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Rentrak to Provide Measurement for Mobile TV

Rentrak Corporation, a multi-screen media measurement and research company, has aligned with live mobile TV service Flo TV for viewership and advertising impression reporting.

Rentrak and Flo TV say the reporting will serve as the currency for advertising sales on Flo TV and provide insights into Flo TV audience viewing patterns. The measurement will not divulge any individual subscriber’s personal information.

Flo TV offers viewers a selection of live, time-shifted, and simulcast programming. Channels include CBS Mobile, CNBC, Fox Mobile, Fox News, ESPN Mobile TV, MSNBC, MTV, NBC 2Go, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. It is available via AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

A recent study by Transpera, conducted by InsightExpress, found that the majority of U.S. mobile users who watch mobile video at least once a week spend more time using their mobile device than they do their computer and represent a unique audience that may not be reachable with other digital media. The study found that 62% of mobile video viewers use their mobile phone more than they use a computer to browse the internet, vs. just 9% of the non-mobile video viewers. 78% of avid mobile video viewers rely on their mobile phone for up-to-the-minute information, vs. only 19% of those who never viewed mobile video. 71% prefer to receive information via mobile internet, vs. just 13% of those who don’t view mobile video, and 58% get more of their news from the mobile phone than any other source, vs. only 10% of those who have never viewed mobile video.

Moreover, the typical avid mobile video viewer has an average higher income, travels and eats out more and may be more attractive to certain brand advertisers than the profile of someone who has never viewed mobile video.

The demand for audience measurement of TV on mobile phones has grown as mobile TV adoption has risen. Nielsen said earlier this week that it has invested more than $1 billion in research to develop a strategy to measure viewing across TV, the internet, and mobile devices. The announcement came in response to the news that a consortium of media companies, including NBCU, Time Warner, News Corp., Viacom, CBS, Discovery and Walt Disney, along with advertisers Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Unilever, had come together to award contracts for a single-source measurement of TV and digital video.

Following Nielsen’s announcement, reports revealed that Time Warner has signed a seven-year deal with Nielsen for measurement and research across TV, online and mobile, for all of Time Warner’s business units, including Turner Broadcasting, the CW, HBO, Warner Brothers Domestic TV Distribution, and Time Inc.

In January, Nielsen reported that 10.3 million U.S. mobile phone subscribers accessed video content via their phones - up 14% from 2007. But mobile video use in the U.S. remains low (5% of all subscribers), compared to other mobile media.

Apple’s iPhone is the most popular phone for mobile video: as of Q3 2008, 11% of all streaming video users were using an Apple iPhone, and 35% of iPhone users reported regularly using mobile video (compared to about 5% of all mobile subscribers).

Usage frequency among mobile video users is relatively low (17 videos per month median), but overall satisfaction with the mobile video experience is high among current users — as of Q3 2008, 71% of mobile video viewers said they were satisfied with their mobile video experience.

The release of the iPhone 3GS in June was expected to speed the adoption of mobile video. When the phone first hit the stores, a variety of apps rushed to take advantage of its video capabilities. Kyte, for example, updated its app to support video recording, editing, and upload, and Posterous created a way to instantly distribute mobile video across multiple social sites, Mashable reported. YouTube also reported a huge boost in mobile uploads, which increased 400% for the first several days the phone was on the market.