Post-Newsweek commits to Rentrak as local TV currency

US— The broadcasting division of The Washington Post Company is adopting Rentrak’s local market ratings as the trading currency for ad space on its TV stations.

Post-Newsweek has been using Rentrak’s StationView Essentials data for its Houston and Miami/Fort Lauderdale stations since June last year. Coverage will now be expanded to Detroit/Windsor, Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, San Antonio and Jacksonville.

StationView Essentials uses return-path data from cable and satellite set-top boxes to measure household viewing in each of the 210 US media markets. Viewing data is linked with demographic and consumer information to produce audience profiles for stations.

Nielsen is the dominant force in US TV ratings, but Rentrak argues that its census-based approach to audience measurement has the edge on Nielsen’s sample-based approach when it comes to correctly sizing the audience for smaller, local stations.

Post-Newsweek CEO Alan Frank (pictured) said: “The industry has been waiting decades for a viable and robust competitive environment in the television measurement arena. We wanted to be the first of many station groups to comprehensively support Rentrak’s efforts.”

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments

Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts