Rentrak Releases First Quarter Research on the U.S. Home Video Rental Market

Rentrak Releases First Quarter Research on the U.S. Home Video Rental Market

1st Quarter 2006 Spending on Par With Last Year

PORTLAND, Ore., April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Home Video Essentials(TM), an Advanced Media & Information Division of Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ:RENT), released research today showing that first quarter combined spending on video rentals and previously-viewed (PV) movies was on par with the first quarter of 2005.

Traditional rentals, however, were down (-) 1.9% from last year, according to Rentrak's Home Video Essentials.(TM) Consumers spent a total of $2.12 billion on a la carte and subscription rentals during the 13-week period, weeks ended 1/8/06 - 4/2/06, compared to the $2.16 billion spent last year in weeks ended 1/9/05 - 4/3/05.

"Our research indicates that retail sales from previously-viewed movies have become a key economic driver in the video rental channel," said Brad Hackley, Vice President of Home Video Essentials(TM) at Rentrak. "PV sales are up 8% from last year and we expect continuous growth in this area," Hackley added.

The Home Video Essentials(TM) First Quarter Home Video Rental Market Analysis includes:

-- Consumer rental spending and activity by format
-- Sales data from previously-viewed titles by format
-- Top renting feature film, direct-to-video, music, and TV titles
-- Theatrical-to-video release windows
-- Studio market shares by format
-- MPAA rating and genre shares
-- DVD and VHS format shares
-- Box office equity

For more information on Rentrak Home Video Essentials(TM) research, go to http://www.rentrak.com/hve-research-home.php

About Home Video Essentials(TM)

Home Video Essentials(TM) Industry Data Service, a service of Rentrak's Advanced Media & Information Division and its Entertainment Essentials(TM) suite of web-based information management and business intelligence products, is Rentrak's exclusive point-of-sale (POS) tracking system which measures weekly national consumer spending and title-level performance via rental transactions on over 40,000 DVD, VHS, and video game properties in both brick- and-mortar and online channels across North America.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak Corporation, based in Portland, Oregon, is the developer of the Essentials(TM) suite of web-based information management and business intelligence products used by clients in the media, entertainment, retail and manufacturing industries. Vertical market editions of Essentials(TM) applications are customizable to the needs of each licensee, allowing marketers to collect, manage, analyze and make critical business decisions based on detailed, real-time point-of-sale and supply chain data. The Essentials(TM) suite of services offers competitive advantages to executives by providing timely and actionable insight into their own company's performance in tandem with valuable perspective against aggregated industry- wide data. For further information, please refer to Rentrak's corporate Web site at http://www.rentrak.com/ .

Contacts:

News Media
Rogers & Cowan
Sallie Olmsted/Shawn Smith
310-854-8124/8187
solmsted/snsmith@rogersandcowan.com

Source: Rentrak Corporation

CONTACT: Sallie Olmsted, +1-310-854-8124, or
solmsted@rogersandcowan.com, or Shawn Smith, +1-310-854-8187, or
snsmith@rogersandcowan.com, both of Rogers & Cowan, for Rentrak Corporation

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

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