Baseline

September 3, 2014 (New York, NY) – Petsky Prunier is pleased to announce it has advised Baseline, the leading film and television information, data, and related software company, on its sale to Gracenote, Inc., a division of Tribune Media Company.

Baseline is the premier provider of data, competitive intelligence, and workflow solutions to the global film, television, media, and entertainment industries. Baseline’s data and information power content discovery and media navigation solutions for some of the largest global portals and video distributors. The company has developed the industry’s most comprehensive proprietary database of released and upcoming film and television information. Baseline’s movie and TV database features information for more than 300,000 movies and TV projects, filmographies for nearly 1.5 million TV and film professionals, and box office data for 45 territories. Baseline’s syndicated data powers TV search and discovery features and TV Everywhere apps for leading satellite operators, on-demand movie services, Internet companies, and online streaming providers, including Hulu and Vudu. The company’s database is also the foundation for Baseline’s proprietary content delivery platform, The Studio System, which is the gold standard for competitive intelligence used by major Hollywood studios, TV networks, production companies, and talent agencies.

The acquisition of Baseline reinforces Tribune Media’s commitment to growing Gracenote as a leader in entertainment data and services. Baseline’s rich database deepens Gracenote’s existing video metadata footprint by adding descriptive information about TV and movie productions dating back more than 100 years to the early days of silent movies. The addition of Baseline also expands Gracenote’s reach into the studio and TV network communities with a portfolio of entertainment services and broad base of customers.

Gracenote will leverage Baseline’s data and content delivery platform to expand its own TV and movie offerings, which currently serve the world’s top cable and satellite operators, social networks, on-demand services, and consumer electronics manufacturers. With the acquisition, Gracenote’s entertainment data and products will now cover the full entertainment ecosystem from content creation to end-user consumption.

A team from Petsky Prunier, led by Sanjay Chadda, Seth Rosenfield, and Dylan Kearns, served as exclusive financial advisor to Baseline.