Rentrak has struck a deal
with Comcast-owned Strata, a major "back-office" agency systems provider, in a
similar move to its earlier integration with Donovan Data Systems, the company
announced on Monday, reported
MediaDailyNews.
Rentrak, the first aggregator
of digital set-top TV audience data, is moving towards making digital set-top
TV audience data an alternative to Nielsen data, primarily because their
audience estimates are too small to be statistically meaningful, whereas aggregate
data represents a larger share of the TV universe. Industry experts estimate
that there are over 100 networks whose audiences are too small for Nielsen
measurement, which is estimated to be 7% of total national viewing.
Although the percentage is small,
many of the "long-tail" networks represent the audiences that advertisers want
to reach.
Rentrak announced a deal with
Donovan Data Systems, a provider of data processing systems for ad agencies in
February. The company has also indicated
plans to integrate other set-top data providers such as TRA Analytics, WPP'S
Kantar unit and TiVo, along with providers to audience-based TV buying systems
including Simulmedia, Google TV Ads and Microsoft's Admira.
Havas' MPG, Aegis; Carat and
Omnicom's OMD have suggested plans to use Rentrak data to buy networks not
measured by Nielsen.
