Rentrak Announces First Linear Measurement Agreement With The Inspiration Network to Provide Census Level Programming and Advertising Measurement

Rentrak Announces First Linear Measurement Agreement With The Inspiration Network to Provide Census Level Programming and Advertising Measurement

--Rentrak's TV Essentials Service Addresses the Specific Needs of Networks, TV Stations and Advertisers--

PORTLAND, Ore., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ:RENT) today announced it has entered into a linear measurement deal with The Inspiration Network (INSP), a 24 hour-a-day network available to more than 56 million U.S. households via cable, satellite and telco television. Rentrak will be the exclusive ratings and data source for the media measurement and advertising sales of the Inspiration Network. As a result of this relationship, INSP is gaining access to second-by-second census level set top box data across 37 markets which will give the faith-based network an unprecedented opportunity to view programming analytics, serve its clients, and manage and track promotional content and advertising.

Utilizing proprietary technology to process massive amounts of click-stream data, Rentrak's TV Essentials system is able to aggregate and report anonymous viewership from digital set-top boxes for all networks, all stations and all programs. By providing such granular data to advertising agencies and customers, INSP is able to develop better advertising strategies across all categories in order to capitalize on their programming schedule. Rentrak's TV Essentials product, through one of its data partners AT&T U-Verse, will provide INSP the only true census-level data set on the market and features an easy-to-use interface providing subscribers with self-service access to comprehensive data in order for clients to get an accurate picture of the marketplace in which they operate.

INSP is Rentrak's first network subscriber for the TV Essentials service which will be a substantial revenue contributor going forward. This collective and anonymous data provides accurate insight into consumer viewing habits such as:

-- The total number of households and set top boxes tuned to a particular
program
-- Second by second commercial ratings
-- What programming customers were tuned to before and after the
particular program, as well as what programs they switch to during the
particular program
-- The average length of time customers viewed a program
-- Reach and frequency for ads, series and network (rated or not)
-- Audience duplication across networks and day-parts

"The agreement with The Inspiration Network is a testament to our commitment to our clients and is a natural extension of a relationship that began in OnDemand and now continues with linear television, broadband and mobile measurement," said Carol Hinnant, senior vice president of Business Development, Advanced Media and Information (AMI) division at Rentrak Corporation. "Through the TV Essentials service, The Inspiration Network is gaining access to linear TV viewing patterns in millions of homes to help them better compete for great programming, distribution and ad dollars."

"Rentrak has proven themselves to be the leader in data collection and reporting in the realm of Video on Demand," said Bill Airy, Chief Operating Officer, The Inspiration Networks. "They bring the same quality to the metrics of television viewing. We are pleased to be their first customer of this new, cutting edge service."

"There has been a seismic shift coming for years in the media business around the aggregation of non-personalized viewership data," said Marc Favaro, Executive Vice President, Network Sales for the Inspiration Networks. "We're now seeing distribution companies having the ability to pull back millions and millions of data files from digital set top boxes in the field. Rentrak sorts through all of the data and enables us to understand viewership trends to ultimately provide our advertisers with accountable media plans."

Mr. Favaro further commented, "The competition for media budgets has always been fierce and off the shelf sample-based viewership data isn't always the right fit for a Network. Our network doesn't enjoy must-buy status amongst the media buying community. This forces us to work harder to get on a media plan. It forces us to understand our audience better and provide agencies and advertisers with solutions on how to effectively reach our loyal viewership base. Rentrak's TV Essentials Service is one of the tools we are beginning to use to tap into an ever-increasing pool of census based viewership data."

Rentrak's TV Essentials system processes data from set top boxes of cable, satellite and telco providers to help advertising agencies, networks and local stations make business decisions to drive increased revenue. In addition to the TV Essentials linear data system, Rentrak processes daily, census-level on demand data representing 54 million set-top boxes from 28 MSOs with their extensive on demand data being used by more than 100 content provider partners every day to meet their measurement needs.

About TV Essentials(R)

Rentrak's TV Essentials is a comprehensive suite of research tools that enable customers to analyze anonymous audience viewing of programming and advertising across VOD, DVR, interactive and linear television. Utilizing proprietary technology to process massive amounts of click-stream data, the TV Essentials system is able to aggregate and report second-by-second information from millions of digital set-top boxes. 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.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak Corporation, based in Portland, Oregon, is an information management company serving clients in the media, entertainment, retail, and advertising industries. The company's Entertainment Essentials(TM) suite of services is redefining media measurement in the digital broadband era. Entertainment Essentials provides customers with near-real-time, actionable insight into performance of content distributed over a wide variety of modern media technologies. Available by license or subscription, each Entertainment Essentials application allows 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 Rentrak.com.

About The Inspiration Networks

The Inspiration Networks are available to more than a billion people worldwide through multiple distribution platforms, including three satellite and cable TV networks (INSP - The Inspiration Network; i-Lifetv - Inspirational Life Television; and INI - Inspiration Network International). The Inspiration Networks also operate "Inspiration Video On Demand," the first inspirational platform for cable television video on demand (VOD) delivery and "Inspiration Global," providing broadband video content in the world's major trade languages.

Contact for Rentrak Corporation:
Sallie Olmsted / Amanda Bartz
Office: 310-854-8124 / 310-854-8151
E-mail: solmsted@rogersandcowan.com / abartz@rogersandcowan.com

Source: Rentrak Corporation

CONTACT: Sallie Olmsted, +1-310-854-8124, solmsted@rogersandcowan.com,
or Amanda Bartz, +1-310-854-8151, abartz@rogersandcowan.com, both for Rentrak
Corporation

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

-------
Profile: intent