New Delhi : Media research company Rentrak has entered into an alliance with WPP’s cinema advertising unit, Interactive Television (ITV), to try options to overcome the hurdle it is facing in India over collecting box-office data.
Apparently, Rentrak was unable to collect data from PVR and Inox, two of the biggest local cinema chains. PVR, which has a nearly 70% market share, wants Rentrak to pay a fee to get access to its theatres, while Inox will sign up only if PVR does so too, said sources from GroupM.
Rentrak already has a tie-up with GroupM and its agencies in the US. The box-office data will be useful for advertisers while considering displaying ads in movie halls.
So far Carnival and Cinepolis, have inked deals to share box-office data with Rentrak in India. Rentrak hopes its association with ITV, which buys space for ads in theatre screens on behalf of companies, will help it overcome the hurdle. It believes with the pact, which is in exchange of exclusive data, it will get access to movie producers and advertisers, who can, in turn, help it in convincing PVR and Inox to come onboard.
“ITV is supporting Rentrak in getting access to cinema own ers across the country . For cinema advertising to become bigger and take its rightful place in the media mix, it needs to become more accountable and measurable,” said Ajay Mehta, chief executive of ITV .
“Box-office data will give advertisers clear measures and ways to calculate the RoI (Return on Investment).”
Rentrak tracks box-office information from more than 1.25 lakh cinemas in 40 countries. The company directly collects and compiles box-office data on real-time at the theatre and gives it to stakeholders after further processing.
“Through us distributors not only will get access to box-office data, it will help in better release planning, programming, determining release windows, and also understand audience preferences,” said Rajkumar Akella, managing director of Rentrak India, while confirming the alliance with ITV .
According to ITV , India needs a scientific methodology to measure box-office data as cinema advertising -ads played inside cineplexes and multiplexes -accounts for more than Rs 400 crore in annual revenue and has grown at about 15% annually in the past three years.
