New demographic insights across TV program talent and viewers will empower the entertainment industry to create more inclusive content

Emeryville, Calif. – Feb. 17, 2021 – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) today is launching Gracenote Inclusion Analytics to deliver unprecedented visibility into the gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation of talent appearing in TV programming and the audiences watching it.  The new solution empowers content creators, owners, distributors and advertisers with much-needed data around on-screen diversity and representation to enable more inclusive content. 

Leveraging Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, a distributor can highlight content within its catalog featuring diverse female leads for Women’s History Month or fuel recommendations connecting fans of diverse content with programs they’ll enjoy. A studio can evaluate whether its content meets Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) benchmarks and highlight programs for licensing opportunities. Similarly, a brand can identify and target the most inclusive content to inform its ad investment or product placement decisions.

“The entertainment industry has a massive challenge ahead – to ensure the talent associated with popular TV programming mirrors today’s increasingly diverse viewing audiences,” said Sandra Sims-Williams, SVP, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Nielsen. “By democratizing information around representation in content, Gracenote Inclusion Analytics holds the power to push the industry toward better balance and a more equitable future.” 

According to Nielsen’s recent “Being Seen On Screen: Diverse Representation & Inclusion on TV” report, women make up 52% of the U.S. population but comprise only 38% of top recurring cast in popular broadcast, cable and streaming programming.  At the same time, People of Color account for 40% of the broader population but are present in only 27% of top TV roles. These data points highlight significant imbalances between representation in content and key audience groups which, by addressing, would serve to accelerate equity in entertainment. 

Gracenote Inclusion Analytics marries industry-leading Gracenote Global Video program metadata and Studio System celebrity race and ethnicity data with currency grade Nielsen Television Ratings and Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings data.  Based on these inputs, the solution delivers new proprietary metrics assessing the degree to which different identity groups are featured in programming and how evenly this reflects viewing audiences. These include:

• Share of Screen quantifying an identity group’s (e.g., women, LGBTQ, Black) representation among the top recurring talent
• Inclusion Opportunity Index comparing share of screen for an identity group (e.g., women) to their representation in population estimates
• Inclusion Audience Index comparing share of screen for a group to their representation in the program’s viewing audience 

“Audiences today actively seek out programs that highlight people who resemble them and experiences that reflect their own,” said Tina Wilson, Head of Analytics at Nielsen. “Under these circumstances, it’s critical that the entertainment industry create authentic content which resonates with underrepresented groups. Together, Nielsen and Gracenote are uniquely positioned to help the industry seize upon this opportunity by way of new data analytics solutions ensuring meaningful connections between content and audiences.”

At launch, Gracenote Inclusion Analytics offers data and insights around gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation of on-camera talent appearing in popular broadcast, cable and SVOD TV programs. Future enhancements will expand product coverage to include theatrical movies as well as behind-the-camera talent including directors, producers, writers and other key roles.  

Gracenote Inclusion Analytics is the first solution to launch from the new Gracenote Content Analytics suite.  Combining Gracenote’s unparalleled entertainment metadata with Nielsen’s trusted audience measurement data, this suite will provide the entertainment industry with a powerful toolset to inform critical decisions on what to produce, whom to attach, where to place programming and how to buy advertising to maximize resonance with key audiences and return on investment.  For more information, visit Gracenote Inclusion Analytics.