ComScore acquires Rentrak to try catching up to Nielsen

ComScore, the audience measurement group has finally agreed to acquire Rentrak, the movie & TV viewership tracker in a move which will help enlarge its scope for tracking solutions in media content & advertising across mobile devices, websites and television.

By combining their own digital audience & ad solutions with the movie & video-on-demand & tv measurement offerings of Rentrak, this acquisition will provide a more comprehensive & precise set of solutions to measure media consumption & advertising across various platforms that follow the consumer whenever & wherever the content is being consumed.

The move will also help close the gap with their main rival Nielsen which currently holds a leading position in the market of TV audience ratings around the world.

In this stock-for-stock deal, Rentrak is going to become a 100% owned subsidiary for ComScore.

Serge Matta, the CEO of ComScore said that this acquisition recognizes how important it is to combine digital & TV assets for the development of media measurement which needs a higher amount of precision at both national & local market levels.

He said that digital technology has forced them to offer cross-platform measurement systems which will allow content owners to ultimately quantify their complete audience and give agencies access to metrics across platforms that they need to plan & execute their campaigns effectively.

He further added that this merger was going to allow for a comprehensive measurement currency across platforms which will account for every way content gets consumed irrespective of whether it happens on mobile devices, desktops, live TV, over-the-top devices, etc.