TV Data Buy and Video Analytics Launch for Ericsson

Communications tech firm Ericsson has announced plans to buy US TV data company FYI Television for an undisclosed sum. It has also launched a vendor-agnostic video analytics toolkit, to provide big data insights into subscriber viewing habits.

Grand Prairie, Texas-based FYI Television analyzes content and scheduling data from more than 9,000 TV networks daily; aggregating the information into formats for various digital, media, content, analytics and print clients for use on their devices. Ericsson says it will combine FYI Television's US-market expertise in metadata, conversion and integration services, with its own broadcast and media services expertise in these fields in Europe.

FYI Television's employees will join Business Line Broadcast & Media Services, part of Ericsson's Business Unit Global Services, with the acquisition expected to close this quarter. Magnus Mandersson, Ericsson's EVP and Head of Business Unit Global Services, comments: 'As the TV industry evolves and viewing behavior changes, we believe that high-quality, rich metadata will be a key component for a personalized TV experience. Combined with our capabilities in TV platforms and content discovery, we will be able to help our customers to improve the video experience and identify new revenue opportunities'.

Ericsson has also launched a platform called 'Integrated Video Insights' (IVI), to help video service providers (VSPs) uncover big data insights about personalized viewing habits, as well as operational aspects of a video service. Guy Beverlin, Head of Ericsson's Global TV and Media practice, says the platform 'takes data and cleans and correlates it so that operators and others can extract insights', and adds: 'There is an opportunity for operators and video service providers if they can unlock the value in data and draw insights from it'.

Web sites: www.ericsson.com and www.fyi.tv .