• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 2, 2008

In a deal that could greatly accelerate market intelligence about TV ratings cost data, advertising cost data service SQAD this morning said it acquired Wrapsidy, a company that process Nielsen overnight ratings and television sweeps audience estimates. Terms of the deal, handled by investment banker DeSilva + Phillips, were not disclosed, but it comes as SQAD has been expanding its business in multiple directions in an effort to become the industry's dominant supplier of market-making data.

Last month, SQAD officially announced the launch of WebCosts, a new service that will supply advertising costs data for online media buys, much the way SQAD has for local television markets with its namesake service, and for national TV buys via its NetCosts service.

SQAD's expansion comes as both Madison Avenue is pushing for greater transparency about the media it buys for its clients. Recently, Publicis Groupe Media announced a charter deal with Rapt, a major player in managing yield management systems for other industries, which is now in the process of developing an open market database for online advertising buys. Following the announcement of Publicis' deal, Rapt was acquired by Microsoft.

SQAD executives, meanwhile, says the addition of Wrapsidy will add an important missing link for customers looking to gain greater transparency and market knowledge about spot television advertising costs, including new methods and metrics for analyzing and forecasting the market value of television GRPs (gross rating points), which are the currency of the TV advertising marketplace.