In a unique venture, TNSSPORT, the world’s leading sports research company, announced today they are developing advanced image recognition technology to track the television exposure and value of brands within sport. Already capable of measuring exposure from advertising boards, the new SPORTSi™ system is being developed with BrandTraX Inc.

TNSSPORT is partnering with BrandTraX, who is leveraging advanced image recognition technology originally developed by Bell Labs, the R&D division of Lucent Technologies.

Bell Labs first developed this technology to detect and extract data from documents such as financial statements and faxes. This image recognition technology has proven to be applicable across a range of disciplines and industries. Bell Labs has licensed this technology to BrandTrax and is providing R&D services to them to meet the evolving demands of its the sports media measurement business.

Over the past 20 years, television exposure data has been collated manually; this will continue to some extent, but the use of this technology is a pivotal moment for the sports research business.

Requiring relatively little manual input, the recognition software measures the exposure time a brand receives during a sports broadcast. Whilst this sounds relatively simple, the technology is groundbreaking and can produce analysis currently not possible to capture using a manual process.

Mark Cornish, TNSSPORT Managing Director, says ‘Undoubtedly this will have a significant impact upon the industry. The technology is such that it improves both the accuracy and type of data we can extract from sports broadcasts, ultimately allowing us to precisely and consistently measure value. For years the industry has demanded that sponsors’ television exposure should be sold like advertising – but this is difficult due to accurate measurement. This new technology now makes this a distinct possibility’.

‘The demand for accurate electronic tracking of sponsors’ signage is mandatory for valuation of exposure,’ said Dick Gold, President of BrandTraX, Inc. ‘As such, our use of Bell Labs’ advanced image recognition software is the most efficient technology to electronically advance a currently manual tracking system to a fully computerised solution,’ said Gold.

For further information, please contact:
Richard Ames
T +44 (0) 1483 303770
e richard.ames@tnssport.com