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Anyone using Rentrak to report grosses instead of EDI/Neilsen?

Rentrak has an automated system that looks pretty good, we're thinking of integrating it with our software.

Anyone have any experience with them?

I just got an email from corp. that said they would be calling starting friday.
jeff

Greg,

We are on EDI, which works just fine for us. What is Rentrak and where did they come from? How many theatres will they be surveying? EDI is a great resource in terms of history reports etc, when you are looking at a potential market for expansion. Wonder what kind of offerings Rentrak will have. Also will the studios pay attention to it. EDI is awfully ingrained in studio land and if you can deliver the grosses, a great way to let them know you are there.

Okay so now my ignorance is showing again. We took over a closed theater last year and EDI has called daily ever since. We cooperate and give them figures. Does this entitle me to services and/or research from them? Am I a "memeber" or some such thing. I've never signed up for or received anything in writing from EDI, but give them our grosses daily as a matter of
courtesy(?). As we are considering several expansion plans in different markets, can EDI help, as I help them now?
Thanks for any input.

EDI will only give info for a fee.They are paid by distributors to obtain grosses,and they do a very good job accumulating grosses and projecting future grosses.I don't know what they can do as far as a new location goes,other than get you grosses from competing theatres,which you can get for free from distributors.

Rialto,
Rentrak is an information management company, according to their website they are the largest processor of rental and sales data for videocassettes obtained on a revenue-sharing basis. The company services most motion picture studios and over 10,000 retail video rental locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

So they already have connections to the studios, I spoke with them about a year ago when they began pursuing film gross reporting. The advantage they had spoken to me about was the ability to interface through our POS software directly, eliminating the phone call each day. I have e-mailed them with several questions, including yours and will post once I receive the answers.

There is little information on their website about gross reporting.

Greg Borr
RTS

I report my grosses nightly to RENTRAK and EDI. Isn't that weird?

I guess my numbers don't matter. I call the studios Sunday night and give them the entire weekend's grosses. Nobody else cares.

Our booking agent just had us switch to Rentrac for reporting. No difference in procedures, just a different fax# to use. Supposedly it's better for our booking agent , as they have ccess to reported grosses from their clients. No apparent benefit to us either way.

From what I understand they are automating the process so that theatres can submit directly via the internet, no more phone calls or faxes.

I've only talked to technical people from the company, I'll post more as I learn more, we are writing an interface to them as I type.

Greg Borr
RTS

Our booking agent also just had us switch to reporting to Rentrack. Do you think that this is the future?

We are using the Rentrak - It is incorporated with our operating system. It's very easy a click of a button at closing and grosses are sent. There were some problems at our other locations, but I understand that had something to do with their DSL. I believe it's all fixed now.
Much easier then dealing with EDI or calling each film company.

Patty