ESPN Public Editor Jim Brady in his latest filing examined how the company's digital content team, led by ESPN Senior Deputy Editor Dan Kaufman, is making an "aggressive push" into e-sports. ESPN's embrace of e-sports "has not come without critics, internal and external." Some readers have complained that "because it happens on a screen and not a field, esports falls outside what ESPN should be covering." However, e-sports is "merely one example of the network’s investment into coverage areas it had historically neglected." In the past year, ESPN also has "increased its coverage of gambling, drone racing and WWE." Each is an "attempt by ESPN to engage new audiences against the backdrop of an ever-fragmenting sports landscape that has created business challenges for the network." Although the demographics and business opportunities for e-sports "are crucial, ESPN’s ability to televise esports might be the most important element, as it looks to lock up as many live events as it can to maintain its position in an ever time-shifted world." While ESPN’s e-sports investment "seems to make business sense, that doesn’t mean it came easily." ESPN President John Skipper in '14 said of e-sports, "It’s not a sport -- it’s a competition." However that statement "didn’t stop some from continuing to advocate for a focus on esports." While the network had been dabbling in esports, there was "little to no editorial coverage of esports on its platforms." That "started to change at a brainstorming meeting held at ESPN The Magazine" in June '14. Among the ideas pitched to ESPN VP & Editorial Dir of Domestic Digital Content Chad Millman, who at the time oversaw ESPN The Magazine, "was a dedicated esports issue." It is "clear that the company’s focus is not on those who cover ESPN but on those who consume the network’s content across various platforms" (ESPN.com, 5/13).
