The newly formed eSports league from Turner and WME-IMG will "produce extensive digital content, which will include live daily competitive gaming Tuesday through Friday during each tournament week, as well as a live digital companion experience on Friday nights simultaneously with the TBS airings," according to Todd Spangler of VARIETY. Digital content also will include "behind-the-scenes event coverage and profiles on the e-sports teams and competitors, with additional coverage available through Bleacher Report’s Team Stream App" (VARIETY.com, 9/23). In L.A., Paresh Dave reports a set "built for gaming at Turner Studios in Atlanta will also be the headquarters" for the league. Turner said that "production quality" for eSports events will "match" its college basketball, MLB and NBA broadcasts. Companion coverage will "run on Turner apps and websites." Turner Sports President Lenny Daniels said, "The level of investment is unlike anything that this sport has seen. The way we treat players will be on par with the way we treat Charles Barkley. We want to upgrade the whole sport." Dave reports the companies "met and dined with gaming team owners three weeks ago in Atlanta." Daniels said of the teams, "They want to be recognized. They want people to understand what they do and how they do it." WME agent Tobias Sherman, who heads the company's eSports division, said that forming a new league "allows for innovation on presentation, where the limits of Twitch, YouTube and other services have created a 'glass ceiling'" (L.A. TIMES, 9/24).
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: Daniels said that while Turner "could have partnered with an existing e-sports league like Major League Gaming," the company "decided to form its own league in order to have more control over the competitions and take advantage of WME-IMG's involvement, given that the agency operates its own e-sports business that includes team management, marketing and live events." Daniels also said that Turner will "look to secure league sponsorships and, along with WME-IMG, endorsement deals for competitors" in addition to "traditional ad sales like commercial time during the televised events" (ADAGE.com, 9/23). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Flint writes Turner is "hoping that e-sport events will bring it a young male audience" on Fridays, a "night of the week that most networks have found particularly tough to program." But bringing an audience "big enough to justify prime-time coverage on traditional television won’t be a cakewalk." ESPN has "dabbled in airing e-sports for years and while it is popular on its ESPN3 digital platform, it has yet to translate into success on an actual television channel." In April, "fewer than 100,000 people watched the finale of Activision Blizzard Inc.’s 'Heroes of the Dorm' collegiate tournament on ESPN2" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/24).
