• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 4, 2012

MPG’s Collaborative Alliance has entered into a formal agreement with Nielsen TV audience measurement rival Rentrak, and its first project is to create a much-needed database that advertisers and agencies can use to evaluate and plan which television networks offer free, ad-supported video-on-demand (VOD) channels.

As simple a first step as that might seem – a basic directory listing the TV networks that are distributed via VOD – it doesn’t currently exist in the TV industry, and is crucial for Madison Avenue to begin understanding the VOD universe, says Tom Ziangas, senior vice president of research for AMC Networks, who has been working closely with the Alliance on a variety of projects, including developing a method to calculate demographic ratings estimates for VOD programming, which is another key step for advertisers and agencies to take the medium seriously.

“As we go through this process, it will be a learning process for us too,” Ziangas said, referring to the fact that even VOD-distributed TV networks don’t currently understand what the universe of VOD distributed programming that they compete in is.

Ziangas said the reason is that while networks get their own VOD coverage data from research providers like Rentrak, they don’t always get to see the data for other networks. Additionally, he said the data often is designed specifically for each network’s needs, and that it may be difficult to compare how various networks define and report their VOD distribution.

“We know internally what the information means, but contextually, we can’t compare a lot of this to our competitors, because that information today is masked.”

Ziangas described the VOD data marketplace as a “very closed ecosystem,” which has been frustrating to advertisers and networks alike, because the lack of data “transparency” and access has made it difficult for networks to sell vast amounts of VOD audience impressions to the ad community.

That is why the Alliance has made VOD a major focus of its recent efforts, says Mitch Oscar, executive vice president-televisual applications at MPG, and the organizer of the Alliance meetings and initiatives. It’s also why the Alliance entered into its new agreement with Rentrak, he adds.

“Having a committee of VOD veterans sharing their collective industry expertise will allow Rentrak to better serve the entire TV marketing arena including operators, content providers, advertisers and agencies,” Cathy Hetzel, Corporate President of Rentrak, said about the agreement with the Alliance.

To date, the Alliance’s informal work with Rentrak has helped the audience measurement firm generate greater awareness as a pragmatic solutions provider for an important and underserved portion of the TV marketplace, which Rentrak has moved quickly on, though Nielsen is believed to be poised to roll-out its own new VOD and digital set-top data solutions to the marketplace soon.

Among other things, the Alliance helped negotiate the ability for agencies to access Rentrak’s VOD and set-top data directly through data processor MediaOcean’s agency systems, and it also has been the catalyst for the VOD audience demographic data analytics being developed by the industry, which has also utilized Rentrak’s data.