RentrakTheatrical, a subsidiary of Oregon-based information management companyRentrak, has hired industry veteran Rob Springer to head up the expansion ofits global box office tracking system Box Office Essentials.

Springer, whomost recently served as executive director of sales administration atParamount, will be based in Los Angeles and is a key appointment as the companymoves to expand further its international operations and services.

He will beresponsible for managing the international territory service locationoperations and will report to Ron Giambra, senior vice president of theatricalworldwide at Rentrak.

Rentrak iscurrently receiving box office ticket sales data from Australia, Germany andthe UK and plans to open a string of international hubs by the summer.

"Rob Springer'sbusiness acumen and proven ability to create and implement more efficientsystems to track theatrical distribution business activities will be atremendous asset at Rentrak as we continue to expand our Box Office Essentialsinto the global entertainment marketplace," Giambra said in a statement.

"As thefinancial contribution of international box office receipts continue to grow instature, Rentrak is ramping up quickly to deliver its highly sophisticatedreal-time data collection and analysis services to the international motionpicture community."

"Having usedRentrak's superior Box Office Essentials software and analytical reportingservices at my most recent post in distribution, I'm excited and ready to rollout the industry's most powerful real-time reporting tool into the internationalmarketplace," Springer added.

At Paramount, hedevised and implemented new technologies to track box office figures and assessdistribution platforms.