• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 9, 2011

Bill Livek seems like he'd be a good companion in a foxhole. The soft-spoken CEO of Rentrak exudes calm and generally eschews controversy, even as he leads an upstart business mounting a challenge to entrenched market dominator Nielsen.

When the question of Rentrak's potential in snagging share from Nielsen comes up, Livek seems to have given himself an internal restrictor plate, offering up temperate comments about how Rentrak seeks to offer a complementary measurement service and not a Nielsen replacement.

In a sense, that's practical. Rentrak is making inroads, but raising that prospect is likely to only lead to over-promising and under-delivering.

But, man, it would be fun if a bravado-filled CEO such as CBS's Leslie Moonves were leading Rentrak and tossing firebombs at Nielsen. And that makes one more than bummed that the fearless, outspoken, whip-smart Frank Maggio had to forgo his efforts at bumping Nielsen off a few years back from his Tampa base.

In any case, last week Livek showed a bit of his fire within on a call with investors. Some of them were concerned that a new Nielsen deal with Kantar could pose a significant threat to Rentrak's business -- which is rooted in set-top-box (STB) data.

Nielsen has been taking steps to get in the STB game and the Kantar arrangement looks to give it access to a bevy of helpful data, the key in gaining a foothold.

When addressing the Kantar matter, Livek wasn't content to just downplay the value. He tried to poke holes in Nielsen's plans and suggested with some bite that it is copying Rentrak.

"The bottom line is we think it's a good thing that they're following the category leader," he said.

Since taking over Rentrak in 2009, Livek has tried to build a TV measurement business, based on second-by-second STB data, that would be more accurate and stable than Nielsen's panel-based information. One reason: it would use data from many more homes than Nielsen traditionally has.

The service under a TV Essentials banner has been in full swing for maybe less than a year and has particular potential in local-market measurement. That's where in small markets Nielsen still relies on diaries to produce ratings and releases them four times a year.

Rentrak now has 80 stations receiving its data.

Whether in response to Rentrak or just general industry hunger for ratings culled from STB data, Nielsen has recently developed a "hybrid" product that combines STB data with its traditional data streams.

The coin of the realm in the STB world is acquiring the data from the boxes. Pay-TV providers with the info haven't always been willing to offer it up.

While developing its STB entry, Nielsen used only data from cable operator Charter. The Kantar deal gives it access to additional data from thousands of homes with DirecTV.

Yet, Rentrak contends its service with data culled from boxes in homes with cable, satellite and telco TV service gives it a leg up since that can provide a better reflection on market behavior.

It also believes its "advanced demographics" -- where it merges consumer purchase and other demographic data (from the likes of Experian Simmons) with viewing information to gauge the impact of ads -- is a trump card. And, that will help advertisers better target consumers.

Rentrak says it can offer demographic information for many more homes than Nielsen. And, Livek said pointedly that lead should continue despite Nielsen's Kantar arrangement.

On the call, he said the DirecTV data will still only lead to Nielsen offering local ratings based on a sample of about 1,000 homes (compared to near 500 now). Rentrak on the other hand looks at behavior from "75,000 or 150,000" homes in a market.

The Kantar deal "doesn't do a lot to extend the sample" and provide a wider base to glean insight, he said, while Rentrak clients have been sort of like so what.

"We're hearing from our TV stations that on one level they're nonplussed," Livek said. "On the other level, they're happy to see that they're following Rentrak's lead in the category."

Livek also got into more detail about Rentrak's advantage with its "advanced demographics" offering when he somewhat quizzically hinted at knowledge of intimate details about how Nielsen's Kantar arrangement might be less helpful than thought in linking viewing with ringing the cash register.

"What we understand from our clients is that Nielsen has no rights to integrate product purchase information with the DirecTV households," he said.

In an email, Nielsen executive Matt O'Grady declined to address the matter directly, saying that the "principal application" of the DirecTV data is "for audience measurement."

He added that Nielsen offers a service in partnership with Catalina Marketing that provides insight into how advertising impacts purchasing decisions.

Interesting.