• May 8, 2003

Motion-picture studios have a new competitive weapon at their disposal, a rapid-alert system from Nielsen Monitor-Plus that lets them know when TV commercials for new movie releases break on national television. The Internet-based system - dubbed Movie*Sentry - was developed jointly by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the US ad-tracking service from the Nielsen TV ratings people, and corporate sibling Nielsen NRG, the leading Hollywood market researcher. Using proprietary, real-time tracking technology, Movie*Sentry automatically alerts studio execs any time a new movie ad appears on national TV. Users get a flash e-mail notifying them of the latest commercials within 48 hours of initial airing, complete with program-specific links to view digital images of the spots and gain access to other, detailed information, such as POD positioning. Several other studios have tested Movie*Sentry and are currently using the service.