TRAC Media Services

What TRAC Media Services does

TRAC Media Services is a specialized audience research and consulting firm focused exclusively on American public television, founded in 1979 by David LeRoy, PhD and Judith LeRoy, PhD and headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The company provides a suite of research, analytics, and consulting solutions built around its core TRAC Ratings Service, which leverages Nielsen audience data integrated with TiVo/Xperi (formerly ROVI/TV Guide) schedule data across all 210 Nielsen Designated Market Areas. Its product portfolio spans Nielsen ratings analysis, pledge fundraising optimization (including the PledgeMax scheduling software and Pledge Advantage consortium), streaming audience measurement (Passport Ratings using proprietary GRP formulas and DOMO data), program scheduling services (via ProTrack), digital underwriting expansion (TRAC Digital through the Digital Tulip partnership), cross-platform impressions measurement covering linear, sub-channels, digital, social, YouTube, the PBS app, and FM radio, underwriting sales tools, traffic operations support, custom research, and the Carriage Service tracking program distribution across 1,100+ public television channels.

The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining self-serve subscription-based access through multiple authenticated client portal websites (client.tracmedia.com, pledge2.tracmedia.com, tut.tracmedia.com, imp.tracmedia.com, carriagecart.tracmedia.com) with relationship-based enterprise sales led by a Director of Business Development. Revenue is generated primarily through recurring subscriptions across Ratings, Carriage, Underwriting Tools, and Pledge services, supplemented by professional services for custom research and programming. The customer base includes over 100 public television stations spanning all Top 20 markets and mid-sized and smaller markets across the country, 12 statewide networks, and national organizations including PBS, NETA, BBC, American Program Service, and Children's Television Workshop. The firm is led by Managing Partners Craig Reed, M.S. (formerly of PBS and Nielsen) and Kristen Kuebler, PhD (Oxford), who succeeded the founding LeRoys in steering the firm's strategic direction.

Name

TRAC Media Services

Legal name

TRAC Media Services

Website

https://tracmedia.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

TRAC Media Services is a specialized audience research and consulting firm serving American public television since 1979, providing Nielsen ratings analysis, pledge optimization, carriage tracking across 1,100+ channels, and cross-platform audience measurement to over 100 stations, 12 statewide networks, and national organizations including PBS.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Media Research & Analytics

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Audience Measurement & Media Research (Ratings, Attribution, Media Mix Insights) (MPAAALAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Media & Audience Measurement Analytics (BPAHALAO), Competitive Intelligence & Market Share Benchmarking (Networks/Stations) (MPABAOAJ)

Keywords

• Audience research services
• Public television analytics
• Nielsen ratings analysis
• Pledge fundraising consulting
• Program carriage tracking

Headquarters

HQ city

Tucson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research & Ratings Subscriptions: Subscription-based access to Nielsen ratings analyses, overnight reports, sweep reports, and custom research for public television stations and producers. Multiple service tiers with varying levels of access.
2. Carriage Service Subscriptions: Online subscription service tracking program carriage across 1100+ public television channels. Priced per title with options for 1-12 months of access. Updated daily with graphical reports and station-specific schedules.
3. TRAC Underwriting Tools: Subscription service providing research-based underwriting materials including demo rankers, program 1-sheets, genre/daypart 1-sheets, qualitative research, and on-air proposal tools customized for individual stations.
4. Programming Services: Monthly program scheduling services for public television stations, including Regular Programming Service and Premium Programming Service with varying levels of support.
5. Pledge Services: Pledge Advantage consortium membership providing pre-drive planning, during-drive reports, and post-drive summaries to maximize on-air fundraising performance.
6. Digital Services: Training and support services for public broadcasting underwriting teams expanding into digital video and audio markets through partnerships with streaming platforms.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

TRAC Media Services provides audience research, ratings analysis, carriage tracking, pledge fundraising optimization, and programming consulting for American public television stations, producers, distributors, and national organizations. Its offerings are delivered through subscription-based client portal websites that integrate Nielsen ratings data and TiVo (Xperi) schedule data with TRAC's proprietary multi-decade database of public television viewing trends. Core services include the TRAC Ratings Service, PledgeMax scheduling, Passport streaming ratings, the Carriage Service covering 1,100+ channels, cross-platform Impressions Reporting, and Underwriting Tools for corporate sponsorship presentations.

Product overview

TRAC Media Services offers a suite of research, analytics, and consulting solutions for public television, built around its core TRAC Ratings Service and supplemented by specialized modules for pledge fundraising (Pledge Services), streaming measurement (Passport Ratings), program scheduling (Programming Services), digital underwriting expansion (TRAC Digital), cross-platform audience measurement (Impressions Reporting), underwriting sales support (Underwriting Tools), traffic operations (Traffic Services), custom research, producer tools, and the Carriage Service for tracking program distribution across 1100+ public television channels. The portfolio is delivered via multiple dedicated client portal websites (client.tracmedia.com, pledge2.tracmedia.com, carriagecart.tracmedia.com, tut.tracmedia.com, imp.tracmedia.com, locale.tracmedia.com) and leverages Nielsen ratings data and TiVo/ROVI schedule data as primary data sources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TRAC Ratings Service Provides Nielsen ratings analyses for public television stations, producers, distributors, and national organizations, including overnight reports, sweep reports, scheduling assistant, newsletters, and custom analyses. Includes TRAC Locale for extended cume windows and finer demographic segmentation.
• Pledge Services
• Traffic Services
• Underwriting Tools
• TRAC Digital
• Producer Tools
• Programming Services
• Passport Ratings
• Impressions Reporting
• Custom Research
• Carriage Service

Quantifiable outcome

• The model has doubled sales revenue at commercial stations and is designed to help public media leverage and grow the trust and corporate relationships they already have.

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Digital TulipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTRAC partnered with Digital Tulip, a multi-award winning national digital agency, to train public broadcasting underwriting teams in a consultative digital sales model. This enables underwriting staff to offer clients premium placements across major streaming, video, and audio platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, Spotify, and YouTube. Digital Tulip manages campaign fulfillment while TRAC provides the training and integration with station operations.
• TiVo (Xperi)coreTechnology or IntegrationTRAC purchases listings data from TiVo (formerly ROVI/TV Guide) for its carriage tracking service. TiVo provides schedule data for all 1100+ public television channels updated daily. This data feeds TRAC's carriage database and is essential for the carriage reporting service offered to producers and stations.
• NielsencoreTechnology or IntegrationTRAC uses Nielsen audience data for ratings analyses and reports. Nielsen provides household ratings, demographic data, and coverage percentages for TV markets. TRAC leverages Nielsen data in its overnight reports, sweep reports, and custom analyses for public television stations and producers.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Ipsos: Ipsos is a global market research firm whose audience and media research practices compete for custom research budgets at broadcasters and media companies — a thematically adjacent competitor for TRAC's Custom Research engagements.
• Pew Research Center: Pew Research Center is a major nonprofit research organization producing media and audience research reports that occasionally cover public broadcasting audiences; it is adjacent rather than directly competitive, but operates in the same research-for-public-interest ecosystem.
• BIA Advisory Services: BIA Advisory Services produces local-market advertising and media research widely used by broadcasters; it is thematically adjacent to TRAC's underwriting research for public TV stations selling local sponsorship.
• Westat: Westat is a large employee-research firm serving federal, nonprofit, and media clients with custom surveys and evaluation work; it is an adjacent competitor for TRAC's custom community, member, and donor surveys at public television stations.

Emerging players

• MediaRadar: MediaRadar provides advertising intelligence across TV, digital, and print for broadcasters and agencies; its advertiser-tracking capabilities overlap with TRAC's Underwriting Tools designed to support PTV station sales teams.
• iSpot.tv: iSpot.tv offers real-time cross-platform TV/streaming ad measurement and attribution; as it extends into broader audience and impressions measurement, it competes with TRAC's Impressions Reporting and Passport Ratings cross-platform bundles.

Broad incumbents

• Kantar: Kantar operates a global media and audience measurement practice that competes for broadcaster and advertiser research budgets; it is a broad incumbent providing overlap with TRAC's custom research and underwriting analytics work.
• Nielsen: Nielsen is the underlying ratings currency TRAC resells and analyzes; it is both a critical data supplier and a broad incumbent in TV/streaming audience measurement, offering cross-platform measurement that increasingly overlaps with TRAC's portfolio.
• Comscore: Comscore provides cross-platform media measurement including TV, digital, and streaming audiences; its expanding currency-grade analytics overlap directly with TRAC's Impressions and Passport Ratings offerings for broadcasters.

Direct peers

• Edison Research: Edison Research is the closest direct analog, conducting audience measurement and listener research for US public radio (NPR, PRX) using Nielsen-based audio data — structurally the public-radio mirror of TRAC's public-television audience research franchise.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/trac-media-services

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about TRAC Media Services