Sprout has selected Rentrak’s (News - Alert) TV Essentials television measurement service to learn about consumer viewing pattern and behavior that only set-top-box (STB) data can provide, according to the company.

 

PBS KIDS Sprout, the first 24-hour preschool destination available on TV, on demand and online for kids, was created as a partnership among Comcast (News - Alert) Corporation, HIT Entertainment, PBS and Sesame Workshop. Rentrak Corporation deals in advancing research in media measurement, serving the entertainment industry.

 

Rentrak has stated that its TV Essentials television measurement service calculates anonymous, second-by-second audience viewing patterns in all facets of television programming and advertising. Rentrak boasts of having access to 2 million STBs through various network operators. From these STBs they can collect, aggregate and report anonymous, second-by-second data to their development partners.

 

Sprout (News - Alert) has stated that they are delighted to partner with Rentrak to help shape this innovative measurement tool. They have been working with Rentrak's on demand data since Sprout launched in 2005, and are excited to see them expanding into set-top-box data, which will reveal robust audience insights in this world of ever increasing choice.

 

The TV Essentials service is designed to handle data from millions of television households in existence today and will profile individual network performance, administer national and local estimates, and provide an evaluation of influencing factors like demographics, weather.

 

Sprout can learn about the viewing patterns of customers through the TV Essentials service and access comprehensive data collected from it to improve or change their programming.

 

Rentrak has said that the media industry is demanding deeper insights that go beyond traditional demographics to determine how an audience is interacting with content and With this new technology, Sprout can take a leadership role as a currently unrated network and leverage census-level, second-by-second analysis of viewer ship data in order to maintain the network's position as the premier destination for quality children's programming.

 

Rentrak had recently announced the addition of a Blu-ray Disc "BD" component to the company's existing Screen Media DVD revenue sharing program.