On A Roll, Rentrak Gets Patent For 'Off'

On the heels of its $98 million deal with WPP Group to acquire one of its chief TV set-top data-based ratings rivals Kantar Media, Rentrak this morning announced it has been granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a crucial part of the method it uses to measure ratings via digital set-top devices: When TV sets are turned on or off.

“This patent recognizes the fact that only Rentrak has the intellectual property,” Vice Chairman and CEO Bill Livek said in a statement, adding: “This technology is an integral part of providing massive and passive television measurement for our clients.”

Rentrak competes with Nielsen, which mainly uses panel-based measurement methods, and several companies that utilize TV set-top data, including digital video recording giant TiVo’s TRA unit.

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Rentrak called the granting of U.S. Patent 8,863,166 an “important component” of its ratings service, which it said is approaching 60 million set-tops and covers both “live and DVR viewing,” as well as more than 114 million TVs accessing video-on-demand.

The patent specifically covers an intellectual property enabling Rentrak’s system to identify when TV sets are off, but the set-top-box is on.

“Because it often happens that a set-top box is left on when the television is turned off, this process is crucial to the measurement of viewing based on return-path TVs,” Rentrak said, adding that the approach is based on “more than 10,000 statistical models to identify specific viewing situations.”


Photo provided courtesy of Shutterstock.

2 comments about "On A Roll, Rentrak Gets Patent For 'Off'".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, October 20, 2014 at 2:45 p.m.

    Now if they could just measure when we're actually watching the TV when it's on.

  2. John Grono from GAP Research, October 20, 2014 at 7:21 p.m.

    Doug, I'd start with who in the home is even present.

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