Media Industry Embraces New TV Database Measurement Currency During Rentrak's 3rd Annual Industry Insight Forum: 'The Data Revolution'

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Rentrak Corporation (Nasdaq: RENT), the leader in multi-screen media measurement serving the advertising, television and entertainment industries, today announced event highlights from the company's 3rd annual Industry Insight Forum. The theme of this year's forum was "The Data Revolution," which refers to the current opportunities for advancement throughout the television and advertising industries afforded by the granular insights only set-top-box data intelligence provides. The key take-away from the advertising and media industry attendees, as noted by Matt Keylock, Senior Vice President of Client Solutions at dunnhumby USA and general session panelist, was that "the perfect cannot be the enemy of the very good" in reference to the powerful strengths of database  TV measurement that are now available in addition to traditional sample-based metrics.

Rentrak's executive leadership team joined members from throughout the local and national television and advertising industries to explore how The Data Revolution is changing their businesses and helping them reach their "true consumer targets" of current and potential buyers.

"Rentrak's annual Insight Forum is our opportunity to engage in frank and enlightening discussions with our partners, clients and prospects in order to help Rentrak continue to evolve our products and services to best meet the needs of our fast growing industry," said Cathy Hetzel, President of the Advanced Media and Information (AMI) division at Rentrak. "Television's ability to surround advertisements with compelling content is unsurpassed. Rentrak's database currency for video-on-demand and linear television gives both buyers and sellers of advertising the opportunity to find true targets and maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising."

"Marketers continue to want data overlays that will better equip us to understand where our purchasers are, where our competitors are and what they are actually doing in the broadcast space.  Rentrak provides behavioral granularity at the individual customer level to finally evolve decision making in the broadcast medium.  This is what we have been waiting for," said Anne MacDonald, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer for The Travelers Companies, and member of the Rentrak Corporation Board of Directors.  "Advanced database overlays, like Rentrak's TV Essentials, reflect the actual behaviors of a very large group of consumers, not just demographics and reported behavior from samples of a few."

Panel sessions covered topics which included what advertisers want from the future of information. The general consensus from this discussion was that the industry needs to understand that if the advertising community continues to push for metrics which include database overlays, they will be better equipped to understand where their purchasers are and where their competitor's purchasers are before the media companies. Attendees agreed that advanced database overlay metrics, like Rentrak's TV Essentials system, properly reflect the behaviors of the consumer, not just the demographic of the consumer.

The event also included two break-out sessions: "Network Television Advertising, From A to VOD," which focused on national and on-demand television, and a local market television station session entitled, "The Future of Buying, Selling and Planning."

"It was clear from the lively discussions that the industry has accepted multiple currencies for measurement in linear television, and that Rentrak's ability to overlay segmentation data is a powerful solution to reaching advertising targets on both the linear and VOD fronts," said Carol Hinnant, Senior Vice President of Network Sales at Rentrak.

Commenting on discussion highlights addressed during the local market TV station session, Steven Walsh, Rentrak's Senior Vice President of Local Market Sales said, "Rentrak's ability to measure viewing behaviors across millions of households representing every local market provides a stable, comprehensive and granular view of both local and network TV audiences. Through the power of set-top box data, Rentrak is not only able to provide the industry with the tools needed to better understand the true viewing behaviors of television audiences through very stable and granular trending, but our television services also provide intelligence into which programs offer the highest densities of viewers with a particular type of purchase or attitudinal profile."

The Rentrak Industry Insight Forum was held Tuesday, October 12 at The Westin New York at Times Square.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak (NASDAQ: RENT) is a global digital media measurement and research company, serving the most recognizable companies in the entertainment industry. With a reach across numerous platforms including box office, multi-screen television, and home video, Rentrak has developed more efficient metrics to be used as alternative currencies for the evaluation and selling of media. Rentrak is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with additional U.S. and international offices. For more information on Rentrak, please visit www.rentrak.com.

SOURCE Rentrak Corporation