Inscape and Sorenson Media announced a partnership this morning to help local broadcast station gain insights into viewers’ behaviors. Inscape, whose automatic content recognition (ACR) technology collects viewership data from over 7 million opted-in smart TVs in the U.S. is powering Sorenson Media’s Spark Station Analytics. The companies have been collaborating for over a year with over 80 local broadcasters now using Spark Station Analytics.

These broadcasters gain the ability to understand on a second-by-second basis what viewers are watching and for how long. As Jodie McAfee, Inscape’s SVP of Sales and Marketing explained to me, this means local broadcasters can make more informed programming decisions. For example if a news segment over-performed in the 6pm broadcast, it might be positioned more prominently in the 10pm broadcast. Stations can see the precise second that viewers tuned out.

The data can be used beyond programming decisions as well. According to Stefan Maris, SVP of Product Strategy and Partnerships at Sorenson Media, the data “also lays the groundwork for the growth of programmatic and addressable advertising” which would in turn provide more relevancy for viewers. Jodie sees a lot of upside for local broadcasters to use ACR data from smart TVs because it offers new insights beyond legacy data sources.

Jodie explained that ad agencies’ and TV networks’ sophistication about how to use data is rapidly increasing. In particular he’s seeing networks better able to create audience segments, which can then be used for programmatic buying. Inscape is focused on licensing its data, mainly to demand side platforms which use it in combination with other data sources on behalf of their clients.