The service provides “second-by-second” viewing data and analytics to support local advertising sales.

Joan Barrett, president and general manager of Sunflower Broadcasting, said: “We believe that we will now be able to provide more accurate and timley data to our customers with a household measurement size that is larger than what we have been using.”

Carol Hinnant, SVP of business development in Rentrak’s advanced media and information division, said: “We are confident that local stations around the country will quickly recognise the value of access to deeper and more robust anonymous viewership data and the economic benefits it will bring to this sector of the media industry.”