iSpot Acquires 605 in TV Advertising Measurement Deal – The Hollywood Reporter

Kristin Dolan

Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

TV advertising measurement company iSpot.tv has acquired 605, the data and analytics company focused on the media and entertainment industries founded by AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“The deal brings together two of the leading independent TV measurement companies with a significant customer footprint across brands, TV networks and streaming publishers,” iSpot said. “The acquisition of 605 immediately bolsters iSpot’s measurement solutions for video and TV advertising effectiveness — especially in the areas of business outcome attribution, advanced audience measurement, media planning, and data science managed services.”

iSpot also highlighted that combining the technologies of both companies “will accelerate the delivery of innovative solutions for brands and programmers, most notably in predictive AI technologies that leverage proprietary data assets for better forecasting, planning, optimization, and results reporting.”

With the acquisition, iSpot will add set-top box data from 16.6 million homes, bringing its total available TV device footprint to 82.7 million. The company described the expanded data, which includes smart TV data from Vizio and LG, as “a critical foundation for delivering accurate, representative measurement and new currencies to the TV marketplace” in the digital age.

“605 has developed an impressive technology architecture, a great approach to using big data, and a suite of powerful solutions that nicely complement our own,” said iSpot founder and CEO Sean Muller. “We are excited to integrate their world-class team of engineers and data scientists in our mission to modernize measurement effectiveness and new currencies.”

All 85 employees of 605 will be joining iSpot, founded in Bellevue, Washington in 2012, bringing the firm’s total employee count to 464.

“We launched 605 seven years ago with the idea that high-quality data and advanced analytics would make television advertising even more effective, from planning and segmentation all the way through to attribution and now prediction,” said Dolan. “During a time of profound change in our industry, I could not be more proud of the team for delivering on that promise.”