What is ACR data and where does GSDSI's come from?

Automatic Content Recognition data captures what's actually playing on a smart TV (broadcast, cable, streaming, gaming, and ad exposure) at the household level.

What ad-related signals are in the feed?

Linear and CTV ad exposures, programmatic and direct-sold creative IDs where available, frequency and reach by household, daypart and network distribution, and competitive-spot exposure for incrementality cohorts. Ad-only and content-only subsets can be licensed separately.

Can ACR be joined to the GSDSI identity graph?

Yes, that's the standard delivery shape. Each CTV ID is linked to household-level identity (HEM, MAID, IP) so customers can run cross-screen reach, frequency capping, attribution, and lookalike modeling against ACR-exposed cohorts.

What's the typical use case for advertisers?

Cross-screen incrementality, addressable-CTV planning, competitive share-of-voice, frequency-cap validation, audience-extension from heavy-viewer cohorts, and clean-room measurement against retail or transactional outcomes.

How does the ACR feed compare to iSpot, VideoAmp, or Inscape?

iSpot and VideoAmp are measurement currencies; Inscape is OEM-specific. GSDSI ships multi-OEM ACR + identity as a raw dataset, the typical buyer is either a measurement vendor that uses GSDSI as upstream supply, or an in-house measurement team that wants raw signal rather than a managed currency.

ACR Data for CTV Advertising: Smart TV Viewership

Since 2018

Privacy-safe enterprise data

VOSB & SDVOSB

U.S. Veteran-Owned, Service-Disabled

SCC Transfers

EU/UK/CH per privacy policy

GDPR · CCPA · CPRA

Consent-first data sourcing

Overview

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.

At a glance

Short, extractable evaluation notes for buyers (what you get, how it’s sourced, and how procurement typically runs).

What you get

ACR-derived exposure events with identifiers for measurement and planning.
Coverage cuts by OEM/platform and geography during evaluation.
Governance-ready fields for dedupe + windowing.

How it’s sourced

Documented provenance and permitted uses for measurement workflows.
Exclusions and privacy controls aligned to buyer policy.
Stable schema + refresh expectations in a delivery manifest.

How you buy it

Matched sample to measure join yield and reach in your markets.
Confirm delivery path (S3/SFTP/Snowflake) and formats (Parquet/CSV).
License terms aligned to activation + measurement windows.

Clean room measurement Sourcing methodology Pilot process

Want the buying guide?

If you’re evaluating vendors or writing an RFP, this guide lays out what to ask for (coverage, refresh, governance) and links to the best references.

CTV/ACR buying guide

Need an API key + JSON sample?

For technical evaluation, we can provide a sample payload, schema notes, and delivery options (S3/SFTP/Snowflake) aligned to your workflow.

Request API key + JSON sample Developer hub

Data Types

Live TV viewership
Streaming content exposure
Ad detection events
Channel-level tuning data

Delivery Formats

CSVJSONParquetAPI

Key Features

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

Sample fields

A representative slice of the CTV / Smart TV (ACR) Feed schema. The data dictionary shared during evaluation lists every field with its type, nullability, join keys, and refresh cadence.

Field	What it contains
ctv_id	Pseudonymous connected-TV device identifier.
event_timestamp	UTC timestamp for the tuning, content, or ad-exposure event.
content_id	Matched program, episode, creative, or other recognized content identifier.
channel	Linear network, streaming service, or channel associated with the event.
exposure_type	Classification of the event as programming, streaming content, or advertising.

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.

Industries Using This Product

Retail & QSR

Turn foot traffic into competitive advantage

Advertising & AdTech

Prove ROI from impression to store visit

Healthcare & Pharma

Planning and campaign data for healthcare, without tracking patients

CPG & Consumer Goods

From shelf to shopper: understand the full journey

Media & Entertainment

Audience intelligence from screen to venue

Proof & buyer diligence for ACR / CTV measurement

Clarify the unit of measurement (household vs person) and how householding is constructed for cross-device joins.
Require coverage by OEM/platform and a clear view of how ad detection events are derived.
Plan governance up front: attribution windows, dedupe logic, and what qualifies as an exposure event.

Programmatic CTV + ACR integration CTV ACR 101 Cross-channel measurement solution

Vendor comparisons

Use these buyer guides to compare this feed category with adjacent vendor offerings.

How buyers diligence CTV / ACR data

CTV buyers usually start with a measurement pilot: confirm householding logic, OEM/platform coverage, exposure-event definitions, and whether ACR events can be joined to identity, mobility, or outcome files without overcounting reach.

Clarify household vs. device-level measurement and dedupe rules before attribution.
Request coverage by OEM/platform, geography, date range, and content or ad-detection method.
Define attribution windows, exposure thresholds, and cross-screen join keys in the pilot brief.
Confirm delivery cadence and whether files support clean-room or warehouse-based measurement.

Request a Quote Sourcing methodology Request a matched sample

CTV / Smart TV (ACR) Feed