Another investment in the social TV space: the social TV data company Bluefin Labs just closed a $12 million series B round led by Time Warner Investments. Bluefin measures conversations around TV shows and commercials, and then sells that data to programmers, distributors, agencies and advertisers.
“2012 will be a year of huge growth at Bluefin Labs,” explains Deb Roy, co-founder and CEO. “With this funding we will continue to invest in R&D and build out our sales and client service offerings.”
Social TV analytics is a hot space right now, with startups crunching social data to strive to measure engagement — the missing link of TV metrics. “Many marketers share the intuition that beyond just knowing the demographics of viewers, it is also critical to know their mindset and level of engagement while watching television,” Roy told us. “Bluefin Labs data provides this deeper insight and can also share where marketers can find the most social media-engaged television audiences.”
I’ve even gone as far as predicting that Nielsen will acquire a social TV analytics company in the near future — Trendrr, Networked Insights and SocialGuide are in a similiar space as Bluefin Labs. The key for these companies is establishing industry-standard metrics that become the new currency of television and second-screen experiences.
The last month has been very active in social TV investments. In addition to Bluefin, GetGlue and Zeebox scored big funding rounds.