• by David Goetzl , July 30, 2010

Despite Rentrak attracting clients for its new local-market measurement service that uses set-top-box data, Nielsen downplayed a potential challenge Friday. In the wake of an aggressive PR campaign from Rentrak touting its progress, Nielsen CFO Brian West indicated that his company may be moving slower, but is unfazed. 

"There will be Rentrak and others out there that will look to try to use the set-top-box as another way to help advertisers and broadcasters," West said on an earnings call. "We think that that's not going to go away, but we also think that we've got a pretty good hand to play -- in terms of making (STB) information one piece of a bigger picture and that's what our clients are looking for."

Nielsen is testing STB data in local markets while pursuing a "hybrid" measurement approach -- which would combine the STB second-by-second tracking with its traditional panel-based information. As much as advertisers covet the granularity that can come from the boxes, much has been made about the difficulty in harnessing the data.

"We think bringing that together in a meaningful way for our clients as one single measurement is going to help and bring simplification and clarity to a very complicated place, then give that clarity to advertisers," West said. He referred, in part, to melding the STB information with online and mobile usage.

Conversely, Rentrak says it can provide STB data in all 210 local markets. And it can offer insight into the performance of particular commercials, which Nielsen doesn't yet offer on a local level.

Rentrak debuted the StationView Essentials service in December in Wichita, Kansas, and has hyped new station clients consistently since then, sometimes with multiple announcements in a week. Currently, its client list includes 38 stations in 19 markets. In the 34th-largest market -- Columbus, Ohio -- multiple stations are using the offering.

Stations, however, have not necessarily canceled their Nielsen subscriptions. AlThough cheaper pricing from Rentrak -- perhaps via a special, new-customer offer -- might be an incentive. Nielsen executive West declined to comment on Rentrak pricing.

Rival Rentrak also has a national-TV measurement product based on set-top-box data, billed as particularly useful for networks not rated by Nielsen.

Rentrak seems to have some data limitations, as it is generated from STBs in homes served only by Dish Network, AT&T and Charter. AT&T is not in all 210 markets, and the Charter data is only available from the Los Angeles market.

Nielsen is also using the Charter data, which could be a hindrance on its end.