News from the Wire

NPD acquires Nielsen U.S. market services for book industry

Friday, January 20, 2017 — 10:49:34 (EST)

Port Washington, N.Y., Jan. 20, 2017 -- The NPD Group announced that it has acquired Nielsen’s U.S. market information and research services for the book industry. The acquisition includes: U.S.-based BookScan, PubTrack™ Digital, PubTrack™ Higher Education, PubTrack™ Christian, Books & Consumers™, PubEasy®, and PubNet®. These services will be part of NPD Book, a new U.S. practice area that complements NPD offerings for more than 20 industries, expanding NPD’s expertise in tracking and anticipating industry trends and consumer behavior.

With the acquisition, NPD will offer sales tracking for physical and digital books as well as buyer demographics and insights into print and digital preferences and trends. BookScan is the largest point-of-sale tracking service for English-language books in the U.S., tracking approximately 85% of U.S. retail sales of physical books. PubTrack Digital offers a comprehensive view of the digital market based on information from more than 30 publishers. BookScan, PubTrack™ Digital, PubTrack™ Higher Education, PubTrack™ Christian, Books & Consumers™, PubEasy®, and PubNet® will also now be NPD-branded services in the U.S.

“Industry expertise is a hallmark of NPD, and we are excited to add services for the book industry. Like many of our industries, publishing is experiencing rapid and dramatic change. By combining data and industry expertise, we will be able to give the industry a winning advantage in understanding and anticipating trends,” said NPD President and Chief Operating Officer Karyn Schoenbart.

Nielsen will provide operations support for NPD BookScan and the related U.S. services during a transition period.

Nielsen will also continue to own and operate Nielsen Book outside of the U.S. in nine countries as well as in any international expansion markets. As a leading provider of search, discovery, commerce, consumer research and retail sales analysis services for the international book industry, Nielsen Book includes: Nielsen BookScan, Nielsen BookData, Nielsen Books & Consumers, Nielsen BookNet, Nielsen PubEasy, Nielsen PubTrack Digital, and the UK ISBN Registration Agency.

About The NPD Group, Inc. The NPD Group provides market information and business solutions that drive better decision-making and better results. The world’s leading brands rely on us to help them get the right products in the right places for the right people. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, diamonds, e-commerce, entertainment, fashion accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, mobile, office supplies, retail, sports, technology, toys, video games, and watches / jewelry. For more information, visit npd.com and npdgroupblog.com . Follow us on Twitter: @npdgroup.

About Nielsen Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com .

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Source: Company press release.