• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 8, 2012

Rentrak has succeeded in its strategy for the first time in a top-20 market, the measurement company said. Using set-top-box data, Rentrak looks to ink a deal with a station in a DMA, gain traction and hopes the others will follow.

A new deal with the Scripps station group has all the major network affiliates in Cleveland, the country’s 18th-largest market, using Rentrak.

The broader Scripps arrangement also includes stations in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Rentrak offers some competition for Nielsen, which is revamping its local-TV service. Rentrak has maintained that it’s not a zero-sum game, and it would be content to be a complementary service to Nielsen. A top Nielsen executive recently agreed there may be room for two companies.

Billed as “advanced demographics," Rentrak looks to co-mingle its viewership data with purchasing behavior and information. The company says its service offers data from thousands more homes than the Nielsen sample, offering greater stability.