Rentrak to provide ratings service for Dish

TV Essentials lures its first multi-channel operator

By Danny King -- Video Business, 11/24/2008

NOV. 24 | Rentrak said today that its TV Essentials service will provide viewer-measurement services for Dish Network.

Rentrak will provide measurement data related to TV programming and advertising for Dish, whose 13.8 million subscribers trail only DirecTV's 17.3 million among U.S. satellite TV services.

Rentrak has been planning to augment its primary DVD distribution business by boosting sales from its media-measurement services.

The company said earlier this month that its fiscal second-quarter sales from its advanced media and information unit jumped 23% and that it expected TV Essentials, which will compete with such TV ratings research firms as Nielsen, to debut by next March.

"Rentrak's TV Essentials system provides valuable intelligence that will help define the future of television audience measurement," Cathy Hetzel, president of Rentrak's advanced media and entertainment division, said in a statement.

The company said the service provides more accurate data than competing services because it collects information from millions of set-top boxes instead from a smaller number of viewers and extrapolating the information to get its findings.

Rentrak's pay-per-transaction division, which accounts for most of the company's sales, had a fiscal second-quarter revenue increase of 5%. The division benefitted as overall DVD demand fared better than other entertainment categories, such as music, and traditional movie rental chains including Blockbuster reversed its revenue slide and beat year-earlier same-store sales.