Kantar Media Hires Boehme to Drive STB Development

WPP-owned Kantar Media - which specializes in providing TV, Internet and radio audience measurement services - has hired veteran media analyst Jeffrey Boehme to drive the development of new products and applications for set-top box (STB) data.

Boehme joins from Nielsen, where as SVP for Advanced TV he led the development of directions and insights from return path data (RPD) and clickstream data, and represented the ratings company through membership of various industry organizations including the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, and ARF. He joined Nielsen DigitalPlus - the division overseeing digital set top box data initiatives - in 2007.

Before this, he was SVP of Research and Marketing for National Cable Communications; earlier he worked in sales and audience management roles at Seltel, Cap Cities/ABC, and the NBC Television Network.

In his newly created role of Chief Research Officer, North America, Boehme will serve as the chief liaison for Kantar's Audiences sector with industry associations and support initiatives. He will also oversee the company's research efforts with a particular focus on methods and procedures, advanced measurement methods and modeling.

'Jeff is one of the leading thinkers and voices in RPD today,' says Kantar Media Audiences President, George Shababb. 'Having him join our senior management team allows us to continue to be at the forefront of strategic RPD insights and innovative developments.'

Earlier in the year, Kantar Media launched TV audience analytics tool InfoSysRPD, which processes STB data to provide analyses of audience viewing behavior. The tool, which was launched for DIRECTView subscribers in June, will be rolled out to other Kantar Media RPD services later this year.

Web site: www.kantarmedia.com .