Rentrak

By any standard, Rentrak has done an extraordinary job over the past few years building and rolling out its local TV measurement service. But if Rentrak has thrived in a phase one — gaining a toehold, if not foothold, in the local measurement business — now it must navigate a second phase that could be very telling about its fate. Nielsen is on the offensive, looking to upgrade its service.

Rentrak Corp. on Wednesday announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with ICA Broadcasting for its CBS affiliate, KOSA Odessa-Midland, Tex., and its MNT-affiliated subchannel branded as NOSA-TV. The new […]

The measurement service has signed WPTY (ABC) and WLMT (CW) in a multi-year ratings contract.

Rentrak Corp. today announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Journal Broadcast Group for its CBS affiliate, KMTV Omaha, Neb. (DMA 75) “I have long been a fan of […]

A new study finds that the number of people who watched network shows via on-demand TV skyrocketed more than 60% last year compared to 2011. It’s a stunning shift in viewer habits as more and more programming is now available through cable on-demand services and through Internet sites like Hulu and Netflix.

The deal adds five television markets, bringing the station group’s Rentrak markets to 23. The new additions are KCBD (NBC) Lubbock, Texas; KFVS (CBS) Paducah, Ky.-Cape-Girardeau, Mo.; KSLA (CBS) Shreveport, Miss.; WECT (NBC) and WSFX (Fox) Wilmington, N.C.; and WDBD (Fox) Jackson, Miss.

The new report tracks a 28-day audience lift when DVR and video-on-demand viewing are added to live audience viewing numbers.

Rentrak Corp. today announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Gray Television for its CBS affiliate WKYT Lexington, Ky. (DMA 64), which also airs CW programming on its 27.2 […]

Rentrak Corp. today announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Scripps Television for its ABC affiliate KERO Bakersfield, Calif. (DMA 126). Scripps first signed with Rentrak in August of […]

The ratings service adds Quincy’s ABC affiliate WKOW Madison, Wis., and NBC-Fox duo of KTTC-KXLT Rochester/Austin, Minnesota-Mason City, Iowa.

Mobile Content Venture’s Dyle mobile TV service will use Rentrak’s Mobile Essentials solution in combination with Rentrak’s StationView Essentials solution “to help MCV members align traditional TV ratings with broadcast mobile TV performance.”

The ratings service will get a comprehensive audit of its TV Essentials and StationView Essentials services by an independent CPA firm engaged by the MRC.

ABC has inked an agreement  to use the Rentrak local TV service for three of its eight owned stations — ones in Houston, San Francisco and Fresno. The Houston station had quietly been using the data for about six months under a short-term agreement.

The ratings services adds Scripps’ ABC affiliates in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit and West Palm Beach, Fla. The expansion makes Cleveland the first top-20 market to have all major TV affiliates subscribing to Rentrak’s local ratings.

A new weekly report from Rentrak and Trendrr.TV lists the top-30 primetime programs based on level of viewer engagement as determined by how much the average percentage viewed of the program varies from an average of all programs of the same duration during Monday-Saturday primetime (8-11 p.m.) and Sunday primetime (7-11).

The deal covers the Hispanic broadcaster’s Univision, TeleFutura, Galavisión, Univision Deportes, Univision tlnovelas, ForoTV,  Bandamax, De Película, Película Clásico, Clásico TV, Ritmoson and Telehit.

Rentrak has reached an agreement that looks to combine viewership data for brand integrations with effective metrics. The deal will have Rentrak’s second-by-second data linked with an analytics system run by iTVX, the multipurpose advisory firm in the brand integration space.

Rentrak Corp. released its Stickiness Index and Social Media Index for the week ending June 10 and Univision has three of the top 10 broadcast programs, while the NBA Playoffs is a strong performer in the cable universe.

Rentrak, which is looking to offer a Nielsen alternative or supplement, says it expects to double sales annually in its TV measurement business over the next four to five years. The bullishness comes after a 59% bump to $9.2 million in the recently completed fiscal year.

The strategic alliance links Rentrak’s census-based TV viewing ratings to MasterCard’s consumer trend data for deeper audience insights.

The network will use Rentrak’s TV Essentials census-based TV ratings service.

Multi-screen media measurement firm Rentrak Corp. announced that announced that Local TV LLC’s Fox affiliate WJW Cleveland (DMA 18) has signed a long-term contract for Rentrak’s StationView Essentials service. With […]

Rentrak revealed Tuesday what it described as a “milestone” deal with Interpublic that would use its TV audience measurement data as a “trading currency.” The deal, which was unveiled as part of Rentrak’s quarterly earnings briefing with investors and analysts, includes a new TV audience segmentation system targeting “movie-goers.”

CNBC has signed an upfront deal with agency MPG on behalf of its client Fidelity that offers dual guarantees, based on both Nielsen and Rentrak data. Agreed to during the calendar upfront market, CNBC has guaranteed Fidelity certain audience delivery figures in both the adults 25-to-54 demo (from Nielsen data) and households with incomes of $150,000-plus (from Rentrak).

Multi-screen media measurement firm Rentrak Corp. today announced that Koplar Communications has signed on to Rentrak’s StationView Essentials for its Fox affiliate KRBK Springfield, Mo. (DMA 75). The KRBK deal […]

Dallas-based Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media, one of the largest privately-held media shops in the Southwest, with a client roster including Southwest Airlines, has signed up to use Rentrak’s local TV ratings service.

The group broadcaster will use the StationView Essentials ratings service in 17 more markets.

Alan Frank, president of the six-station Post-Newsweek group, says that he has expanded his use of the Rentrak set-to-box viewing data because his problems with the local Nielsen services are “extraordinary and severe.” He may not renew his Nielsen contract, he says.

Clearly someone needs to develop an electric ratings system for local markets, and it’s encouraging that Nielsen is investigating new technologies.  But instead of pursuing set-top box measurement, which relies on the cooperation of the MSOs and satellite companies, I think it would be better to leapfrog ahead to new technologies (including apps) that allow Nielsen to do so independently.

Part II of TVNewsCheck‘s three-part special report on audience measurement examines the growing challenge to Nielsen supremacy in providing ratings from Rentrak. But the growing acceptance of Rentrak’s service, powered by set-top box data, has not gone unnoticed by Nielsen. It’s well aware of station frustration over its traditional measures and says it will be rolling out enhancements next year to its diary-based ratings that will better reflect actual viewership, keep paying station-clients satisfied and head off this new competition.

The new Exact Commercial Ratings module offers individual ad metrics for each specific national commercial.

Multi-screen media measurement firm Rentrak Corp. today announced that it has added four new Schurz Communications stations to its StationView Essentials service and also renewed contracts for three others. Joining […]

Multi-screen measurement provider Rentrak today announced Fisher Communications has renewed its StationView Essentials contract for its CBS and Fox stations in Bakersfield, Calif., and has added its Seattle ABC affiliate, […]

A top CNBC researcher suggested Wednesday that set-top-box data can offer more stable measurement for upscale viewers, since it is drawn from a larger sample size than a Nielsen panel. The matter is of particular interest to CNBC as it looks to attract advertisers willing to pay a premium to reach wealthier viewers.

Harris Corp. has struck a deal with Rentrak that aims to make Harris’s software solutions for advertisers more robust. Broadcasters and their advertiser clients will be able to access Rentrak’s rating data in Harris’s products.

Bill Livek, the soft-spoken CEO of Rentrak exudes calm and generally eschews controversy, even as he leads an upstart business mounting a challenge to entrenched market dominator Nielsen. But Livek showed a bit of his fire within on a call with investors. Some of them were concerned that a new Nielsen deal with Kantar could pose a significant threat to Rentrak’s business — which is rooted in set-top-box data. Livek wasn’t content to just downplay the value. He tried to poke holes in Nielsen’s plans and suggested with some bite that it is copying Rentrak.

Rentrak, the first aggregator of digital set-top TV audience data to integrate with Madison Avenue media processing giant Donovan Data Systems, this morning announced a similar deal with another major “back-office” agency systems provider, Comcast-owned Strata.

In a move that could make planning and buying via digital TV set-top data a reality for many big agencies and their clients, Rentrak has cut a deal to integrate its set-top-based audience estimates into Donovan Data Systems, the company that provides the back-office systems and software that power much of what Madison Avenue does, including planning, buying, posting and even paying the media.