Tournament organizer and global esports company ESL will "soon be streaming 1,500 hours of exclusive esports content on Facebook Live in six different languages," according to Mark Burns of SPORT TECHIE. All told, "over 5,500 hours of live tournament programming will appear on the social platform in the coming months." ESL will stream an exclusive weekly half-hour Counter-Strike: Global Offensive show on the platform, which will include "highlights, analysis and discussion of emerging esports players." Additionally, the organization "will stream on Facebook Live Rank S competitions from the CS:GO Community" along with all ESL One and Extreme Masters events in English, French and Polish, among other languages (SPORT TECHIE, 5/18). In N.Y., Needleman & Seetharaman reported Facebook is shifting "in strategy to deliver more-polished programming to the company’s nearly two billion monthly users." Earlier this year, Facebook signed contracts with five teams to publish live and on-demand video of players practicing or competing at esports. Under the deals, esports partners "must produce a minimum number of hours of video for the social network, and in most cases the partners are allowed to simultaneously publish to rival platforms" such as Twitch. Financial terms were not disclosed. Facebook's interest in "beefing up TV-like programming" from science, lifestyle and other genres comes as "many publishers are seeing lackluster viewership for their live videos on the platform." Facebook is also investing in "more gaming and traditional sports content." Esports "marries both, and fits Facebook's strategy to focus on lower-profile sports that still have dedicated followings" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/18).
