Portland, Oregon-based business intelligence company, Rentrak, has named Carol Hinnant VP of business development for its OnDemand Essentials VOD usage-tracking product. Hinnant, who reports to Cathy Hetzel, SVP of OnDemand Essentials, replaces Sandra Swain Kilbridge, who recently relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and who continues to work with Rentrak as a consultant. Hinnant will be responsible for new business development activities to expand OnDemand Essentials' service offerings and engage new customers, and will also spearhead new business discussions and service implementation scheduling with program networks and other VOD content providers. In addition, she will be in charge of introducing Rentrak's new AdEssentials product to the company's current customer base, when it launches next year. Hinnant was previously VP of sales and marketing at Q Television Network. According to Rentrak, her resume also includes extensive cable-industry and VOD content-acquisition and distribution experience via stints at here! TV, Great American Country Network, and HBO.
OnDemand Essentials is a Web-based ASP service which measures and reports anonymous, aggregate VOD usage data, such as viewership volumes and trends, and which is intended to provide cable operators, content providers and advertisers with customizable reports designed to help them better understand viewers' VOD content preferences. The version of the service that is targeted at content providers launched last fall. It allows subscribers to access daily VOD content performance data in multiple ways, across multiple MSO's or by specific MSO. Available reports include Performance By Title, Audience Sharing, Weekly Top Titles, and Competitive Performance by Network Category. Rentrak says that data--including the four data points that its operator customers have approved for sharing with advertisers (VOD-enabled universe, total views by set-top box, unique set-top box views, and total minutes viewed)--can be downloaded securely into Excel spreadsheets for use offline. Rentrak recently signed deals for OnDemand Essentials with four content providers--HealthiNation, here!, Hollywood.com TV, and Starz--and with three MSO's--Midcontinent, Service Electric Cablevision, and Verizon. In addition, the company also recently extended its existing relationship with Insight Communications. Other content providers using OnDemand Essentials include CBS, CMT, Comedy Central, Cinemax, Expo TV, fuse, HBO, Hallmark Channel, Logo, Mag Rack, MTV, Music Choice, Nickelodeon, Noggin, National Geographic Channel, NBC Universal, NFL Network, Oxygen, Paramount Studios, Playboy TV, Ripe TV, Showtime, Sportskool, The N, TV Guide SPOT, VH1, Warner Home Video On Demand, and WWE. Other MSO's providing information to the service include Bresnan, Cablevision, Charter, and Comcast.
Originally Published: September 27, 2006 in [itvt] Issue 6.96 Part 1
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