US Nielsen TV ratings company moves in to esports

Nielsen has announced the launch of Nielsen Esports, a new business that looks at the competitive gaming industry and will help provide bespoke solutions to help quantify industry.

Better known for television ratings in the US, Nielsen’s analytics measures the performance of a specific product and its popularity across ages, genders and other considerations. The new esports business will help companies with sponsorship valuations, industry research, right management consulting and will also work with fans and media platforms to see how companies can adapt to this rapidly growing entertainment sector.

The new company will work globally, offering services in the UK and Europe as well as the US, South Korea, China and Japan. The need for consistent valuations already being addressed by Nielsen who have created the Esport24 tracking service alongside the new vertical. The tracker has already measured that sponsorship value in 2017 can be anything between $75,000 and $17 million.

“There’s a high demand for reliable, independent measurement of value in esports,” said Nielsen Entertainment president, Howard Appelbaum. “We’re excited to enhance our client offerings and provide the industry with solutions that will help guide and optimize investment decisions in this exciting, growing space.”

An advisory board for the industry has also been created with representatives from ESL, ESPN, FIFA, MLG, PlayStation and Twitch, to name but a few. "With Twitch being an online epicenter for the live viewing of esports content, Nielsen’s research will tie directly to our community and makes our participation in the advisory board a natural fit," said Kristen Salvatore, VP of esports and event partnership on Twitch.

"The global, digital and young nature of esports fan base audience represents advertising’s most highly sought after segment, yet consistent and high quality data has been a challenge to measure and define,” added ESL’s North American CEO, Craig Levine. “As ESL has been pioneering esports for the past 15 years, we have witnessed the incredible growth and enthusiasm of our audience. We’re excited to partner with Nielsen and other industry leaders to guide the framework to measure esports sponsorships, shape the industry, and help further accelerate the esports industry overall.”