Kantar Media buys Civolution’s audio watermarking unit

Channel 4’s Horse Tracker app uses Civolution’s watermarking technology.

Audience measurement firm Kantar Media has bought Civolution’s audio watermarking division, giving it access to recognition technology used for measurement and second screen synchronisation.

The watermarking unit will be transferred under the leadership of Jean-Michel Masson, with the deal designed to strengthen Kantar Media’s audience measurement technologies and open up “new and exciting opportunities around second screen activation.”

Kantar Media Audiences’ global CEO, Richard Asquith, said that Civolution will “strengthen our suite of technology to measure audiences for content across all devices in all formats.”

Alex Terpstra, Civolution’s CEO, added that the deal will “strengthen our suite of technology to measure audiences for content across all devices in all formats.”

With the sale, which is scheduled to close in Q4 2014, Civolution will focus on two key growth markets – media protection and media data intelligence.

This will be managed from two separate business units: NextGuard Forensic Watermarking, for protecting professional and consumer streaming and download services; and Teletrax TV Network Services, which will use Civolution’s monitoring infrastructure to tap into the increasing adoption of TV synced adverts and offer broadcast analytics services.

WPP-owned Kantar Media recently unveiled its new Kantar Twitter TV Ratings tools – the official UK Twitter metric for measuring Twitter TV audience engagement.