Gaming enters premier league

Broadcast
Can broadcasters tap into the content that’s attracting millennials?
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/gaming-enters-premier-league/5116967.article?blocktitle=Features&contentID=42957

Sports, or competitive video gaming, has grown quietly over the past decade to amass a global audience of more than 260 million and is set to generate revenues of $1.1bn (£890m) by 2019, according to analyst Newzoo.
It’s the sort of fan base that prompted Gabriel Catrina, chief strategy officer of Modern Times Group (MTG), to state at last month’s Cable Congress show: “eSports is going to become the biggest sport in the world – bigger than soccer.”
Moreover, the chief demographic is millennials, the same group that, according to a recent study by Ampere Analysis, may be deserting live linear sport for other forms of content.
No wonder broadcasters like MTG, ESPN, Turner and Sky are attempting to tap into this market.
David Kangas, head of production and creative director at eSports network Ginx TV, believes the challenge lies in making content that has grown online on sites such as Twitch “palatable” to TV audiences, while reflecting existing fans’ engagement.
“eSports is very tribal,” he says. “A League of Legends die-hard fan will not be a Dota 2 fan. This rivalry is potentially quite toxic. We are trying to be Switzerland – to take the sting out of how different each eSport feels.”
He adds: “Marines blowing up terrorists [the premise of multiplayer, first-person shooter game CS:GO] might not sit comfortably in the lounge in the same way we watch the FA Cup final. Right away, the aesthetic is a big hurdle for a lot of people.”
Sky and ITV invested in Ginx “as an experiment”, says Kangas.
Sky has aired the Ginx TV channel since October. “Is this the emperor’s new clothes, or can eSports really thrive on TV?” he wonders. “The next 12 months will give everyone a real snapshot of what works and what does not.”
Games can last 10 minutes or 10 hours, and anything in between, making scheduling a headache.
 “We work with the tournament organisers and games publishers to bring some sort of consistency to start times,” says Kangas. “It is in their interest, since they want to use broadcast to extend their reach beyond the core online audience.”
Like a conventional sport producer, Ginx TV takes feeds of tournaments from producers like MTG-owned ESL and wraps its own commentary, analysis and interviews around it, either with a presence at the event or from its London studio. It airs live games, highlights packages and produces weekly live chat show The Bridge.
“We treat content like the Olympics,” says Kangas. “We get to the heart of the story, we build narratives and provide ‘guides for dummies’ so people can get up to speed on topics or gameplay.”
Millennial appeal
ESL UK managing director James Dean describes eSports production as a cross between a gameshow and a live sports event.
“You are looking at a fantasy environment, in which real players are competing for very high stakes in stadia in front of thousands of people,” he says. “This dynamic and vibrant mid-ground is what attracts millennials.”
However, eSports is a broad church, encompassing as many different types of games as the Olympics, but without the organisational structure of conventional sport.
“Because there is so much content, there is an opportunity to develop shorter formats for covering these events,” says Dean.  “That lends itself well to traditional broadcast.”
ESL is looking to co-develop a range of formats, from highlights packages to magazine shows, to serve a growing number of millennials “who still want to follow their passion but may have less time than they used to, as they get older”.
Production values have risen in line with budgets.
“A decade ago, we were using PC platforms and software mixing applications, but today our workflow and studios are on par with anything in broadcast,” says Dean.
ESL’s recent production of the Intel Extreme Masters event in Katowice, Poland, attracted 42 million viewers online.
“We used spider-cams in the stadium, multiple HD cameras, Ross video switchers and EVS replay servers,” says Dean.
“A key difference is that a large amount of content is in-game content. In-game camera-operators (or ‘observers’) control virtual cameras inside the game and capture data and angles for broadcast that the players can’t see.”
Observers are experts in the game who are able to understand game maps to judge when strategic points will occur.
There is a balance to be struck between enticing casual gamers or newcomers to eSports without deterring hardcore enthusiasts.
“It’s a culture that developed on PCs and second screens and there is a significant rump of fans who feel – rightly – that eSports is theirs,” says Kangas. “They don’t want to feel that there’s an industry behind it or for it to grow so big that it’s taken away from them.”