Rentrak To Measure MCV’s Mobile Viewing

Mobile Content Venture (MCV), a joint venture of 12 major broadcast groups that operates the Dyle mobile TV service, said that Rentrak has been selected to provide mobile broadcast TV measurement for local markets.

MCV 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 group said in a statement. MCV said that “as opposed to other measurement services that provide sample-based data, Rentrak will offer MCV members census-level data, giving them insight into the entire population using live mobile TV services.”

MCV represents 35 markets across the U.S. and more than 93 stations from broadcast groups including Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General, Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media, all of which are part of the standalone entity known as Pearl LLC, as well as Fox, Ion Television and NBC.

“With more than 200 station clients, Rentrak is proud to provide members of MCV with the opportunity to capitalize and monetize multi-platform advertising sales opportunities by having broadcast mobile TV performance aligned directly with TV ratings,” said Cathy Hetzel, corporate president and president of the AMI Division at Rentrak. “Rentrak’s advanced capabilities — which provide detailed TV viewership measurement for all screens, including mobile TV — will enable stations, advertisers and networks to gauge the incremental value of live TV viewing from a mobile device.”

“Live mobile TV is an emerging medium, so it’s critical that we take the necessary steps to ensure it will scale as traditional TV has over the years,” said Salil Dalvi and Erik Moreno, co-general managers of MCV. “This new data will provide valuable insight into consumers’ mobile viewing habits, which will be leveraged to drive continued growth for the ecosystem of devices and applications enabling live mobile TV.”