Gracenote's Global Video Data powers Etisalat’s E-Vision UX

Gracenote Powers Next-Generation TV Viewer Experiences in the Middle East with the Launch of Global Video Data

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Gracenote®, a Nielsen company (NYSE: NLSN), is launching its Global Video Data offering in the Middle East to help drive next-generation TV and movie search, discovery and navigation for emerging digital and IPTV platforms. Etisalat’s E-Vision, the leading provider of TV content and advanced TV technologies, is one of the first pay-TV operators to deliver Gracenote-powered cutting edge viewer experiences for IPTV, OTT & VOD platforms across TV and mobile applications reaching close to one million viewers in the region.

As emerging markets move towards digital and IPTV delivery, operators and broadcasters must understand the value of metadata and imagery to the viewer experience as well as the role these assets play in search, discovery and navigation. Gracenote has an end-to-end solution for operators and broadcasters that will enable them to outsource metadata and image creation, management and delivery for next-generation TV experiences.

Leveraging Gracenote’s Global Video Data solution, operators and broadcasters can engage viewers and drive tune-in by presenting up-to-date TV schedules, deep descriptive information about TV shows and movies and high-quality episodic imagery in their program guides and user interfaces. For the Middle East region, Gracenote Global Video Data provides TV schedules for 850+ channels, multi-language Arabic & English descriptive data for TV shows and movies, and stunning imagery that powers innovative guides across Linear TV, VOD and OTT. Gracenote’s platform-agnostic approach ensures that all broadcasters and TV operators can provide consistent experiences for programming across all services and platforms.

“Operators and broadcasters in the Middle East are looking to use deep descriptive metadata and imagery to create entirely new viewer experiences centered on engagement and interactivity,” said Geet Lulla, Managing Director, India, Middle East and Southeast Asia of Gracenote. “Gracenote’s new Global Video Data offering is the key enabler of next-generation content search, discovery and navigation that will help TV operators and broadcasters in the region engage consumers and deliver breakthrough user experiences.”

As part of this announcement, Gracenote is extending its strategic relationship with Etisalat’s E-Vision, a leading IPTV provider which helps distribute content from major Hollywood studios, Bollywood studios and the latest Arabic productions. TV providers like Etisalat can leverage a unified collection of metadata spanning TV and movie content from around the globe with country-level detail. Using Global Video Data, E-Vision is creating next-generation TV guide experiences for 600 channels across its IPTV, OTT, VOD and mobile platforms. Once implemented, the product powers advanced content search, discovery and recommendation features, using a global ID structure, which enable providers to quickly and easily connect users to TV shows and movies they’ll enjoy most.

“Gracenote was instrumental in E-Vision’s migration to a new delivery platform for our IPTV and OTT services,” said Humaid Sahoo Alsuwaidi, CEO of E-Vision, part of Etisalat. “E-Vision creates consistent experiences across all our platforms and Gracenote helped us do just that. Gracenote powers enriched media experiences for our IPTV, OTT and VOD platforms across TV and mobile applications, and creates enriched metadata and high-quality imagery for our regional and international programs.”

Gracenote Global Video Data provides a global solution for over-the-air, cable and satellite TV providers, smart device manufacturers and OTT services that seek to expand internationally and require regionally relevant data. Global Video Data offers:

• TV schedules and listings, and deep descriptive information for the world’s TV shows and movies on linear TV, on-demand and OTT services.
• Hyper-local delivery of regionally relevant movie and TV show data based on what’s currently available in the market.
• Single API access for data covering 85+ countries and territories across North America, South America, Europe, APAC and the Middle East.
• Standardized data structure and IDs to support cross-media linking and advanced features such as voice-search and personalized recommendations.
• Help broadcasters transition to digital and IPTV with end-to-end electronic program guide (EPG) and metadata management, imagine creation and distribution services to all operator platforms. This ensures all programs are displayed with consistent metadata and imagery regardless of operator and platform.