TiVo Ads has today launched its automatic content recognition (ACR) TV data offering in the UK, introducing an independent, measurement-first dataset which the company says is designed to bring greater clarity to cross-platform TV viewing.
TiVo has a long history of making data from its devices available to the wider market, with over 15 years of experience in TV data licensing. While TiVo Ads is already established in the UK with its advertising solutions — including Home Screen ads, in-stream video ads, and cross-device audience extension — this marks the first time the company is bringing its standalone data licensing product first established in the U.S. to the UK market.
The launch will make TiVo’s ACR dataset, drawn from a number of smart TV brands including Sharp, Bush, Panasonic, Techwood and more available for licensing. This data gives a deterministic view of content and ad exposure across both linear and streaming environments, helping brands understand where their audiences are, and how their campaigns have performed.
While ACR data’s role in the UK TV ad market continues to grow, it’s typically tied to a specific CTV platform, meaning it can only be used by advertisers buying campaigns on the platform. That’s not the case with TiVo’s new ACR product. Rather, by offering an independent dataset to the UK market, TiVo aims to help solve some of the measurement issues plaguing CTV advertising.
“TV measurement has not fully kept pace with how people actually watch,” says Fariba Zamaniyan, SVP of Global Data Licensing, TiVo Ads. “We have a fragmented ecosystem, but the tools to understand it are still largely siloed.”
“A big part of that challenge is what we think of as the ‘unexposed audience’ — households that brands are simply not reaching, not because they aren’t watching TV, but because they’re fragmented across platforms and difficult to measure consistently.”
VideoWeek spoke with Ms. Zamaniyan to hear more about the launch, and what it means for the future of TV measurement.
What are the biggest challenges facing TV measurement today?
Fragmentation remains the core challenge globally. The same content now exists across linear TV, streaming platforms, and on-demand environments, but measurement approaches haven’t always evolved at the same pace.
In the UK, buyers are familiar with ACR, but it’s typically tied to specific OEM ecosystems or media environments. What’s been missing is an independent layer that works across platforms.
Without that, it becomes difficult to build a consistent, deduplicated view of what audiences are actually watching and how campaigns perform.
What makes TiVo Ads’ ACR launch different in the UK?
This is the first time TiVo Ads is offering UK buyers access to its ACR-based viewership intelligence as a standalone dataset. It’s independent, multi-OEM, and not tied to media spend, which is an important distinction.
We’re not positioning this as a currency or a replacement for existing systems. Instead, it’s a complementary data layer — something that helps validate, enrich, and improve how the industry measures TV.
At a broader level, our role is to sit across the ecosystem — helping partners understand what’s happening across all TV, not just within a single platform or environment.
How does ACR data actually work in practice?
At a simple level, ACR identifies what’s playing on a TV screen by matching audio and video fingerprints to a reference catalogue. That allows us to understand two critical things at scale: what content was on screen, and what advertising was actually viewed. Because this is deterministic, it helps move the industry closer to observed exposure, rather than relying solely on inferred signals.
It also connects to a bigger idea — the TV screen is still the moment before everything begins, where discovery happens and decisions are made. What’s changed is that this moment now spans multiple platforms, and ACR helps us understand it more clearly across the entire viewing journey.
What does this enable for advertisers and measurement partners?
The immediate focus is measurement and analytics. This includes cross-platform reach and frequency analysis, incremental reach versus linear TV, and audience profiling, such as understanding heavy, light, and non-linear viewers.
It also supports planning intelligence, like analysing how audiences move between linear and streaming, as well as broader market and content insights.
Who is this most relevant for today?
Our initial focus is on measurement companies, ad tech platforms, and advanced analytics teams. These are organisations that already understand TV data and are looking for independent signals to validate performance or enhance their own capabilities. We’re not trying to own the advertiser relationship here — our role is to enable the ecosystem.
Why is independence such a key part of the proposition?
Independence helps remove bias and increases flexibility. If data is tied to a single platform or media buy, it can limit how it’s used. Our approach is media-agnostic and designed to support existing measurement systems.
Instead, we sit across the ecosystem, helping partners understand what’s happening across all TV — not just within one environment.
That makes it a more adaptable foundation for cross-platform analysis.
How are you approaching privacy and compliance?
Privacy is foundational. The data is based on opted-in smart TV devices and shared in a privacy-conscious way, including IP-level signals that partners can match to households on their end. All data is handled in compliance with UK regulations. It’s essential that we deliver meaningful insights while maintaining transparency and trust with consumers and partners.
What does the UK launch mean for TiVo Ads globally?
The UK is an important step in our broader international expansion. We’ve built strong expertise in TV data in the US, and we’re now extending that capability into international markets. The focus is on enabling consistent, cross-market measurement while still aligning with local market dynamics.
The goal is to combine global scale with local relevance — enabling consistent, cross-market measurement while still aligning with the nuances of each market.
What comes next for ACR and TV measurement?
We’re moving towards a more open and interoperable measurement ecosystem. ACR plays an important role by providing a consistent signal across platforms, but it’s not about replacing existing systems, it’s about helping them work better together.
Ultimately, the goal is to provide a clearer, more accurate understanding of TV audiences and advertising performance.
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