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Tag: Bill Livek

  • Rentrak & comScore ink merger deal

    Rentrak & comScore ink merger deal

    MUMBAI: In a bid to give strong competition to Nielsen, which has been the industry leader in ratings measurement since time immemorial, Rentrak Corporation and comScore Inc have entered into a merger agreement. Under the agreement, the two measurement companies will combine in a stock-for-stock merger.

    It may be recalled that closer home in India, television ratings measurement agencies Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India and TAM India also joined hands only last month to form a new JV meter management company.

    Rentrak will merge into a wholly-owned subsidiary of comScore pursuant to the terms of the merger, which has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. Each share of Rentrak will be converted into the right to receive 1.15 shares of comScore. Upon completion of the merger, comScore shareholders are expected to own approximately 66.5 per cent and Rentrak shareholders are expected to own approximately 33.5 per cent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis.

    The deal, which is expected to close early next year, values Rentrak at approximately $827 million. The combined valuation of the two companies is being pegged at $2.4 billion.

    comScore CEO Serge Matta will head the new combined company as CEO, whereas Rentrak vice chairman & CEO Bill Livek will become executive vice chairman & president of the new company.

    On the other hand, Mel Wesley will continue as the CFO and Rentrak’s current COO & CFO David Chemerow will serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO, focused on the successful integration of the two companies.

    The new company will also draw upon the collective talent at both companies to harness the experience and expertise of each organisation to redefine the future of measurement. The combined company’s board will consist of twelve directors – eight from comScore and four from Rentrak.

     

    Strategic Rationale

    By combining comScore and Rentrak’s products, talent and significant information assets, the new company will provide even more robust measurement solutions to the media and advertising industries, following the consumer whenever and wherever content is consumed.

    The combination will enable the company to introduce a more comprehensive and precise set of solutions for measuring media consumption and advertising across platforms, setting the standard for the next generation of cross-platform measurement solutions. Together, comScore’s digital audience and advertising solutions, combined with Rentrak’s census-based worldwide movie and video-on-demand measurement, and its massive and passive TV measurement offerings, will provide a more complete picture of the way people consume media today and in the future. The combined organization is expected to possess a unique breadth of knowledge, experience, expertise, and skill sets that cannot be duplicated, dramatically enhancing the range of capabilities and offerings for clients and the industry.

    “The merger of comScore and Rentrak represents an exciting milestone for our combined clients, uniquely skilled employees and shareholders. Together we have an even more powerful ability to deliver what our clients and the media industry have long been asking for: a comprehensive cross-platform measurement currency that accounts for all the ways in which content is consumed, whether that happens on a desktop, mobile device, live or time-shifted TV, video on demand or through over-the-top devices,” said Matta.
     

    “With the advent of digital technology, the time has come to offer the cross-platform measurement systems of the future: through which content owners will ultimately be able to quantify their entire audience, and agencies will have access to the cross-platform metrics needed to effectively plan and execute campaigns. This merger also recognizes the critical importance of combining digital and TV assets for next generation media measurement, which requires a higher degree of precision at both a national and local market level,” he added.

    “Both companies have been innovators in content and consumer measurement, advanced demographics and analytics, providing the industry with world-class digital, TV and movie consumption information. This merger will accelerate the pace of that innovation, and offer an improved solution for cross-platform measurement, not available anywhere else. Rentrak’s expertise in precisely measuring TV and movies, and comScore’s industry-leading digital measurement capabilities, are natural complements. Combined, our expertise and information assets will enable us to provide the industry with the most granular measurement solutions that reflect the ever-changing way that people are consuming content across platforms,” Livek said.

    “Bill Livek and his team have built a cutting-edge media measurement company that has moved our industry forward in many ways, and we could not be more excited to welcome them to the comScore family. We look forward to working with Bill and his team as we bring our companies together to create the most comprehensive set of measurement solutions available, delivering on our mission of making audiences and advertising more valuable,” said Abraham.

     

    Financial considerations

    comScore expects the transaction to be mildly dilutive to its Non-GAAP EPS in 2016, and accretive in 2017. The combined company is expected to have total synergies of at least $20 million in 2016 and at least $35 million in 2017. The company also anticipates a significant portion of the synergies to be revenue related, which it expects to grow over time with an attractive contribution margin.

  • Rentrak acquires social media tracker SponsorHub

    Rentrak acquires social media tracker SponsorHub

    MUMBAI: Rentrak has acquired SponsorHub, the Big Data platform for the sports and entertainment industry, offering proprietary social media measurement for sports, political and advertising brands.

     

    SponsorHub offers the most trusted industry benchmarking for top brands in the sports technology and entertainment space. Its tools measure and track brand engagement in sports and branded entertainment initiatives, ranging from the Olympics and World Cup, to TV and movies.

     

    Rentrak’s acquisition of SponsorHub advances its mission of providing unprecedented audience measurement and targeting to enable marketers to reach the right audience at the right time. Through its acquisition of SponsorHub, Rentrak will offer products that measure the effect of social media on television, dynamic ad insertion, online video advertising, movies and branded content integration.

     

    “TV continues to be more social and our industry-leading analytics greatly complement Rentrak’s services. The combination of Rentrak’s current products with SponsorHub’s social media SaaS platform will provide the most precise set of tools to measure the effect of social media. We’re looking forward to the new products that will be developed through this acquisition,” said SponsorHub CEO Robert Johnston.

     

    “We are excited to add social media measurement to our TV Everywhere products, as it will give additional transparency and purchasing flexibility for brands and agencies through SponsorHub’s social media products,” added Rentrak vice chairman & CEO Bill Livek.

  • Rentrak & MovieTickets.com team up to co-develop products

    Rentrak & MovieTickets.com team up to co-develop products

    MUMBAI: Rentrak has partnered with MovieTickets.com, the provider of advance movie ticketing, representing 28,000 screens, to co-develop products that unlock a suite of marketing, planning and ROI measurement tools for the movie and television industries.

     

    Rentrak will link its merged TV viewing and box office sales ticket information with MovieTickets.com’s individual-level ticket purchasing information, in a privacy compliant way, to help studios and TV programmers better target television advertising and interpret the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.

     

    Together, Rentrak and MovieTickets.com information creates a suite of products that will connect the ecosystem of TV viewers and moviegoers. The products will include a combination of movie data and demographic household information that will allow film distributors, theater owners, movie studios, advertising agencies, MPVD operators and television programmers to more precisely target audiences.

     

    “As MovieTickets.com continues to build out and focus on research initiatives, Rentrak is a perfect fit for us. We’re combining our strengths to deliver authoritative solutions that will contribute to an improved media planning process,” said MovieTickets.com CEO Joel Cohen.

     

    “Rentrak is delighted to partner with MovieTickets.com to launch technology that combines our expertise with theirs. This partnership combines two of Rentrak’s areas of expertise: Movies and Television. Combined with our other analytics, these products further strengthen our ability to help the movie and television industries,” added Rentrak CEO and vice chairman Bill Livek.

  • VoD broadcast primetime viewing sees 22% growth

    VoD broadcast primetime viewing sees 22% growth

    MUMBAI: The total time spent on viewing Free on Demand (FOD) television content in the Broadcast Primetime category increased 22 per cent compared to the previous year, with 32.8 million more hours per month watched in Q1 2015 than two years ago.

     

    A report titled ‘State of VOD: Trend Report’ by Rentrak includes two years Video on Demand analysis and year-to-date metrics from Rentrak’s On Demand Essentials measurement service. Since Rentrak started issuing the report five years ago, findings show that time spent watching Broadcast Primetime on Demand has doubled.

     

    Insights from the Rentrak report include:

     

    Free on Demand (Broadcast Primetime): Transactions are up 19.8 per cent

     

    Free on Demand (Cable Series Content): Transactions are up 8.2 per cent

     

    The majority of primetime viewing On Demand happens after day three, with more than 50 per cent occurring day seven and beyond.

     

    “Much has been written about the movement from TV to digital viewing, however, Rentrak shows that while live TV viewing is slightly down, television viewership is largely unchanged as more viewership is occurring on DVR and VOD over 28 days,” said Rentrak corporate president Cathy Hetzel.

     

    “With 100 per cent of all primetime series shows now available on VOD, consumers know that favourite shows will be available when they want to watch. The water cooler effect is also driving higher usage as consumers now have the opportunity to watch shows they hear about, from the first episode on,” Hetzel added.

     

    “It is no surprise that Free on Demand continues to see growth. On Demand is truly the ultimate engagement medium. No commercial avoidance for primetime content available on FOD makes On Demand one of the most effective platforms on which to target your most desirable consumers. Our recent ‘Report’ proves that VOD advertising should be sold at a premium price,” said Rentrak CEO and vice chairman Bill Livek.

  • Rentrak rolls out new comprehensive TV analytics platform – Rubik

    Rentrak rolls out new comprehensive TV analytics platform – Rubik

    MUMBAI: Rentrak has introduced Rubik, an analytics platform that gives clients the power to analyze viewing patterns, advertising exposure and the products viewers use and buy against Rentrak’s TV audience ratings.

     

    Rubik, which is already in use with 10 major national networks and one major agency holding company, contains Rentrak’s unique Advanced Demographics, which merge TV viewing with information about the products consumers buy and the cars they drive.

     

    The platform allows networks and advertising agencies to understand and identify the most relevant target households. Among Rubik’s features is the ability to combine different segments into a campaign target so that custom reach and frequency reports can be defined and calculated.

     

    “Rubik is the ultimate tool for optimized planning and TV buying at a national level. Do you remember playing for hours and weeks on end as a child with the Rubik’s Cube? I remember being amazed by its complexity and, yet, its simplicity. Our new analytics platform has taken something very complex – TV viewing merged with the products viewers buy, how they vote, and the cars they drive – and made it simple. Think about a cube, not with nine boxes on a side, but with an endless number on each side. Rubik allows clients to perform complex analytics that help unlock the value of television programming and advertising content with viewers as the target,” said Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek.

  • Merkle inks strategic partnership with Rentrak

    Merkle inks strategic partnership with Rentrak

    MUMBAI: Merkle, a technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, has inked a strategic partnership with Rentrak.

     

    Through the partnership, Merkle and Rentrak will combine Merkle’s understanding of consumer segments with Rentrak’s massive and passive viewership data to create more effective customer advanced analytics and demographics.

     

    With this partnership, Rentrak can utilize Merkle’s proprietary, multi-national database, Data Source, as a third-party data solution to gain access to the most comprehensive source of consumer data and can provide rich demographic insights about the consumer population it observes. The partnership will also allow Merkle and Rentrak to provide their clients with analytic solutions related to viewership data.

     

    “In the media industry, broadcast and cable networks have converged on the need for a better understanding of their viewers in support of both the buy and sell sides of the ecosystem. Our partnership with the leading player in the marketplace, Rentrak, allows us to help advertiser clients get more granular insights on the viewing behavior of their target audiences with the most powerful medium in the world, TV. This is a new and extremely valuable input to today’s modern media planning activities,” said Merkle SVP and general manager, media and entertainment Andrew Hoeberichts.

     

    “Merkle’s rapid growth is a product of our efforts to identify more intelligent ways of leveraging data, analytics, and technology to understand customers and their motivations and use that knowledge to target customers with relevant, effective media experiences. The opportunity to gain a granular level of insight in TV, a mass medium that has historically relied on broad, imprecise measurement, is extremely exciting. Our broadcast and cable network clients are already seeing the powerful impact of highly focused consumer segmentation, and our partnership with Rentrak will enable them to understand and serve their customer bases even more effectively,” added Merkle chairman & CEO David Williams.

     

    “Rentrak is very excited to be working with Merkle to power targeting solutions that are revolutionizing the way television is bought and sold,” said Rentrak Corporation CEO Bill Livek.

  • Rentrak and Viacom ink TV ratings & VOD measurement deal

    Rentrak and Viacom ink TV ratings & VOD measurement deal

    MUMBAI: Rentrak has entered into a TV ratings and Video on Demand measurement agreement with Viacom Media Networks.

    Viacom will utilize Rentrak’s Advanced Demographics measurement capabilities, which include Rentrak’s viewing information and integrated purchase information from IRI, Shopcom and IHS Polk’s Automotive segmentations.

     

    Rentrak’s advanced analytical technology will support Viacom’s ability to precisely target consumer audiences. Rentrak provides access to a broad range of consumer insights from the cars consumers drive to the products in their shopping carts. This capability supports Viacom’s advanced data approach, including the recently announced Viacom Vantage, a data-driven advertising product that gives advertisers the flexibility to define and reach custom audiences.

     

    Viacom Media Networks executive vice president of strategic insights and research Colleen Fahey Rush said, “Viacom is leading the industry with a comprehensive approach, fusing the power of research and insights to drive value and opportunity. Our partnership with Rentrak further strengthens our insights arsenal and our ability to unlock new levels of targeting.”

     

    “We are excited to welcome Viacom to our growing list of national network clients. We are proud to partner with them to support their products and look forward to helping them gain greater insights that will highlight the value of their audience through our measurement and analytics,” added Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek.

     

    Rentrak’s television ratings service is the only fully-integrated system of detailed satellite, telco and cable TV viewing information from more than 31 million TVs nationwide including granular information for TV stations and cable networks in all 210 local markets.

  • Rentrak signs TV ratings deal with Discovery Communications

    Rentrak signs TV ratings deal with Discovery Communications

    MUMBAI: Rentrak has inked a TV ratings and automotive segmentation agreement with Discovery Communications.

     

    Discovery will adopt Rentrak’s TV ratings and IHS Polk Automotive data, providing more comprehensive measurement of advertising campaigns running on Discovery’s portfolio of networks.

     

    “Rentrak’s automotive data will increase our ability to deliver custom insights, targeting, and accountability measures to our clients,” said Discovery Communications senior vice president, market research, ad sales Beth Rockwood.

     

    “Rentrak is pleased that Discovery Communications is joining the growing list of network groups subscribing to our TV services. We look forward to being a strong partner for their networks,” said Rentrak CEO and vice chairman Bill Livek.