Rentrak Announces HBO, Cinemax and Showtime as New OnDemand Essentials Subscribers

Rentrak Announces HBO, Cinemax and Showtime as New OnDemand Essentials Subscribers

PORTLAND, Ore, April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ:RENT) today announced that it has added three premium cable entertainment networks, HBO(R), Cinemax(R) and Showtime, as new customers using OnDemand Essentials(TM).

With the addition of these three pay TV channels, Rentrak now has 22 content provider subscribers that are using OnDemand Essentials to access daily VOD content performance data in multiple ways, across cable multiple system operators (MSOs).

Content owners have access to reports such as Performance By Title, Title Audience Sharing, Weekly Top Titles and Competitive Performance by Network Category, which can be sorted by MSO, date range, TV markets, etc. Rentrak now counts among its subscribers a total of 22 content providers, including CBS, CMT, Comedy Central, Expo TV, Hallmark Channel, Logo, MTV, Music Choice, Nickelodeon, Noggin, National Geographic Channel, NFL Network, Paramount Studios, Playboy TV, Ripe TV, The N, TV Guide SPOT, VH1 and Warner Home Video On Demand.

"We are very pleased to welcome these prestigious premium entertainment cable programmers as new OnDemand Essentials customers. These leading premium networks have recognized the value of using OnDemand Essentials to analyze content performance in order to strengthen their on demand offerings," said Ken Papagan, executive vice president, Business Development at Rentrak.

Cathy Hetzel, senior vice president, OnDemand Essentials at Rentrak commented, "With the addition of HBO, Cinemax and Showtime, Rentrak is now providing measurement and analysis to all types of on demand content providers, Free On Demand, Subscription on Demand, Movies on Demand and Real Time Encoding.

"The HBO On Demand(SM) and Cinemax On Demand(SM) services are all about giving our subscribers more choices and making their television viewing experiences even more enjoyable," said Dave Baldwin, executive vice president, Program Planning at HBO. "Using Rentrak's OnDemand Essentials will allow us to serve our customers better by giving us a set of tools to gauge how the services are used and how to improve their performance."

"Showtime On Demand is a consumer proposition that has redefined how people use and think about Showtime," says Mark Greenberg, executive vice president at Showtime Networks. "Alongside our internal subscriber data, the Rentrak data demonstrates the power of content, particularly our fresh and original programming, to improve customer satisfaction and retention, while reducing churn."

Subscribers to Rentrak's OnDemand Essentials have access to data from all of Rentrak's participating MSOs including Bresnan Communications, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter and Insight Communications.

About OnDemand Essentials(TM)

OnDemand Essentials provides cable operators, content providers (including broadcast/cable networks, studios) and advertisers with a transactional tracking and reporting system to view and analyze on-demand content. The product is an extension of Rentrak's Essentials suite of business intelligence products customized for the entertainment industry. OnDemand Essentials clients have password protected, near real-time, web browser-based 24x7 access to on demand consumer usage data at various access levels based on business and privacy rules. A sophisticated toolset aggregates and reports data across multiple vendors in one easy to use report system. Clients using the OnDemand Essentials system are able to instantly analyze and interpret their own business data to identify trends, program and promote more effectively by identifying trends, as well as track their performance against the broader business sector in which they operate.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak Corporation, based in Portland, Oregon, is an information management company serving clients in the media, entertainment, retail, advertising and manufacturing industries. The company's near-term focus centers on its Entertainment Essentials(TM) suite of services that is redefining measurement in the digital media era. Available by subscription, each Entertainment Essentials service provides customers with near-real-time, actionable insight into performance of content distributed over a wide variety of modern media technologies allowing executives to analyze detailed industry-wide and title-specific data to make decisions that enhance the bottom line and provide competitive advantage. For further information, please visit Rentrak's corporate Web site at http://www.rentrak.com/ .

NOTE: HBO(R) and Cinemax(R) are service marks of Home Box Office, Inc.

Contacts: Sallie Olmsted/Shawn Smith
Rentrak Corporation
310-854-8124/8171

Source: Rentrak Corporation

CONTACT: Sallie Olmsted, +1-310-854-8124, or Shawn Smith,
+1-310-854-8171, both of Rentrak Corporation

Web site: http://www.rentrak.com/

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