Gracenote brings show-level content data to The Trade Desk in first DSP deal

September 3, 2026 · storyboard18.com

Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has partnered with The Trade Desk to bring show-level content intelligence into programmatic CTV buying, marking Gracenote's first integration with a demand-side platform. Advertisers on The Trade Desk can now use Gracenote's content IDs, metadata and standardised taxonomy to build targeting and curation criteria around specific programmes, beyond genre-based categories, and combine those signals with other data on the platform to activate campaigns across eligible inventory from connected supply partners. The integration also adds programme-level reporting, letting advertisers see which shows carried their ads. "While programmatic CTV has scaled significantly, it has remained tethered to a playbook built around user behavior and developed for web and mobile," said Bill Michels, Gracenote's chief product officer.

A survey of 500 US media planners, TV buyers and programmatic traders, commissioned by Gracenote, found that 91% of traders believe the lack of show-level data limits CTV advertising and 95% of planners see value in show-level reporting. Campaigns bought through The Trade Desk can now target and report against named programmes using Gracenote's content IDs and taxonomy, giving buyers a clearer link between where an ad ran and how it performed. That level of accountability matches what advertisers already expect from digital campaigns, according to Jay Goebel, The Trade Desk's vice president of data partnerships, who said advertisers "increasingly expect the same precision and transparency in CTV as they do across the rest of their digital media buying."