Mandel talked up Rentrak’s offer, saying that it was “impossible for marketers to manage their business in a successful manner with the previously available rating services” – an apparent criticism of his former employer, which is the dominant firm in the TV ratings space.

Rentrak’s TV Essentials and StationView Essentials rely on return path data from cable, satellite and digital set-top boxes to report what millions of US households are watching. Viewing data is then linked with demographic and consumer information to produce audience profiles.

PrecisionDemand’s chief technology officer Brian Burdick said Rentrak’s information was “key to understanding how much, how often, and where to place the media that will meet [an advertiser’s] ROI goals”.