Nielsen to Sell Advanced Video Ad Arm to Roku

Nielsen is selling its Advanced Video Advertising (AVA) business to TV streaming platform Roku, in a deal which includes Nielsen's video automatic content recognition (ACR) and dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technologies. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

In addition, Nielsen and Roku will enter into a strategic partnership to integrate complementary Nielsen ad and content measurement products into the Roku platform, and further develop Nielsen ONE, the company's cross-media measurement solution. This partnership will include using Total Ad Ratings (TAR) on the Roku platform, while Roku's media sales and ad-buying platform, OneView, will integrate with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) for advertisers. Additionally, the deal will enable publishers to use Nielsen Digital Content Ratings (DCR).

Nielsen says the partnership will 'substantially expand' the footprint of smart TVs and other devices, nearing 100 million in total, in which Nielsen can enable media sellers and buyers to measure and better monetize addressable advertising. Upon closing, Nielsen AVA employees will join Roku, which will take ownership of Nielsen's portfolio of foundational ACR and DAI patents.

Scott Brown (pictured), Nielsen GM of Audience Measurement comments: 'The measurement of ads and content on Roku devices will accelerate the path to a single, deduplicated cross-media currency. As Roku brings the power of dynamic ad insertion to all forms of TV, we're excited to help monetize the addressable market by measuring smart TV as a currency, which Nielsen can do at scale'.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com .