The South Korean electronics group LG bought 80 million US dollars from the US TV data analysis company Alphonso. As LG announced on Thursday, they have acquired 50 percent of the company and are now the largest shareholder.

Collect data for better services and advertising LG wants to use the AI-based analysis method from Alphonso evaluate the viewing habits of viewers in the USA and Canada on LG Smart TVs, according to a statement from LG. The purpose of this is to determine how consumers view approximately 15 millions of households in North America with TV ads and content. According to LG, the analysis software and services from Alphonso are to be used to determine customer preferences in order to be able to better adapt the own streaming service LG Channels with tailor-made content to customer requirements. In addition, with the help of Alphonso, they want to create a cross-device advertising platform that can not only be used on smart TVs.

Alphonso became 2012 founded by the current CEO Ashish Chordia. Customers have so far included TV manufacturers such as Sharp, Toshiba, Hisense and the semiconductor company Skyworks Solutions. Alphonso, based in Silicon Valley, will continue to operate as an independent company under the previous management.

(olb)