NEW YORK : Hollywood studios who use the television as a vehicle to generate awareness about their upcoming blockbuster products have a new competitive weapon at their disposal. A rapid-alert system from Nielsen Monitor-Plus lets them know when TV commercials for new movie releases break on television screens across the US.

The Internet-based system - dubbed Movie Sentry - was developed jointly by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the US ad-tracking service from the Nielsen TV ratings people, and corporate sibling Nielsen NRG which claims to be the leading Hollywood market researcher.

Using proprietary, real-time tracking technology, Movie Sentry automatically alerts studio executives any time a new movie ad appears on the idiot box. Users get a flash e-mail notifying them of the latest commercials within 48 hours of initial airing, complete with programme-specific links to view digital images of the spots .

Movie Sentry delivers the commercials - displayed in full colour with motion and sound, or in storyboard format - right to the users desktop. Detailed information for each commercial includes the name of the network and programme on which the commercial aired; the daypart and precise broadcast time; the length of the commercial, and even its positioning within the commercial break. This is a key factor in consumer recall and advertising effectiveness.

In addition Movie Sentry users can view, by movie title, historical advertising activity - for the most recent 48 hours, for any single day specified by the user, or by cumulative activity within the past 28 days. Users can get summary reports of all advertising activity, or scroll down for more details about a specific theatrical release.

Senior VP and MD Nielsen Monitor-Plus Jeff King said, "Movie Sentry provides the motion-picture industry with the ultimate intelligence on competitive advertising. We monitor the airwaves 24/7 to give studio executives the first alert on breaking movie commercials, whenever and wherever they air."

Nielsen Monitor-Plus is the US advertising information service of Nielsen Media Research. In all, Nielsen Media Research offers competitive advertising intelligence in more than 30 leading international advertising markets. Through a network of affiliates, coverage is extended to more than 70 countries, representing 85 per cent of the world's advertising spending.