Nielsen count: Measuring value of esports tournaments

NEW YORK (AP) Nielsen has launched a competitive gaming branch that will measure the value of esports tournaments, events and streams.

Nielsen Esports will also release global fan insights throughout the year, with a new research offering spanning the United State, England, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and China in 2017.

Nielsen developed Esport24, a syndicated sponsorship tracking service for esports tournaments. The service measures brand exposure in esports tournaments representing a variety of titles, event formats and geographic locations based on the same methodology that allows traditional sports rights holders and brands to quantify value and benchmark performance.

Nielsen has created an esports advisory board of industry stakeholders who will provide insight to help shape the future of esports audience measurement and valuation. ESL, ESPN, Facebook, FIFA, Major League Gaming/Activision Blizzard, NBA 2K League, The Next Level, Sony PlayStation, Turner, Twitch, Twitter, Unilever, and Google YouTube are all part of the board.

''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,'' said Craig Levine, CEO of North America, ESL. ''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.''

Nielsen is one of top market research firms that measure the TV and media business.

Stephen Master and Nicole Pike will-lead the global Nielsen Esports business.