• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 13, 2005

GSN, the spunky game-oriented network jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corp., Monday unveiled plans for an unusual collaboration between an ad-supported cable network and a major academic researcher, commissioning a study by Ball State University's Center for Media Design examining how people use interactive television in their daily lives.

Results of the study, scheduled to be released in February 2006, are intended to provide new insights for advertisers and agencies on the effectiveness of marketing via interactive TV platforms. GSN has been a leader in the development of the interactive TV advertising field, and has one of the richest databases in the industry, triggering more than 25 million interactive TV programming plays since 2002. During that period, the company says it initiated more than 166 separate ad campaigns on behavior of 34 advertisers in major categories ranging from automotive to packaged goods.

Over that period, GSN's internal research shows that so-called "consumer engagement" increased progressively each year with the average interactive viewing time rising to 35 minutes in 2005, an increase of 46 percent over the 24 minutes averaged in 2002 when GSN first began tracking time spent with interactive viewing.

"We're hoping to better understand how consumers interact with brands," said Chris Raleigh, senior vice president-advertising sales at GSN, adding that the study's findings should benefit the entire ad community by providing a better understanding about how consumers engage with brands in interactive TV environments.

Separately, Ball State University ("Digital Gothic," MEDIA magazine, September 2005) Monday announced that it has received a second major grant from pharmaceutical giant Lilly to fund an expansion of its media research, design and testing with an emphasis on how digital media technologies impact education. The new four-year, $20 million grant, follows a $10 million grant endowed in 2001 that essentially created BSU's Center for Media Design, which itself has become a significant player bridging the gap between the world of academic research and the commercial media and advertising industries. Perhaps best known for its groundbreaking "Middletown Studies," which directly observe how consumers use media, the center has been working behind the scenes on research for major media corporations ranging from Microsoft to Time Warner.