The new business is a response to the increasing fragmentation of TV audiences across platforms. It will help advertisers target viewers across multiple on-demand, linear and live streaming TV platforms through a single access point and with standardised measurement.

Jakob Nielsen, previously managing director at GroupM Digital in the UK, has been made chief executive officer of Finecast. He joined GroupM from Microsoft in 2009. Rich Astley will be chief product officer.

Kelly Clark, global chief executive officer, GroupM, said: “Finecast is built to strengthen the TV ecosystem for advertisers and media partners alike. By unlocking the ability to be targeted in TV campaigns, Finecast opens the door for new advertisers who haven’t used TV before, and it gives traditional TV advertisers new ways to use the medium.”

Finecast currently includes TV channels across Sky, Virgin Media, Samsung, YouView, Amazon Fire, Roku, and gaming consoles such as Xbox.

Finecast has integrated with industry data platforms such as Acxiom, Experian, MasterCard and Kantar to target audience segments. It is also integrated with [m]Platform and will soon be activating campaign targeting at the household level using [m]Platform audience segments.