Tribune Media’s Gracenote division has agreed to spend about $54 million to acquire two sports data firms—Infostrada Statistics B.V. (Infostrada Sports), and SportsDirect—and the Covers Media Group, which operates the Covers.com sports site.
With the acquisition of Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect, the company is also launching Gracenote Sports.
That move, the company says, will complement its existing businesses that provide music and video data and allow it to offer the most extensive set of sports data in North America, Europe and Asia.
“Our clients have been asking for Gracenote to add sports data to the music and video solutions that we already provide worldwide,” said John Batter, CEO of Gracenote in a statement. “The acquisition of Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect will immediately position Gracenote to take a leadership role in the growing sports entertainment data market and will make Gracenote the only company to deliver a portfolio of music, video, and sports data. Gracenote has deep experience producing, productizing and monetizing entertainment data for the world’s top music, movie and TV brands. The addition of sports allows us to apply our technology and data capabilities to the sports sector and create new ways to enhance the fan experience.”
Based in the Netherlands, Infostrada Sports focuses on the Olympics and European football sports data with coverage for more than 250 sports, in 17 languages, dating back more than 100 years, the company reports.
SportsDirect is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a major provider of sports data and statistics for more than 50 leagues and 2,000 teams from NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, the NCAA and other sports.
The company also noted that the deals will allow Tribune Media to integrate the data generated by these companies for its 42 broadcast stations and related web sites.
Currently, Tribune broadcasts NFL games to 22 major TV markets and the MLB, NBA and NHL in key local markets, including Chicago and New York.
