• by Wayne Friedman , June 20, 2019

Looking to drive more viewership for an ever-growing, complex array of TV and film content, Nielsen’s Gracenote says it is launching a more specific and granular popularity score for content to be used in electronic program guides.

The TV metadata company says its Video Popularity Score will be comprised of data for recent TV show airings and theatrical movie releases, with viewership and awareness (social media) levels from Nielsen data as well as from external sources.

Gracenote will then calculate a numerical score representing the general population's recognition level of individual TV series or movies. In addition, a Video Popularity Score can identify trending content.

Many guides, including those for Netflix and Hulu, already show general favorabilty/unfavorability numbers for a specific piece of content.

Gracenote claims the new data will go deeper -- helping pay TV providers, OTT platforms, and smart TV set manufacturers promote ever-growing TV and film libraries where choices for consumers can be confusing.

Viewership data will be determined through an algorithm that analyzes consumption from linear TV, VOD and OTT through Nielsen Total Content Ratings.

Movie box office data will come from Gracenote, as well as additional data from third-party sources.

Awareness will be calculated based on social media data from Nielsen Social Content Ratings as well as other sources.

Earlier this year, Gracenote started up Video Descriptors -- part of its Gracenote Advanced Discovery service -- which reveals specific mood, theme and scenario elements for TV or movie content.