eSports broadcasting – a difficult balance to strike
As the eSports juggernaut continues to gather momentum during 2017, one question that will be on the minds of both rights holders and broadcasters is how best to get eSports content out to the tens of millions of fans tuning in. Indeed, this question highlights a commercial conundrum at the heart of eSports: whether to adopt a rigid, exclusive licensing model (which has reaped huge revenues for traditional sports), but at the risk of alienating fans; or whether to stick to a more open model, with potentially lower rights fees.
This article by Will Deller and George Khouri compares and contrasts the traditional sports and eSports broadcasting environments, discussing some of the commercial and legal issues involved in what will be a crucial decision for stakeholders within the eSports industry.
