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The television industry has known for years that video games are a threat to viewership, but a new pilot program might finally give some insight into exactly how big that threat is.
The Nielsen Company and Microsoft [ MSFT 27.72 
-0.30 (-1.07%) ] are teaming up to study the reach of in-game advertising in the second season of "1 vs. 100" on Xbox Live. This will be the first time Nielsen has measured content delivered through a video game.
Microsoft's target with the program isn't so much to take viewers away from the broadcast networks. It's to steal away advertisers.
"In the U.S. today, digital advertising spends are about $20 million, while television ad spends are about $75 million," says Dean Carignan, director of advertising business strategy at Microsoft. "We think that larger pool is very much untapped by us today. And this is the first step in uncorking that. Without putting a number on it, I would say if we could get all of this right, it could lead to a dramatic grown in terms of revenue."
Chasing traditional advertisers has been historically challenging for gaming services, since there was no direct way to compare the return on in-game ads to that of television.
Nielsen numbers are the industry standard in television. And by incorporating them, Microsoft hopes it will be able to showcase the strength of its audience.
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