FORT LAUDERDALE — Shareholders of comScore and Rentrak are due to vote on a merger of the two companies, via the former’s proposed acquisition of the latter, on Thursday, in a move that will be a big deal for the advertising and content measurement industry.
The pair plan to combine to pool comScore’s online analytics nous with Rentrak’s historic strength in measuring TV and movie audiences.
“We’re going to take the best of breed with their digital and the best of what we do in movies and TV Everywhere and bring them together for better multi-platform products for our customers,” Rentrak CEO Bill Livek tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
Ad execs like Group M’s Irwin Gottlieb have previously criticized media measurement agencies for being broken, failing to account properly for viewers’ modern video consumption. He backs the merger as an alternative to Nielsen.
So what does Livek see at the most exciting opportunity, after the deal’s closure?
“God, advanced TV is probably the most unbelievable thing I’ve seen in my career – the potential of commercials being addressed to the individual at the household basis,” he says.
“There can be commercials stored on the device in the home that can get triggered based on certain demographics. For example, if I’m at the end of my lease on my car, I can start seeing commercials for similar makes and models – all done in a privacy-compliant way, with the mass appeal of television and the efficiency of digital.”
This video was produced at the Beet.TV executive retreat presented by Videology with Adobe, AT&T AdWorks and Nielsen.
You can find more videos from the Beet Retreat on this page.