• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 5, 2011

With its share price dropping, CEO Bill Livek said he has invested more than $350,000 to buy Rentrak shares over the past four months, which is more than his annual cash compensation, in order to demonstrate his confidence in the company to Wall Street.

On a conference call Thursday, Livek said the company is successfully executing against goals he set out when he became CEO in 2009. It transitioned its focus to areas that include its TV measurement service, where a slew of local stations have signed on as clients to receive its set-top-box data.

"It's my strong belief that the reduction that we've experienced in our share price is just crazy," he said. "We've been brought down to a stock value that we believe, and I believe personally, is well below of the intrinsic value of Rentrak."

When Livek joined, the Rentrak share price was around $10. It is now at about $15, down from a 52-week high of around $31.

Rentrak announced second-quarter results Thursday, as revenues in its measurement business, which includes tracking for national networks and local stations, increased 13% to $9.1 million.

Overall, Rentrak revenues were $22.4 million, down from $24.6 million in the same period a year ago. The company said net income, excluding acquisition and stock-based compensation costs, would have come in at $113,000, down from $1.3 million last year.

Rentrak said Friday it has added a top executive charged with leading initiatives to match demographic and consumer behavioral data with viewership information that could help the company offer more data along the lines of Nielsen.

David Algranati, who holds a Ph.D. and most recently was with consumer market research firm Experian Simmons, joins as senior vice president of product innovation and analytical solutions.

Algranati, a statistician, will also head efforts to provide custom research to advertiser and program clients. At Experian Simmons, he was director of integrated marketing solutions.

Rentrak says it has 80 local stations using its data, which can be of particular use in markets that still rely on data from Nielsen diaries. On the agency side, Omnicom recently signed on to receive the data.