention Measurement
›› ACR is like a single set of fingerprints that needs a match. To
acquire accurate TV advertising measurement, the actual ad
needs to be processed and then ACR can be used to determine
when and where the ad aired.
›› Ad detection and matching is frequently campaign-based. An agency
provides copies of commercials they’ve created to an ACR company,
which in turn provides data about when, where those ads aired.
›› Accurate attention metrics can rely on the use of large-scale
ad occurrence data. That sort of measurement is crucial to a
transparent and responsive TV advertising ecosystem.
›› Brands and TV networks are able to compare propensity for TV ad
interruptions by networks, shows, day-parts, and genres. Brands
use this data to set or optimize media buying, to understand
“creative wear out” or fatigue for advertising, and to analyze
performance vis a vis competitors.
ACR is like a single set of
fingerprints that needs a match.

5. 5
ACR Data Is Changing The Way Ads Are
Bought, Sold and Measured
TV used to be known as purely a reach
medium. The cliche has been that everyone
knows that half of TV advertising works, just
not which half. But thanks to a new wave
of insights from ACR data, that cliche is no
longer a reality.
Television Advertising Is
Going Digital
Thanks to the ability to ascertain viewers
IP-addresses and gain screen-level
insights, television advertising can now
be measured as extensively as digital.
Rather than just guessing at whether an
ad worked or relying on inexact measures
such as sales lift or “last click” attribution
(literally mapping the last ad or website
the consumer visited prior to making
a purchase), ad exposures can now be
mapped to top of funnel activities via a
process known as multi-touch attribution.
In real world terms, that means an
automaker can see whether or not their
ads drove users to take the first step in
the purchase cycle--visiting their website.
That is a far more effective measure than
last click, which is often just the straw the
broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Few
purchases are made after seeing a single
ad--particularly high ticket items like cars--
and thanks to ACR data, brands can now
track the consumer’s consideration journey.
As a result, TV advertising will become more
deterministic, linking ads to consumer
actions, both online and off.
While advertisers appreciate the reach TV
advertising is able to provide, they crave the
precision and transparency they’re able to
get from digital platforms like Google and
Facebook. As such, they’ve been pushing
back on the TV industry, asking networks to
find ways to ensure that their ads are just as
targeted.
Indexed and Addressable
Advertising
The industry has responded with two
options: indexed and addressable
advertising.
Indexed advertising plans, such as Fox,
Turner and Viacom’s Open AP and NBC’s
Audience Studio, rely on using data around
audience segments (typically supplied by
Experian) to determine which shows index
highest against the target audience the
advertiser is seeking to reach.
The catch is that the advertiser is still
buying an ad against the entire audience
for the show, not just their desired target.
Several buyers told us that indexed ad buys
generally wind up being minimally different
than non-indexed ones. “If you’re looking at
the network’s primetime line-up,” one buyer
told us, “it’s unlikely that women 25-34 who
are in the market for a car are going to have
different viewing habits than women 25-34
in general. So while indexed is definitely a
start, in reality, it’s more smoke and mirrors
than an actual game changer.”
The one advantage indexed advertising
does have, is that it does not drastically
upend the current TV ad ecosystem, which
has networks selling the bulk of their
inventory during the upfronts each May. Ad
sales teams can continue to sell against the
entire audience of a show instead of having
to take on the somewhat more difficult task
of selling off slices of each spot.
Addressable is a different story. For set top
box-based linear and VOD, addressable
ads can only be delivered via the MVPDs,
who have the technological capabilities
to do so. (While Sorenson Media is looking
to introduce addressable ads for local
stations via smart TVs next year, the bulk
of addressable is delivered via MVPDs like
Dish, AT&T, Altice and Comcast.)
In addition, addressable creates new layers
of complexity to the ad sales process and
many network sales teams are afraid that
they will not be able to maintain the same
level of profitability by selling addressable
and worry that they will be left with sizable
amounts of unsold inventory.

6. 6
“They’re afraid that they’re not going to
make as much money on addressable,”
one executive told us. “They’re afraid they’re
going to have a lot of leftover inventory and
that the level of complexity will destroy
what has traditionally been a fairly simple
and highly profitable system.”
That said, the industry realizes that
addressable is inevitable and that it offers
their best chance to create the Holy Grail of
“fewer, better targeted ads that advertisers
will pay more money for” so it was not a
huge surprise when Fox announced that
it would begin a trial program, selling
addressable ad units for on demand
programming accessed via Comcast and
Hulu. Should this program prove successful-
-and we have no reason to suspect it will
not--then the floodgates will open further
and other networks and MVPDs will also
begin trialing addressable ad plans.
One recurring issue with addressable
advertising is that Nielsen’s panel-based
measurement system is not an ideal way
to measure their effectiveness, as the
panels are designed to measure the full
audience, not just segments. This is where
ACR data can come into play, as it can
help advertisers identify the right audience
segments, track when and where the ads
were actually seen, and then help them to
understand what actions viewers took after
seeing the ads.
When ACR data is combined with set top
box data and Nielsen’s panel-based data,
it provides a very clear view as to how
television is being viewed and how TV
advertising is being received.
How ACR Data Enables Multi-Touch Attribution:
›› Multi-touch attribution is being touted
as a game-changer for the television
industry, a chance for TV networks to
provide the sort of precise measurement
that digital players currently offer.
The industry’s main argument is that
television advertising plays a much
greater role in driving sales than it is given
credit for and that the Duopoly (Google
and Facebook) are taking undue credit for
driving results.
›› Many companies already do some form
of attribution for television, but it’s only
recently that we’ve been seeing the sort
of rigor needed to have reliable results.
That rigor is the result of months of
analyzing results, of relying on humans at
key juncture (rather than algorithms) and
of looking at what triggered “top of the
funnel” behavior such as the first visit to a
website or even googling the name of the
company or the overall category.
›› Short or long attribution windows can be
utilized to optimize different strategies.
Short attribution windows allow brands
to measure direct response campaigns
while longer attribution windows can
be utilized to measure the effects of
branding campaigns.

7. 7
Benefits
›› Networks can now get valuable tune-in
data, to understand how promos drive
viewership, not just from TV but from ad
exposures on Google or mobile devices.
›› Deterministic data gives brands the
power to understand optimal frequency,
to better understand their reach and
frequency goals.
›› Using IP-matching, brands can
understand which TV shows people
who visited their website watch most
often (for instance, comparing web
visits to TV exposures) and thus target
their advertising based on actual user
behaviors.
›› Companies using ACR for media targeting
or retargeting can now identify an ad that
is currently airing and then serve either
similar or competitive ads to the same
users on mobile, tablets or computers
attached to the same IP address.
Deterministic vs. Probabilistic
Measurement
›› Data matching can be either
deterministic or probabilistic. In
deterministic matching, either unique
identifiers for each record are compared
to determine a match or an exact
comparison is used between fields.
Unique identifiers can include national
IDs, system IDs, and so on. This can
include system IDs, national IDs, and so
on. Deterministic matching is generally
not completely reliable since in some
cases no single field can provide a reliable
match between two records. This is where
probabilistic, or fuzzy, matching comes
in. In probabilistic matching, several
field values are compared between
two records and each field is assigned
a weight that indicates how closely
the two field values match. The sum of
the individual fields weights indicates
the likelihood of a match between two
records.2

8. 8
ACR For Audience Behavior Mapping And
Retargeting
ACR data has allowed for the growth of two parallel methods
of optimizing TV ad buys: retargeting and behavior mapping.
By allowing brands to better understand which ads their target
customers are seeing and how they are reacting to them, a host
of new companies are using TV ad buys as a trigger for launching
mobile and digital ad campaigns that draft off the TV ad buys.
These retargeted ads can either reinforce a brand’s own message or
act as a counterpunch against a key competitor.
The ACR market is getting crowded as a number of tech companies
are now vying for the new experimental dollars flowing into cross-
screen advertising.
›› Data Management Platforms (DMPs) such as Lotame can now
combine audience viewing behaviors from TV screens and develop
better personas and psychographic profiles that allow them to
set custom target segments including DMP segments for media
buyers.
›› Cross-screen retargeting has gained adoption through companies
like Samba.tv, Tubemogul/ Adobe and others, which work with
agencies and brands to develop audience profiles and deliver
more relevant, higher impact advertising across screens.
›› Companies such as 4C take the behavioral ACR data and map
it against social media insights from Facebook to build next
generation tools, as evidenced by a deal recently announced with
NBC.3
›› Others, such as Alphonso, use ACR from mobile apps that listen to
what the user is watching on TV in order to perform cross-screen
ad targeting and delivery on mobile devices.
uu Takeaway:
ACR data can provide a broader sample size than set top box
The Smart TV market is poised to create serious disruption
in how advertising is bought, sold and measured. Brands
can now gain distinct advantages over competitors, while
beginning to understand the true ROI they are getting on
their investments thanks to attribution tracking.
Unlike Nielsen, ACR data is available within 24 hours, so
brands have the ability to react in real time, to either counter
their competitors or to double down on tactics that appear to
be particularly effective.
This allows TV buying to operate more seamlessly with
mobile and digital based buying, laying the groundwork for
advertisers to use ACR data to make better targeted cross-
platform buys.

9. 9
Privacy Is Less Of An Issue Than The Industry
Thinks
›› Much of the confusion around ACR stems from a fear that
consumers would rebel (or at least opt out) if they knew that their
smart TVs were tracking their viewing habits.
›› This has lead many of the companies in the space to be
somewhat obtuse about what they are actually doing.
›› The result however, has been that nobody knows what they are up
to. People at networks and ad agencies who should understand
how this data is collected and how valuable it can be are often
clueless as to where the data comes from.
›› This leads them to omit it from their consideration sets at a time
when it could and should be front and center for them as a
measurement and placement tool.
“It’s confusing to everyone as to where these companies are
getting their data from and how they’re getting it.”
—Senior Ad Sales Executive, MVPD
“People are waking up to the fact that their devices are listening
to them. There is anxiety about what data is being sent, like with
amazon echo and google home.”
—VP, Media Consultant
“Anyone who still has concerns about privacy is delusional. There
is no privacy.”
—Senior VP, Media Buying Agency
“Most consumers are okay with giving up privacy for
functionality or ease of use. It’s not a big deal to them.”
—EVP, Strategy, Media Agency
Industry sources are unsure how deeply consumers ultimately care
about privacy and how important it is for them to feel that their
their TV viewing habits are being safeguarded. While opinions
varied about privacy, no one we spoke with was clear on how ACR
companies actually captured their data. This lead to a general
feeling of distrust about ACR data.
uu Takeaway:
The industry needs to do a better job explaining how it
captures ACR data and what it does with it in order to dispel
any lingering privacy concerns.
Transparency— The TV[R]EV Take
›› At a time when consumers gladly give up all their Facebook or
Google data to save a few seconds logging into a new app, privacy
concerns around television seem minimal.
›› The more ambiguous ACR providers are about what they do, the
more it looks to the industry that they are doing something shady
and that the data can’t be trusted.
›› Privacy issues can be handled by adopting the strict standards
that Inscape has introduced in light of the FTC settlement.
›› Being open and upfront about how ACR works will allow the
advertising industry to better understand its value, which will lead
to greater usage and adoption.
Privacy Views

10. 10
Summary
›› ACR technology provides a strong adjunct to Nielsen and other
traditional ratings systems by allowing advertisers to get results
from a much larger audience.
›› ACR data is closer to real time and measures viewing in much
tighter segments, so advertisers can understand the impact of
specific ads, not just pods in the first half of a show.
›› ACR data measures all types of viewing—OTT and set top box
based—which gives it an advantage over older data providers who
only monitor set top box viewing.
›› Techniques like retargeting are greatly enhanced by ACR data
which can use IP addresses to track users across devices.
›› Companies specializing in ad planning and placement find ACR
valuable too, as they can use the data to better target audiences—
networks looking to drive tune-in find ACR to be of particular
value.
›› ACR has already spawned a sizable ecosystem of companies
who make use of the data for everything from retargeting to
placement to tracking. That ecosystem will only grow larger as
ACR becomes more mainstream.
›› While there are privacy concerns around the way ACR data is used
for advertising purposes, most data is obtained from consumers
who have opted in.
›› Consumers are also less concerned about advertisers knowing
their TV viewing habits than they are about advertisers knowing
their web browsing habits or new software listening to their
conversations.
›› Since ACR data is supplied by OEMs and their subsidiaries, there’s
none of the “grading their own homework” fears that arise with
digital video or with letting OTT apps provide their own metrics.
›› Advertisers’ use of ACR data poised to grow over the next three
to five years as it provides the most thorough data sets across
multiple devices and formats and can measure time shifted
viewing as well as linear.
ACR technology provides a
strong adjunct to Nielsen
and other traditional ratings
systems by allowing advertisers
to get results from a much
larger audience.

11. 11
Predictions
›› The ACR business is currently worth around $500M. TV[R]EV
predicts that over the next four years, that figure will grow to $5B
in 2021, as ACR becomes the primary source of data for TV ratings
across all platforms, for advertising placement, and for advertising
attribution tracking.
›› ACR will see rapid growth over the next six to twelve months as
networks push for adoption of ACR data as a way to track OTT
and other digital viewing. No other process provides the breadth,
depth and accuracy of ACR. If industry leaders like Vizio and
Samsung can come to terms on a series of standards, the ACR
market will grow even faster.
›› TV[R]EV sees Nielsen doubling down on its Gracenote ACR
business, working with Samsung to bring the data outside of
the walled garden. Their recent announcement4
that they’d be
adding Gracenote’s ACR data to their DMP may be their first step
in this direction, though several people we spoke with questioned
whether Nielsen was using Samsung data to fuel this program.
(Without Samsung, Gracenote is pulling from a much smaller
database, consisting mostly of LG and smaller OEMs.)
›› At the same time, we see Inscape, Vizio’s data source growing
rapidly too, as a source of readily available non-Nielsen ACR data.
›› Samba, Alphonso and other retargeters will also benefit from
more widespread acceptance of ACR along with their ability to
track viewers across screens.
›› Finally, TV[R]EV projects that iSpot will grow into one of the
largest players in the TV measurement space. iSpot is in a unique
position as they have no real competition for their ad tracking and
attribution measurement businesses and have thus established
a solid reputation in the space. We predict they will frequently be
mentioned as a takeover target for larger companies (TV networks
and Silicon Valley giants) who are looking to get into the TV ad
performance measurement game.

12. 12
Key Players In The Smart TV And ACR Data
Ecosystem
Companies That Collect ACR
Data From Smart TVs
›› Gracenote: Gracenote began life as a
music company, matching MP3 files to
actual song titles. They now use audio-
based ACR to match what viewers are
watching to companion apps, and to
provide viewership data back to their
users (but not globally, as Gracenote isn’t
in the business of selling audience data.
As of December 2016, Gracenote is a
subsidiary of Nielsen.
›› Inscape: Established in 2010 as TV
Interactive Systems, Inc, the company
operated at Cognitive Media Networks,
the industry leader in ACR before being
acquired by VIZIO in 2015. The company
is a VIZIO subsidiary that has business
with other OEMs and looks to consolidate
ACR data under one cohesive umbrella.
It currently pulls daily active data from
7.3 million explicitly opted-in homes.
The company is based in San Francisco.
Vizio, along with Samsung, dominates the
smart TV market, with Vizio accounting
for over 30% of all smart TVs sold in
the U.S. Inscape is Vizio’s wholly owned
subsidiary, and collects and sells data
from Vizio TVs.
›› Enswers: Enswers is a South Korean-
based ACR company that became a
subsidiary of Gracenote Korea in 2015.
The company’s ACR technology is
embedded in Samsung TVs and is used
to collect data for Samsung’s proprietary
ACR data plays.
›› Roku: The Roku OS is embedded in one-
eighth of the smart TVs sold in the U.S. It
contains a lightweight software solution
that tracks what the viewer is watching on
various OTT services.
›› Verance: Verance has a product called
Aspect that may provide a post-ACR
measurement system. Aspect relies
on watermarking and would work on
any connected device — TV, tablet or
smartphone. The catch is that the OEMs
will need to install Verance’s software
on their firmware and since most OEMs
are building businesses off their ACR
capabilities, those deals are not a given.
›› Sorenson: Sorenson has been working
with Samsung and Vizio to take the
data they collect and use it to overlay
addressable TV ads on local broadcasts.
This will greatly expand both the
addressable TV market and the profile of
ACR data
Streaming Device
Manufacturers
›› Roku: The most popular streaming device
(comScore stats give them a 42% market
share4
, eMarketer 29%5
), Roku’s software
tracks viewing and is able to provide both
measurement and recommendations.
Roku recently raised $219 million in an IPO6
and is rumored to be working on placing
ad-supported programming on its mobile
apps7
.
›› Amazon Fire TV: Amazon’s Fire TV is the
second-most popular streaming device (28%
according to ComScore, 27% per eMarketer)
and collects OTT viewing data that Amazon
uses for its own targeting purposes.
›› Chromecast: Google’s Chromecast is the
third most popular streaming device (18%
per ComScore, 28% per eMarketer) and
can track what viewers are watching off
various sites and apps. Google announced
in October 2017 that 55 million Chromecast
devices have been sold to date.
›› Apple TV: The least popular TV streaming
device (12% per ComScore and 16%
per eMarketer) Apple is one of the only
companies to take a strong stand on
privacy. Apple TV is able to provide
recommendations, but that data is never
shared externally or used for marketing
purposes, even internal ones.

13. 13
Ad Re-targeting or Adsync
Retargeting is a way for brands to reach
users who have already been exposed to
an ad in one medium on another medium.
Retargeting prospects include people who
have seen the ad for the same product, a
related product or a competitor. Reach is
also a problem for retargeters, whose large
data sets may not allow them to reach large
segments of their desired audiences.
›› Alphonso: Alphonso provides both ad
retargeting and analytics. The company
claims to get its data from 40 million
devices (30 million mobile devices and 10
million smart TVs.) Their audio-based ACR
software is embedded into smartphones
and is activated when viewers use one of
the apps that have an agreement with
Alphonso while they are watching TV.
For TV-based data, Alphonso works with
smaller OEMs--they do not appear to have
contracts with Samsung or Inscape.
›› Samba: Samba has several business lines:
they provide content recommendations,
function data management platform
(DMP), provide ad syncing and retargeting,
work with programmatic demand side
platforms (DSPs) to target viewers, operate
a connected TV ad platform that allows
brands to target viewers with interactive
ads, measure ad effectiveness, and work
with networks and publishers to help
them drive tune-in by tracking their
viewers across devices. Samba claims
that 1 in 4 ACR TVs (1 in 3 opted in ACR
TVs) use Samba software. (That’s 13.5M TV
HHs—11.9M smart TV HHs, 1.6M set-top-
box HHs — and on 66M digital devices.)
Samba works with OEMs in the third of the
market that is not controlled by Samsung
and Vizio, including Sony, Sharp, Toshiba,
Philips, Sanyo, Magnavox, Element, Seiki,
and Westinghouse. The number of TVs
actively reporting data to fuel Samba
metrics is not made public.
›› Tapad: Tapad provides cross screen
advertising capabilities. Their proprietary
algorithm can determine which devices
are owned by the same person which
allows marketers to target that individual
across screens. It fuels the mobile device
side of the business.
›› TVadSync: TVadSync uses Vizio data from
Inscape to determine what viewers are
watching and what ads they’ve seen. They
then use that data to help brands target
those same viewers on mobile devices.
›› Viant: Viant, which was purchased by
Time, Inc. in 2016, maintains a platform
known as the Viant Advertising Cloud, one
of the largest registered user databases in
the world, with access to over 1.2 billion
registered users. They also maintain a DSP
and use Inscape’s ACR data to both target
users and to understand their behavior as
they track them across platforms.
Advertising Attention,
Attribution Measurement
›› iSpot: iSpot uses data from Inscape to
track TV commercials and provide brands
with what it calls “attention metrics” —
data on what percentage of viewers saw
the commercial, how many watched it
to completion, where those viewers lived
and what programs they were watching.
Relying on ACR data allows them to tracks
viewing patterns second-by-second rather
than the 15-minute increments Nielsen
is able to provide. iSpot is also using that
data to provide multi-touch attribution
data, helping to prove the effectiveness of
TV advertising based on how and when
ads prompt top of the funnel activity like
website visits.
Data Management Platforms
As Digiday explains, “a data management
platform (DMP) is a data warehouse. It’s a
piece of software that sucks up, sorts and
houses information, and spits it out in a way
that’s useful for marketers, publishers and
other businesses.”8
›› Lotame: Lotame is a data management
platform that uses Inscape ACR data
to create audience segments that help
marketers execute TV ads placement. They
can then combine this data with the data
they have on digital viewership to plan and
measure cross-screen campaigns.
›› Adobe/Tubemogul: Tubemogul, which
was acquired by Adobe in November
2016, is a combination DMP/DSP. It allows
brands to plan, buy, measure and optimize
their ad campaigns across a variety of
screens. TubeMogul’s PTV (Programmatic
TV) platform uses (Inscape) ACR data to
help identify audience segments and what
shows they are watching.
›› TruOptik: TruOptik is a Connecticut-
based startup that maintains an OTT data
management platform that allows brands
to run ads on ad-supported OTT and
connected TV platforms. Their proprietary
system allows brands to buy ads with the
same audience segments and targeting
capabilities as digital.

14. 14
Endnotes
1 “168 Million Will Watch Connected TV in the US This Year.” EMarketer, 26 July 2017, www.emarketer.com/Article/168-Million-Will-Watch-
Connected-TV-US-This-Year/1016233.
2 Deterministic and Probabilistic Data Matching (Master Index Match Engine Reference), Retrieved, 4 Nov. 2017, docs.oracle.com/cd/E19182-
01/821-0919/ref_sme-deter-probl_c/index.html.
3 Shields, Mike. “NBCU Will Start Selling Ads in Top Shows like ‘This Is Us’ Using the Same Kind of Self-Serve Software as Facebook.” Business
Insider, Business Insider, 26 Sept. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/nbcu-will-sell-ads-in-shows-like-this-is-us-using-software-2017-9.
4 Friedman, Wayne. “Gracenote Smart TV Data Available In Nielsen’s DMP” MediaPost, 31 Oct. 2017, https://www.mediapost.com/publications/
article/309529/gracenote-smart-tv-data-available-in-nielsens-dmp.html
5 “Roku Leads OTT Streaming Devices in Household Market Share.” ComScore, Inc., 16 June 2016, www.comscore.com/ita/Insights/Blog/Roku-
Leads-OTT-Streaming-Devices-in-Household-Market-Share.
6 “168 Million Will Watch Connected TV in the US This Year.” eMarketer, ibid.
7 Natasha Bach. “Roku’s IPO Price Just Gave the Company a $1.3 Billion Valuation.” Fortune, 28 Sept. 2017, fortune.com/2017/09/28/roku-ipo-
billion-valuation/.
8 Roettgers, Janko. “Roku Wants to Start Streaming to Third-Party Devices (EXCLUSIVE).” Variety, 25 Oct. 2017, variety.com/2017/digital/news/
roku-mobile-third-party-device-streaming-1202598964/.
9 Marshall, Jack “What Is a Data Management Platform, or DMP?” Digiday, 28 Apr. 2017, digiday.com/media/what-is-a-dmp-data-
management-platform/.

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By 2021, eMarketer projects 114.3 million
smart TVs will be in American homes.
And with all of these new sets comes a
wave of data that will help advertisers
create more actionable, targeted
campaigns designed to take advantage
of the new way Americans watch TV.

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About The Authors
Alan Wolk
“If you know anything about
television, you probably know
Alan Wolk.” That’s how Adweek
describes the best-selling
author of Over The Top. How The Internet Is
(Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television
Industry. As co-founder, editor and lead
analyst of TV[R]EV, Wolk has created one
of the media industry’s go-to sites for
understanding the changes coming from
Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue
and beyond. A frequent contributor to and
columnist for Slate, Forbes, Decider and
other industry news sites, Wolk has been
interviewed and quoted by everyone from
NPR to the New York Times to CBC National
News and recently appeared on a segment
of public television’s Brian Lehrer Show about
the future of TV.
Jason Damata
Jason is the founder and CEO of
Fabric Media, a media incubator
and talent consortium. The
company serves leading-edge
TV disruptors—from data and analytics
platforms to TV networks to emotional
measurement companies. Damata has
traveled the country for C-SPAN, where he
worked with MSOs, produced educational
political programming. He has served as
CMO of Bebo when it was the world’s 3rd
largest social network, led marketing for
Trendrr until it was acquired by Twitter
and helped build the world’s largest LIVE
broadcast offering at explore.org where he
built up a global syndication network.
Dade Hayes
A two-decade entertainment
journalist and media veteran,
Dade Hayes has held high-level
executive editorial positions
at Variety, Entertainment Weekly and
Broadcasting & Cable. Currently serving
as Contributing Editor at Deadline, Hayes
is author of two books whose writing has
appeared in the New York Times, Fierce
Cable, the Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times,
Forbes, TV Guide and TV[R]EV.
Special Thanks
Journalist & Analysts
Dawn Chmielewski
David Bloom,
Dan Rowinski
Eleanor Dowling Semeraro
Research & Production
Jason Damata
Zach Servideo
Annie Edwards
Jon Cappetta

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About TV[R]EV
TV[R]EV is a strategic consulting and publishing group.
We cover the rapidly changing world of television as it intersects
with advertising, social media and digital. We are analysts,
producers, journalists and industry executives who get our
information from inside sources, people we’ve known and
cultivated over the years and whose trust we’ve earned. That alone
makes us different from the vast majority of our competitors. We
don’t drink the Kool-Aid, and we understand that nothing is ever
black and white.
WORKSHOPS. Want to get your team up to speed on the trends
that matter in TV? We are happy to lead half/full/two-day workshops
both as a one time event or as a fun recurring way to keep everyone
up to speed.
ANALYST IN RESIDENCE and NEWS CURATION. Don’t have time
to keep on top of the seemingly daily changes the industry is
undergoing, let alone figure out what they mean? Not to worry.
Our customized biweekly news analyses will keep you up-to-date,
let you know why whatever happened matters to you and to your
company, along with what you need to do about it.
STRATEGY WORK. You’ve got a great product but you’re not sure
how to position it for the networks or MVPDs you want to sell it to?
We can help you craft a marketing strategy that hones in on the
features your target actually cares about. We’ll help you identify
the pain points your product can solve. Make sure your pitch uses
language that resonates with your target. Even sit in on your pitches
and offer our critique.
IN-DEPTH RESEARCH REPORTS. If you liked our report on ACR,
we can create similar in-depth reports on any media-related topic
that interests you. Whether you want to invest, acquire or just get a
leg up on the competition, TV[R]EV will mine our industry contacts,
create custom surveys and sprinkle in our stellar analytical skills and
deep industry knowledge to prepare a report that’s exclusively for
you and your team.
For more information or to find out how we can help you, email us
at info@tvrev.com

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