rentrak

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak, said Monday that it has signed an agreement to provide VOD content aggregator, Gravitas Ventures (note: the latter--whose content line-up includes feature films, documentaries, animation, alternative sports, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and comedy and concert programming--says that it will distribute over 350 titles this year), with advanced measurement services through its OnDemand Essentials tracking and measurement service. According to the company, OnDemand Essentials will enable Gravitas Ventures to measure and report VOD transactions for feature films and event presentations that it packages and distributes to its cable, satellite and telco customers.

Here is a round-up of some other interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers. We will resume our regular format and publishing schedule tomorrow (Tuesday).

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak, has published the "Rentrak State of VOD: Trend Report 2009." According to the company, the report encompasses industry-wide performance data for all of 2009, and is based on the aggregation of data from its OnDemand Essentials service, which it claims tracks 70 million set-top boxes across 33 operators for more than 100 content providers.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently on the road, so we are covering today's stories in round-up/summary form. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak, announced last week that it has signed a deal to provide Canadian motion picture distributor, Alliance Films, with VOD measurement services via its OnDemand Essentials service. Alliance's recent VOD offerings--which are available on such major Canadian pay-TV platforms as Cogeco Cable, MTS, Rogers Cable, SaskTel, Shaw Cable, Telus and Videotron--include "Inglourious Basterds," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," "Four Christmases" and "Coraline." According to Rentrak, the Alliance deal means that it "continues to build its leadership position in providing measurement services" for the Canadian VOD market, where it claims to have seen a 19% increase in on-demand content usage between 2008 and 2009.

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we will be covering most stories in summary/round-up form over the next few weeks. Here is a round-up of recent news in various categories:

Multiplatform music video programmer, Music Choice, said Wednesday that its VOD service, Music Choice On Demand, generated over a billion orders in 2009, making it the number-one VOD network for the year. The company cited data from media measurement and analytics company, Rentrak, which it says confirmed that its service secured the most orders of any free or premium VOD service and surpassed all free VOD services for total unique set-top boxes accessing its content. The company also said that the data showed that the service accumulated more than double the orders of most other VOD music services combined, with nearly three out of every four music-related orders in 2009 being for Music Choice content.

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak, reported Wednesday that June was the most-viewed month for VOD in the US so far this year, seeing over 589 million transactions (note: Rentrak defines transactions as a "combination of views and orders as reported by [its] MSO partners")--which the company claims is a record. During that month, there was an average of 16.5 minutes of on-demand viewing per day per active unique set-top box, the company says, which represents a 1.5-minute-per-set-top box viewing increase when compared to May. Free-on-demand children's programming saw a 7% increase in transactions over May and also enjoyed its strongest month of the year, according to Rentrak, with over 106 million transactions.

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak (note: the company, which offers a widely subscribed-to video-on-demand measurement service called OnDemand Essentials, recently 1) published a report that claims, among other things, that VOD usage rose 21% in 2008; and 2) announced that it was partnering with VOD technology provider, Concurrent, on a three-screen video analytics offering--see articles posted on itvt.com, June 16th), said Wednesday that it has appointed media-research industry veteran, Bill Livek, as CEO and as a director of the company. He replaces Paul Rosenbaum, who has served as chairman and CEO since 2000 and who will continue to serve as chairman.

Multiscreen media measurement and research company, Rentrak, announced Monday that it has published its "Rentrak State of VOD: Trend Report 2008." According to the company, the 25-page report, which is priced at $495, is based on data from January 2007 through December 2008 that was gathered by its OnDemand Essentials service. The company claims that that service--which it bills as providing operators, content providers (including broadcast and cable networks and studios), and advertisers with a transactional tracking and reporting system--has processed over 17 billion VOD transactions to date from its operator partners.

Multiplatform music programmer, Music Choice, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know that its free VOD service has been "confirmed as the number-one video-on-demand network" by independent media measurement and analytics company, Rentrak--having apparently generated close to three billion orders since its launch. Rentrak also found that, in 2008, the service generated more orders than all other VOD music services combined: currently, nearly three out of every four music-related VOD orders are for Music Choice content, according to Rentrak figures cited by Music Choice.

--Signs VOD Deals with Gravitas Ventures, Eurocinema
--Offers Multiscreen ITV App for US Elections
--Launches New DVR Products
--Signs Audience Measurement Deal with Rentrak

Satellite TV provider, DISH Network, has generated a fair amount of interactive TV-related news over the past few weeks: