# Samba TV

> Samba TV is a television technology and data company that builds software embedded directly into smart TVs to measure what households actually watch in real time. Using its patented automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, it turns anonymized, opt-in viewing across broadcast, cable, OTT and streaming into audience insights and cross-screen advertising tools that marketers and broadcasters use to plan, target and measure campaigns. Founded in 2008 by former BitTorrent employees and headquartered in San Francisco, Samba TV operates across roughly 24 smart TV brands and tens of millions of devices worldwide.

- **Founded:** 2008
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founders:** Ashwin Navin (Co-Founder & CEO), Alvir Navin (Co-Founder & COO), David Harrison (Co-Founder), Omar Zennadi (Co-Founder), Todd Johnson (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~380 employees
- **Products:** Content ID (ACR), Real-time TV Viewership Dashboard, SambaID, Audience targeting & cross-screen advertising, Contextual targeting (via Semasio)
- **Notable:** Pioneered commercial automatic content recognition (ACR) embedded in smart TVs., Scaled to ~46 million devices across 100+ countries and ~24 TV brands., Acquired four companies - Screen6 (2018), Wove (2019), Axwave (2019) and Semasio (2024).

## Products & services

- **Content ID (ACR)** — Patented automatic content recognition technology embedded in smart TVs that identifies on-screen content frame by frame to build real-time viewership data.
- **Real-time TV Viewership Dashboard** — A live dashboard (launched 2021) showing tune-in and audience trends across broadcast, cable, OTT and streaming.
- **SambaID** — A proprietary cross-platform identifier used to resolve households and devices for measurement and targeting.
- **Audience targeting & cross-screen advertising** — Tools like Sync and Retarget that let advertisers reach and re-target audiences across TV and mobile/digital based on what was viewed.
- **Contextual targeting (via Semasio)** — Privacy-first contextual and behavioral web intelligence added through the 2024 Semasio acquisition, analyzing billions of web pages monthly.

## Achievements

- Pioneered commercial automatic content recognition (ACR) embedded in smart TVs.
- Scaled to ~46 million devices across 100+ countries and ~24 TV brands.
- Acquired four companies - Screen6 (2018), Wove (2019), Axwave (2019) and Semasio (2024).
- Launched a real-time TV viewership dashboard used widely by press and marketers.
- Backed by Mark Cuban, Disney, Time Warner and Liberty Global.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — TikTok and Samba reveal a 172% median lift in ticket purchase rate (215% for horror titles) via the new Box Office Lift measurement product.
- **2025-12** — Samba TV joins Index Marketplaces / partners with Index Exchange to launch an agentic-curated media marketplace live in 50+ countries.
- **2025-10** — Partners with Aquila (an ANA subsidiary) to advance streaming video measurement in a cross-media platform, with full rollout expected in H2 2026.
- **2025-04** — OzTAM partners with Samba TV and Nexxen to explore big-data audience measurement in Australia.
- **2024-10** — Acquires Semasio to strengthen contextual targeting across digital and CTV.

## Links

- Website: https://samba.tv
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sambatv
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/samba_tv
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SambaTV
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sambatelevision/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/samba-tv
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-20