Key Points
- Gracenote is launching Content Connect to provide standardized program-level metadata for CTV ad planning and targeting.
- The platform supports PMP and PG deal creation through direct access or partner SSPs and DSPs.
- Advertisers gain content signals like genre, rating and mood to improve brand safety, transparency and campaign performance.
Nielsen’s metadata unit Gracenote has introduced a new platform that aims to streamline connected TV ad planning and delivery by offering agencies and marketers standardized program-level data across major streaming environments.
The platform, called Gracenote Content Connect, provides direct access to the company’s program metadata and associated identifiers, allowing media buyers, supply-side platforms and demand-side platforms to target inventory based on discrete content signals rather than relying on broader contextual categories.
Gracenote says Content Connect is built around its proprietary content ID graph, which uses a structured taxonomy and unique identifiers to align programming information across publishers. The approach allows buyers and sellers to transact using a unified metadata framework at a time when the same shows often appear across multiple ad-supported streaming services.
“Gracenote data is widely recognized as the media industry’s gold-standard for powering consumer entertainment search and discovery broadly,” Kanishk Prasad, the Vice President of Product at Gracenote, said in a statement on Thursday. “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.”
The system supports various transactional workflows. Buyers can log directly into Content Connect to create private marketplace and programmatic guaranteed deals, or route those transactions through partner SSPs and DSPs. The company says the flexibility is intended to meet different operational preferences among brands and agencies.
Gracenote is positioning the platform as a way to improve brand safety and campaign outcomes by allowing advertisers to target program-level attributes such as genre, rating and mood. Those signals can help marketers tune their bids toward specific types of content while maintaining privacy-compliant placements and achieving the scale needed for national CTV campaigns.
The launch comes as CTV buyers push for more-granular visibility into streaming inventory, particularly as publishers expand their ad-supported tiers and shift premium content into environments that rely increasingly on programmatic transactions. Gracenote’s metadata and TMS IDs are already embedded across a wide range of publishers, a footprint the company says will help accelerate adoption of program-level targeting within streaming marketplaces.
Gracenote has long supplied entertainment data that powers search and discovery features for streaming platforms. With Content Connect, the company is extending that role deeper into the ad ecosystem, aiming to bridge the gap between content understanding and ad decisioning across fragmented CTV services.
