Group M and Kantar Media partner with Rentrak

Rentrak will acquire the US television measurement business of WPP’s Kantar business for $98m in Rentrak common stock.

WPP will also purchase shares directly from the company for $56m in cash giving WPP a final ownership stake of 16.7% of Rentrak. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Rentrak will integrate its national and local TV measurement with a number of Kantar’s US-based services that focus on digital media and purchase data. WPP said that for GroupM, the ability to integrate consumer data with volumes of TV information using Rentrak’s data and technology was a step towards forming a next generation, fully-passive, census-level measurement.