Fans react during a competition at the grand opening of Esports Arena Las Vegas on March 22, 2018. Esports streaming companies have been plucking talent from traditional TV companies. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Esports Arena Las Vegas)
Itay Filiba, a TV executive of 22 years, has spent his career working in news and entertainment, most recently as head of product for Israel’s largest news broadcaster. Then esports came calling, looking to claw Filiba away from traditional TV.
It’s a trend Filiba says is only beginning to pick up, and one he is excited to join.
“I think what really excited me is actually how to find a way to tell the story in esports. I think mobile games or video games in general, they were created actually to be played, not to be watched,” said Filiba. “And I think this is the reason I find esports very exciting—to take skills from the traditional media … and find a way to tell the story of esports.”
Blink, which Filiba joined recently and which recently changed its name from Elastic Media, currently uses artificial intelligence to create and curate esports highlights, much like Reely does for traditional sports. Filiba sees the company using the technology to help the gamers interact more fluidly with their fans.
“In esports, it’s actually the gamer is the king, and the gamer is the person who creates the content and actually builds a community around it,” Filiba said. “And it’s kind of an open communication between the creator of the content—the gamer—and its audience.”
That audience, increasingly, is tuning into esports broadcasts on YouTube, Twitch—which paid $90 million to exclusively broadcast Overwatch League—and other online platforms rising in popularity. Though American sports venues are being renovated and technologically outfitted with esports in mind, and a dedicated arena is being built in China, stadiums can only hold so many eager spectators. So where does Filiba see Blink fitting in among those platforms?
It still is helpful to think of Blink in the context of traditional sports, he told SportTechie. Fans of football, baseball, and other major sports typically watch those games live. When they don’t have time to, they turn to highlights rather than a full recording. Blink, he says, focuses on short-form content that distills the event into a storyline. And they’re doing it primarily on mobile, Filiba added.
As for broadcasting esports, Filiba said the second-most-watched sports event worldwide in 2017 was the League of Legends final. That, in a way, forces traditional media outlets such as NBC, ABC, and CBS to pay attention. In some ways, they have: TBS, a cable channel, partnered with talent agency WME-IMG to create and broadcast ELEAGUE, and NBC Sports Group last year announced it would launch an esports tournament.
“Once you see these figures, I believe also the traditional networks, or traditional media, is also [going to] start broadcasting esports once it will be easy to use, easy to watch,” Filiba said. Those networks have begun to invest and believe in esports as well. It seems it’s only a matter of time.
