Rentrak Corporation, a digital media measurement and research company, claimed that it has been contracted by Midcontinent Communications, the provider of cable television in the upper Midwest, to include their set-top-box (STB) viewing information in the TV Essentials national and local TV database services.

Midcontinent Communications chose to work with Rentrak (News - Alert), the provider of STB data and analysis, in order to further establish its currency for more accurately representing the TV landscape. 

"The increase in STB availability and robust reporting systems further proves the legitimacy and importance of STB data as a currency in the marketplace," said W. Tom Simmons, senior vice president of Public Policy for Midcontinent Communications, in a press release. "We are thrilled to be included as an operator partner to add to Rentrak's ability to provide full-market projections."

Rentrak claimed that it is pleased to be working with Midcontinent Communications as its fourth data partner and second cable partner to further increase the preciseness of its database and projection methodology for the TV Essentials national system. 

Rentrak’s TV Essentials is a comprehensive suite of research tools that calculates anonymous, second-by-second audience viewing patterns in all facets of television programming and advertising including VOD, DVR, interactive and linear television. By providing transaction-level performance metrics from millions of set-top boxes, TV Essentials provides exclusive insight into programming effectiveness, enabling networks and network operators to optimize their TV advertising inventory. 

Architected to handle data from the nation's 114.5 million television households, the system can isolate individual market, network, series, or telecast performance, administer national and local estimates, and provide an evaluation of influencing factors such as psychographics and demographics for competitive, in-depth intelligence not accessible anywhere else. 

The features of Rentrak’s TV Essentials include the industry's most TV tune-in data, viewing data for all networks, all series and all telecasts; audience flow to/from competing networks and local stations, audience duplication across competing networks and local stations, program and network detail at the national, regional and local levels.