CTV / Smart TV ACR Data Feed for Measurement

GSDSI (Global Source Data Solutions Inc.) licenses ACR viewership from ~13–14M unique CTV IDs per month, with daily feeds of ~15K+ gzipped files delivered across the U.S. smart-TV footprint. Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) captures audio or pixel fingerprints from content displayed on participating smart TVs, covering both live and streamed programming and supporting media measurement, audience segmentation, and cross-channel attribution across CTV, linear TV, and digital touchpoints.

Product Answer Summary

  • Product category: Digital, Media & Behavioral Feeds
  • What it contains: Live TV viewership, Streaming content exposure, Ad detection events, Channel-level tuning data
  • Delivery formats: CSV, JSON, Parquet, API
  • Who uses it: enterprise data buyers evaluating activation, measurement, analytics, enrichment, risk, or research workflows.

Key Features

  • Household-level granularity
  • Daily data refresh
  • Cross-screen linkage
  • US & International coverage

Feed Specifications

  • Record scale: 13–14M unique CTV IDs/month
  • Coverage: United States
  • Refresh cadence: Daily (~15K gz files/day)
  • Delivery formats: Gzipped flat files, S3, SFTP, REST API

How ACR Data Is Collected

Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology works by capturing audio or pixel-based fingerprints from content displayed on a smart TV screen and matching those fingerprints against a reference library of known programming. This passive, opt-in collection method runs continuously in the background on participating smart TV devices, picking up both linear broadcast content and over-the-top (OTT) streaming content without requiring set-top box integration. GSDSI's ACR feed pulls together these signals from millions of opted-in households, providing second-by-second viewership data that includes channel tuning events, ad exposure detection, and content-level engagement metrics. The data is refreshed daily and delivered in analyst-ready formats including CSV, JSON, and Parquet.

Common Applications for CTV Data

Media agencies and brand advertisers use ACR data to measure cross-platform reach and frequency, determining how many unique households were exposed to a campaign across linear TV, CTV, and digital at the same time. Programmers and content distributors analyze viewership patterns to inform scheduling, content licensing, and ad inventory pricing decisions. Financial analysts use CTV exposure data as an alternative signal for estimating advertising revenue at media companies mapped to public tickers. Retail and QSR brands combine ACR exposure data with foot traffic signals through GSDSI's Euclidean Feed to perform closed-loop attribution, proving that a CTV ad impression led to an actual store visit within a defined attribution window.

How buyers diligence CTV / ACR data

CTV buyers validate householding logic, OEM/platform coverage, exposure definitions, and whether ACR events can join to identity, mobility, or outcome files without overcounting reach.

Product-specific diligence checks

  • Clarify household vs. device-level measurement and dedupe rules.
  • Request coverage by OEM/platform, geography, date range, and detection method.
  • Define attribution windows, exposure thresholds, and cross-screen join keys.
  • Confirm warehouse, clean-room, S3, SFTP, or API delivery requirements.