Dolan family buys data analytics firm aimed at media spending

By Jessica Toonkel

(Reuters) - The Dolan family, who sold Cablevision last year, has acquired a data analytics company as it seeks to build a business helping media companies better measure their audiences and target advertisements to individual viewers.

The family announced this week it had launched Dolan Family Ventures to invest in data and technology and analytics companies. In its first deal, Dolan Family Ventures on Thursday said it has acquired New York-based Analytics Media Group, and is launching a new business called 605.

Terms were not disclosed.

The Dolan Family's new venture into data analytics for media companies comes at a time when distributors and programmers are wrestling with how to offer "addressable TV," which allows advertising to be targeted so that various viewers see different ads.

When AT&T announced its planned acquisition of Time Warner Inc last month, it talked about its goal of offering addressable TV. Similarly, on its earnings call Wednesday morning, Viacom Inc executives talked about using data to better target ads at people when they reach certain life events.

"Our goal is to get the right data and analysis in place to allow people to spend money in the right ways and get real-time results in their media spend," Kristin Dolan, founder and managing partner of Dolan Family Ventures, told Reuters. "This is something that has been dear and near to my heart.

Dolan, who recently was chief operating officer of Cablevision, is also on the boards of AMC Networks Inc and Madison Square Garden Co. Her husband, James Dolan, was chief executive of Cablevision and is an adviser and investor in the new firm.

AMG has access to data on the attributes of 121 million households. Dolan hopes it can fill a need that other companies that measure viewing habits like Nielsen have not been able to address, she said.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Leslie Adler)