TBS and WME/IMG Plan to Bring Video Games to Primetime

Video games are coming to primetime TV next year, as Turner Broadcasting System partners with talent agency WME/IMG to create a league for players and fans. The currently unnamed league will broadcast gaming competitions live on Friday nights, with the hope it will draw in young male viewers on a night that is traditionally difficult to program. This first year, the league, which will broadcast 20 weeks a year, will focus competition in the game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” published by Valve Corp.

According to The Wall Street Journal, research firm Newzoo reports that the U.S. e-sports audience is comprised of 32 million people, expected to rise to 50 million by 2017. Newzoo estimates that, worldwide, e-sports have live and online audiences of more than 200 million people.

Counter_Strike_Global_Offensive

Amazon is also investing in e-sports. The company paid $970 million to buy Twitch Interactive, an Internet video channel for broadcasting and watching people play video games.

More e-sports news came from DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports site, which now allows users to draft professional gamers much like a fantasy football team. WSJ reports that the DraftKings’ first e-sports contest is “tied to the ‘League of Legends’ world championships that begins October 1 in Paris and culminates at the end of the month with a title match in Berlin.”

Last year, DraftKings made revenues of $30 million and gave away $300 million in prizes. This year, the company has vowed to give away at least $1 billion in prizes.

Another fantasy e-sports company, Vulcun, raised $12 million in venture funding for contests involving “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” and “Hearthstone” among others. FanDuel, a competitor to DraftKings, hasn’t announced plans to enter e-sports, and a spokesperson for Yahoo, which has a large fantasy-sports following, says the company is focused on its current major sports leagues offerings.

But making the leap to primetime isn’t as easy as TBS and WME/IMG make it seem. Disney’s ESPN has aired e-sports on its ESPN3 digital platform for years without being successful enough to make the leap to an actual TV channel.

No Comments Yet

You can be the first to comment!

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.