Inscape Data Services
Data service for smart TVs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inscape is an American provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) services to Smart TV OEMs.[1]
 | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automatic content recognition |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Zeev Neumeier Michael Collette Brian Reed |
| Parent | Vizio |
| Website | inscape |
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
Summarize
Perspective
Inscape was founded in 2009 by Zeev Neumeier as TV Interactive Systems.[3] 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
In 2020, Inscape created an audience panel called the National Representative Panel (NRP).[12] Using ACR, the NRP is 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. This data was created in partnership with Dativa, a company providing custom TV measurement strategy and solutions to brands, agencies and media companies.[13]
References
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