Gracenote Teams with mDialog to Collaborate on Targeted Television Advertising

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.

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."