Inscape Data Services
Inscape is an American provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) services to Smart TV OEMs. The company was founded in 2009 as TV Interactive Systems, later renamed Cognitive Media Networks Inc. On August 10, 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Media Networks and renamed it Inscape. In July 2016 Vizio announced Inscape will spin off and operate as a separate, privately owned company.
 | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automatic content recognition |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Zeev Neumeier Michael Collette Brian Reed |
| Parent | Vizio |
| Website | inscape.tv |
Inscape is an American provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) services to Smart TV OEMs.[1]
The company was founded in 2009 as TV Interactive Systems, later renamed Cognitive Media Networks Inc. On August 10, 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Media Networks and renamed it Inscape. In July 2016 Vizio announced Inscape will spin off and operate as a separate, privately owned company.[2]
History
[edit]Inscape was founded in 2009 by Zeev Neumeier as TV Interactive Systems [3] with Co-Founder and CTO Brian Reed. In 2012, the company raised $2.5 million in funding from Rogers Venture Partners, rebranded as Cognitive Networks, and hired Michael Collette as its CEO.[4] On August 28, 2013, LG announced its LivePlus interactive service powered by Cognitive Network ACR.[5] LG subsequently partnered with Showtime Network to launch in-program interactivity using Cognitive Network ACR.[6]
On August 10, 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Networks and renamed it Inscape[7] In July 2016 Vizio announced Inscape will spin off and operate as a separate, privately owned company with past Vizio CEO William Wang as new CEO.[8]
On November 9, 2015, privacy advocate Julia Angwin exposed the Inscape technology in an investigative piece for Pro Publica to track consumer viewing habits within Vizio televisions and sharing it with advertisers.[9]
Technology journals like Ars Technica investigated the matter and found that not only was Vizio observing its customers viewing behavior, it was quite easy for its software to be hacked and observed by third parties.[10] Shortly after these reports, both Vizio and its subsidiary Inscape Data Services were named in numerous class action lawsuits for violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act.[11]
Audience panel
[edit]In 2020, Inscape created an audience panel called the National Representative Panel (NRP). Using ACR, the NRP was built from 15 million smart TVs in the US and claims the data to be representative of TV viewing for all US households, demographics, and geographies across 210 local markets.[12] As of December 2022, the Vizio has access to about 21 million smart TVs, where about 10 million were opted-in and "calibrated" to TV viewing households.[13][14] This data was created in partnership with Dativa, a company providing custom TV measurement strategy and solutions to brands, agencies and media companies.[15]
To create a representative panel, the NRP requires an identity provider to match smart TVs to households, and then a household ID can be created by weighting smart devices that represent the United States census. The TVs are matched and balanced based on age, gender, income, location, cable subscription, antenna usage, and ethnicity.[16] These TV IDs are sorted into audience population demographics based on the US census, so advertisers can "weight" their buys to optimize targeting and frequency across different demographics. As of December 2022, NRP only supports linear campaign programming and measurement due to contractual agreements with streaming content providers.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ "Cognitive Networks Detects What You're On Your Smart TV". techcrunch. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ MarketScreener (2016-07-27). "William Wang to Become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inscape -July 26, 2016 | MarketScreener". www.marketscreener.com. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
- ^ "Company Overview of Cognitive Networks, Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "TV Interactive Systems Relaunches as Cognitive Networks; Interactive Veteran Michael Collette to Helm Venture". prweb. Archived from the original on August 26, 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "LG partners with Cognitive Networks to make Smart TVs smarter and more interactive". engadget. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "LG and Showtime join forces to help you contextualize 'Dexter,' 'Ray Donovan'". engadget. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "Cognitive Networks - Portfolio - DCM".
- ^ "Vizio Being Sold To LeEco". 26 July 2016.
- ^ "Own a Vizio Smart TV? It's Watching You". 9 November 2015.
- ^ Goodin, Dan (2015-11-11). "Man-in-the-middle attack on Vizio TVs coughs up owners' viewing habits". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ Goodin, Dan (2017-02-06). "Vizio smart TVs tracked viewers around the clock without consent". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ Mann, Colin (2020-06-10). "Inscape's new audience panel". Advanced Television. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ a b Boyle, Alyssa (2022-12-14). "VIZIO Builds A Measurement Panel With ACR Data". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2025-11-26.
- ^ Lafayette, Jon (2022-12-14). "Inscape Using Weighted Panel To Calibrate Viewing Data". Broadcasting+Cable. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
- ^ Weisler, Charlene (March 4, 2020). "The Next Big Thing In Data: Q&A With Dativa's Michael Collette". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "Inscape Now Offering National Representative Panel to Enhance Currency and Measurement". 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2025-12-02.