Rentrak has received patents for its method of calculating exact commercial ratings and it means to generating ratings when the return path data is incomplete.
The Nielsen research competitor says the U.S. patents afford it and its clients an advantage when it comes to gauging the new ways television programs are consumed.
“Once again, the U.S. Patent Office has recognized Rentrak’s unique inventions that help it measure TV everywhere,” said Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek.
U.S. Patent 8,887,188 is for a method that secures Rentrak’s intellectual property rights around “Exact Commercial Ratings.” Rentrak provides, to the second, the rating for national commercials to give advertisers precise accountability. That differs than Nielsen's average of commercials in a pod, according to the company.
The government awarded Rentrak U.S. Patent 8,893,165 for its method and system that compensates for problems with return path TV data storage. In some cases, a return path TV is unable to store all the channel changes before sending them back for processing by Rentrak. This patent detects when this problem occurs, enabling Rentrak to fix the problem quickly.
