Twitter has acquired two TV analytics companies as part of its effort to become a stronger social complement to television viewing. French company Mesagraph and U.K.-based SecondSync will become part of Twitter’s London office. Twitter also announced it will be expanding its partnership with Kantar Media, and is hoping to extend its Twitter TV ratings system into Europe. To compete in the social TV space, Facebook has teamed with TV networks to initiate live updates during broadcasts, a practice popular with Twitter.

“Both purchases bring important relationships,” suggests The Wall Street Journal. “Mesagraph has worked with French broadcast heavies such as Canal+, France Televisions, M6 and TF1. SecondSync, which counts Kantar Media as an investor, tracks Twitter activity of the top shows in the U.K.”

Motivation behind the deal is similar to the rationale behind Twitter’s $67.3 million purchase of Bluefin Labs in February 2013. The deal gave Twitter data about viewers who simultaneously access Twitter while watching TV.

The company hopes that the purchase of Mesagraph and SecondSync will deliver the same benefits in Europe, where Twitter has a large user base.

Last October Twitter created the Nielsen Twitter TV ratings system to measure activity and reach of Twitter conversations about certain shows.

While the Nielsen Twitter TV rating is already used in Italy, Australia, Japan, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, this new partnership will help bring the system to the Nordics, Russia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa.