According to official Sony reps, original video content that’s featured on the PlayStaion Network is enjoying a 60 percent increase in ad revenues when compared to last year. While a number of original video content has been created for the network Sony points to this year’s hit show “The Tester” as a primary driver for interested consumers, and thus … increased advertising revenues.
And let’s be clear – original video content created for, and distributed on the PlayStation Network comes nowhere close to the what now seems like doomed channel of in-game advertising. Sony isn’t dishing out any hard numbers, but according to MediaWeek, the company is still working on the learning curve, but are heading more and more in the direction of focusing on extracting advertising dollars and cents out of its programming production and decisions, including the aforementioned “The Tester,” but likewise their game-centric news show “The Pulse” and interactive info-zine Qore.
But that’s not to say that Sony studios will be pumping out new title after title. For now, Sony’s looking to maximize what they’ve got, and presumably construct the recipe for success in the making. As a point of reference, “The Tester,” which was created by 51 Minds (the same team that did VH1’s Rock of Love), pitted contestants against each other to earn the spot to become a professional video game tester. The show ran for 8 episodes and garnered a massive 2.5 million downloads, all of which Sony failed to monetize on.
Looking to cash in, the second season of “The Tester” is aimed at catching 3.5 million downloads, and Sony has already tee’d up EA, Ford, and The U.S. Air Force as advertising partners. These aren’t, however, straight forward, 30 second commercials inserted into episodes. Sure, there will be the traditional ad placement, but additionally, advertisers will have the opportunity to have much deeper integrations, such as one episode of “The Tester” is slated to take place on a U.S. Air Force base.
Again, even with these top shelf advertising partners in place, Sony isn’t planning on overwhelming consumers with more and more choices. Taking cues from ones that have been there (and back), Sony’s senior director, PlayStation Network, Susan Panico says that they’re adopting HBO’s philosophy of a “one foot in front of the other,” or, simply put: gradually.
As noted in the Massive closing article, it seems as though more and more advertisers, as well as console makers are realizing that there’s certainly money to be made on this platforms, and it doesn’t always involve an intrusive ad. By giving consumers more and more options of what they can do with their gaming console of choice, they’re finding that there are plenty more ways to monetize, all the while, still providing attractive advertising opportunities.
Tags: PlayStation, playstation network, Sony
