Nielsen will acquire Tribune-owned Gracenote for $560M

Tribune Media Company announced today that it has agreed to sell Gracenote (which provides metadata around TV, music and other media) to Nielsen.

Gracenote says it provides the data for 12 million movie and TV listings and more than 200 million music tracks. It was first acquired by Sony in 2008, then sold to Tribune Media (not to be confused with its spinoff Tribune Publishing, now known as Tronc) in 2014.

“Nielsen is a natural home for Gracenote,” said Gracenote CEO John Batter in the acquisition release. “Both companies have entertainment data at their core and have spent years delivering services to the world’s top media brands. Bringing together our data for driving discovery and tune-in with Nielsen’s deep insights about what people are watching, listening to and buying makes a formidable combination.”

The deal is for $560 million in cash and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.