Stations tune in to Rentrak ratings

Ratings aren’t just about reading diaries anymore.

For decades, The Nielsen Co. has dominated the television ratings game across the country, establishing a brand synonymous with ratings. But a Portland, Ore.-based box-office tracker has flipped the script locally with data derived from 45,000 southwest Missouri households.  

Officials with Rentrak, a nearly 30-year-old company that has collected TV trend data during the last three years, said Springfield was its first market in the nation to convert each of its major network affiliates to its subscription service.

Steve Walsh, Rentrak senior vice president of local sales, said the company’s approach to TV-viewing trends reflects a data-driven world.

“Samples don’t do as good of a job as they used to in measuring TV viewing behaviors,” Walsh said. “A diary is not a proper representation of how people are viewing television across a 500-channel universe.”

According to Nielsen.com, TV meters and “local people meters” monitor viewing habits in major markets, while paper diaries in participating households are used during “sweeps” weeks in areas such as Springfield.

Rentrak now has 185 television station clients in 85 markets around the country, Walsh said. He said the company tracks viewership in all 210 markets, pulling data from 22 million TVs in the U.S directly from cable and satellite providers. It also utilizes demographic data with the help of direct mailing companies such as Epsilon Data Management LLC.

Paul Windisch, general manager for KRBK-TV, said the station adopted Rentrak at the end of 2011, about three months after KRBK became the local Fox affiliate.

“When we weighed out all the options and all the expense, Rentrak was just a much better choice,” Windisch said. “That was coupled with the fact that the KY3 group had already signed on as a subscriber. We thought that group of stations – KY3, KSPR and CW – have done great work in this market, and if they believe in the system, it must be pretty strong.”

For Windisch, Rentrak’s data goes deeper and allows his station a more accurate idea of whether it is meeting its goals or promoting certain shows effectively.

“With Rentrak, the people don’t have to do anything. Whatever they’re watching, it is being documented,” Windisch said. “That allows us to see on a day-by-day or week-by-week basis if what we are doing, if the shows we are promoting, is making a difference.”

The station, through its subscription, has access to Rentrak’s online data, Windisch said. He said the service is something KRBK’s advertising team utilizes regularly with its customers and prospects.

“Advertising agencies, whether they are regional or national, base their advertising buys on television ratings. The stations that generate the highest ratings, generally get the highest share of the advertising buys,” Windisch said. “It allows us to tell our story. We can say, ‘For this specific show or this specific time frame, here’s how many people are watching our television station.’”

Rentrak groups data – known as weighting – by ZIP codes instead of by county or groups of counties like Nielsen, Walsh said, which allows more precise demographic information to be collected related to habits of people in certain areas.

“When you weight by county, it is almost like painting with a roller brush. You cover the walls, but it is not very precise and you can’t get into the corners,” Walsh said. “We paint with an edging brush.”

When KY3 Inc. made the move to Rentrak from Nielsen during the fourth quarter of 2011, General Manager Brian McDonough was reunited with the Rentrak model. McDonough was working as the general sales manager at KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kan., when the station became the first in the nation to sign up with Rentrak.

“I just like its methodology better,” said McDonough, who manages KY3, KSPR and Ozarks CW. “We like the fact that it measures every single day instead of just during sweeps periods. And what we found was that the numbers were a little more consistent than with Nielsen.”

In the latest Rentrak report, McDonough said KY3, KSPR and Ozarks CW combined saw viewership increase 7.8 percent in June compared to the same month last year. He attributed the growth to running newscasts on Ozarks CW. The station’s June viewers grew by 52.2 percent from June 2011.  

According to Rentrak, KY3 is the top dog in terms of TV news exposure, but KOLR-10 typically performs better in prime time.

In May, Walsh said 33.8 percent of TV watchers in the Springfield market were tuned in to KY3 at 6 p.m. In the same time slot, KOLR collected 7.3 percent of viewers, followed by KSPR at 6.08 percent. Newer stations KOZL and KRBK were neck-and-neck with a roughly 2 percent market share.

According to Rentrak, KOLR’s 6 a.m. newscast dipped two points in June to 9.6 percent of viewers compared to June 2011. Similarly, its 5 p.m. newscast dropped to 11.4 percent from 12.6 percent in the same period.

During prime time in May, KOLR held a slight edge on KY3 with 13.3 percent of the 7–10 p.m. viewership against KY3’s 13.1 percent. KSPR was a distant third at 7.7 percent, according to Rentrak.

While Rentrak is catching on, Nielsen still has its place in the local market.

Dianne Davis, owner of Nixa-based DL Media Inc. – which places TV ads for customers such as Dr Pepper and Meek’s lumber in multiple markets – subscribes to both Nielsen and Rentrak to compare data from both companies. In general, she’s found that viewership is higher with Rentrak.

“For instance, some of the prime programming on KSPR is doing quadruple the number being estimated by Nielsen. Well, there is no way of knowing which number is actually accurate,” Davis said. “We’ve had the same issues with KOLR. Because it is so new, not all the salespeople are on the same page as far as how the numbers are calculated.”

In addition, Davis said those filling out diaries can indicate with Nielsen whether they are viewing a show with their spouse, whereas Rentrak doesn’t know who may be watching the show.

Davis said it’s Nielsen numbers that dictate where the advertising dollars go.

She said Rentrak costs about $1,400 per year for the subscription service her company utilizes, while Nielsen is roughly $1,100. Walsh declined to provide a range of costs but said rates vary based on market populations.

McDonough said Rentrak is less expensive for his station than Nielsen, but he declined to disclose the cost.

“That’s really not the reason we did it. We believe in the direction it is heading,” he said.