Comcast and Rentrak to Trial Video on Demand Measurement System
March 23 2004 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Comcast and Rentrak to Trial Video on Demand Measurement System
PORTLAND, Ore., and PHILADELPHIA, March 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- Comcast, the country's leading cable and broadband
communications provider, and Rentrak Corporation today announced an
agreement to conduct a trial of VOD Essentials(TM), a system
created by Rentrak that measures and reports anonymous
video-on-demand (VOD) usage data. The trial is scheduled to begin
in May in the Philadelphia area. VOD Essentials will deliver an
in-depth analysis of aggregate VOD viewership data that will help
multiple system operators (MSOs) and programmers analyze data to
better understand viewer preferences for on-demand content. "As
video on demand continues to experience tremendous growth, we
recognize the importance of accurately measuring viewership, and
this trial is the first step toward that goal," said Page Thompson,
Vice President, Marketing, New Video Products for Comcast. "We're
looking forward to working with our content partners and Rentrak to
develop standardized reporting metrics that will provide valuable
data to operators and programmers." Added Ken Papagan, Executive
Vice President, New Business Development and Strategic Planning at
Rentrak, "Comcast's foresight to recognize an industry need to
capture and analyze VOD content performance data, at a
market-to-market level, is another indicator of Comcast's
consistent leadership within the cable industry. We are very
pleased that Comcast selected Rentrak and VOD Essentials to
participate in this very important trial that will help pave the
way toward more efficient and accurate VOD usage measurement."
Comcast's ON DEMAND VOD service currently is available to
approximately 50 percent of the company's customers. Offering
customers more than 1,800 programming choices, including shows from
leading cable and broadcast networks as well as movie and premium
provider content, the service is expected to be available to 80
percent of Comcast's customers by year-end 2004. About Comcast
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable is a division of
Comcast Corporation, a developer, manager and operator of broadband
cable networks and provider of programming content. With a presence
in 22 of the top 25 United States markets, Comcast is one of the
leading communications, media and entertainment companies in the
world. Providing basic cable, Digital Cable, high-speed Internet
and telephone services, Comcast is the company to look to first for
the communications products and services that connect people to
what's important in their lives. The company's 59,000 employees
serve more than 21 million customers. About Rentrak Corporation
Rentrak Corporation, a Portland, Oregon-based information
management and business intelligence company, is the developer of
the Essentials(tm) suite of information management products that
are used by clients in the media, entertainment, retail and
manufacturing industries. Through the specialized vertical market
editions of the Essentials web-based applications that are
customized to the needs of each licensee, marketers are able to
collect, manage and analyze detailed point-of-sale and supply chain
data on a real-time basis. The Essentials(TM) suite of services
offers bottom-line enhancing and competitive advantages to
executives by providing timely and actionable insight into both
their own company's performance, as well as perspective from access
to aggregated industry-wide data. For further information, please
refer to Rentrak's corporate Web site at http://www.rentrak.com/ .
Press Contacts Rentrak Sallie Olmsted 310-201-8824 Comcast Jenni
Moyer 215-851-3311 DATASOURCE: Rentrak Corporation CONTACT: Sallie
Olmsted, +1-310-201-8824, for Rentrak; orJenni Moyer,
+1-215-851-3311, for Comcast Web site: http://www.rentrak.com/
Copyright