Jewel and her Alaskan Kilcher family will be center of a Christmas day (Dec. 25) holiday special airing at 1 p.m. CT on CBS-TV.

Holiday Homecoming With Jewel was recorded at Nashville’s Fontanel Mansion and is one of the first projects the singer has undertaken since finding new management with Marc Oswald.

The special will feature music from Jewel as well as American Idol finalist Geneva Rose Mitchell with stories, and holiday traditions.

“Growing up as a child in Homer Alaska a friend and I had a dream that we would be successful singer songwriters and go to Nashville someday,” read a Facebook post by Atz Kilcher, Jewel’s father. “Well about half a century later Bonnie and I had the pleasure of spending some time with my old friend Tim Mitchell. We are both here in Nashville now because of the great success of our daughters. I’m filming a Christmas special show with my daughter and family. Tim is here to watch his daughter, American Idol finalist Geneva Rose Mitchell, perform. Life is good.”

In addition to being part of Discovery’s popular Alaska: The Last Frontier, the elder Kilcher has recorded several albums, including his latest with his wife Bonnie, titled Good Old-Fashioned Ways.

Jewel has released two Christmas albums, most recently Let It Snow: A Holiday Collection was released in 2013.

Johnny Marks in the 1950s. Photo: ASCAP

ASCAP has renewed its agreement with the estate of songwriter Johnny Marks, the writer of classic holiday songs including “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Silver and Gold” and ”I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” ASCAP will continue to license public performances of his extensive songwriting catalog throughout the world.

“It simply wouldn’t be the holidays without the music of Johnny Marks,” said ASCAP President Paul Williams. “His enduring songs have provided a timeless soundtrack for holiday sing-alongs and family gatherings for over 75 years, and ASCAP is proud to keep the tradition going.”

“My father was an ASCAP member from the beginning of his career,” said Johnny Marks’ son, Michael, who now runs St. Nicholas Music, the publishing company founded by his father. “It has been a long and rewarding relationship, and I look forward to continuing to work with our friends at ASCAP in the years to come.”

Marks was born in Mt. Vernon, New York on November 10, 1909. Though he was active as a songwriter since 1935, Marks earned his first major hit when Gene Autry’s recording of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” became the first No. 1 song of the 1950s, and sold 1.75 million copies in its first year. His many awards include an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the inaugural award from the International Society of Santa Claus in 1973, in tribute to his contributions to the spirit of Christmas.

Aside from his holiday canon, Marks composed scores for commercials and TV specials which have been viewed by over a billion people, including the 1964 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer program with Burl Ives (among the longest-running specials in TV history). He found success with non-holiday music too, including the country hit “Everything I’ve Always Wanted” recorded by Porter Wagoner; “She’ll Always Remember,” introduced by Kate Smith; “Anyone Can Move a Mountain,” recorded by Kate Smith and Harry Simeone; “Address Unknown” with the Ink Spots and “Who Calls” with Bing Crosby.

From 1940 until his death in 1985, Marks was an active member of ASCAP and served on its Board of Directors from 1957 through 1961. He founded his own St. Nicholas Music in 1949 to publish his songwriting catalog, and it is still active today.

Nielsen announced it will purchase Gracenote, provider of media and entertainment metadata.

Expected to be final at the close of the first quarter of 2017 with financing through a combination of cash and debt, the noted $560 million transaction will allow Nielsen the acquisition of data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for major video, music, audio and sports content. Currently, the 18 year old Gracenote provides reference information for over 12 million movie and television listings and 200 million music tracks, and drives the interfaces of the major streaming digital media services, as well as the connected technology systems in over 75 million automobiles.

The acquisition extends Nielsen’s footprint with major clients by including Gracenote’s global content database which spans across platforms including multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), smart televisions, streaming music services, connected devices, media players and in-car infotainment systems.

The purchase from Tribune Media Company, which acquired the company three years ago for $170 million, will allow Nielsen the ability to provide clients with deeper analytics on consumer behavior and view of audience engagement from discovery to consumption.

“Gracenote’s metadata and content recognition technology fuels the interfaces of the major video, music and in-car infotainment systems that consumers engage with every day. This acquisition provides Nielsen with a significant asset in our mission of measuring and understanding consumer behavior,” said Karthik Rao, President, Expanded Verticals at Nielsen.

“For the past decade, Gracenote has connected millions of people every day to the TV shows, sports, movies and music they love, making entertainment more accessible and discoverable,” said John Batter, Chief Executive Officer of Gracenote. “We are excited for the opportunity to take the next step with Nielsen and expand our global reach by continuing to deliver innovative, insights-based solutions to clients.”

Nielsen, while best known for its television ratings, has become increasingly interested in tracking consumers not only through the shows they watch and the music they listen to but also through what they shop for.

When Adele’s hit album 25 was released, for example, Nielsen prepared a profile of the album’s typical fan: a college-educated woman, 25 to 44 years old, who watches Family Guy and visits Target and Victoria’s Secret stores.

Yet despite Nielsen’s push into more expansive and detailed means of tracking consumers, it has faced steady criticism for outdated methods of measuring media ratings. In recent years, the company still relied on paper diaries to track television viewing, for example, and TV networks have said repeatedly that Nielsen’s ratings are unreliable. —Ben Sisario, New York Times

Gracenote will operate as a business unit within Nielsen. The company will continue to operate from its headquarters in Emeryville, California.