Sony sees 60% ad boost from PSN videos

Original series such as reality show The Tester have seen Sony's ad revenue from PSN video content rise by 60 per cent.

Sony hopes to attract 3.5 million downloads for the Tester, a PSN-exclusive series documenting a competition to become a games tester.

However, the PlayStation maker is cautious about moving too far into non-games content.

"There are more things coming, but you won't see a huge rollout... Original series are a more passive entertainment," Susan Panico, senior director for PlayStation Newtwork, told MediaWeek.

"They are a little out of our initial purview. For one thing, we didn't always have the capability to sell this content."

Sony had not sought to sell ads for last year's first season of The Tester, but this year its two-person PSN video sales team has arranged advertising and sponsorship deals with the likes of Ford, EA and the U.S. Air Force.

"We've really had to shift our mindset from a gaming company to a media company," said Panico. PSN's hike in ad revenue also stemmed from other original series such as Qore and The Pulse.

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