Facebook’s Exclusive ESL Deal Is About Media Rights
Want the THE NEXT LEVEL Newsletter ever Weekday Earlier for Free? Just click this → http://eepurl.com/b6qZLT or visit tnl.media
TNL Take: Going back to June 2016, we’ve said the biggest threat to Twitch in live esports was Facebook instead of YouTube. We even analyzed Youtube and Twitch directly stating the formers dominance in all things VOD.
Since Facebook entered the esports space, they’ve done a slew of content deals including:
- “Heroes of the Dorm” exclusive which was previously with ESPN
- Non-exclusive deal with European esports team G2
- 76'ers owned Team Dignitas
- The biggest deal to date with ESL: 5,500 hours of content and 1,500 exclusive to Facebook along with a Counter-Strike show
That’s plenty of inroads over the past 18 months.
Now Facebook is stepping it up further with another exclusive partnership with ESL — this time bringing content that previously lived on YouTube. The partnership includes:
- ESL One and CS:GO Pro League, which begins in February and an exclusive for 4 seasons till December 2019
- The first event will be ESL One Genting 2018 that begins this week
- Other events include ESL One Katowice 2018 and ESL One Cologne 2018
- ESL will also produce a weekly show for “Facebook Watch”
Let’s be clear, this deal is primarily about 1 thing: Minimum Guarantee for broadcast rights that Facebook would pay ESL. While probably nowhere close to BAMTech/Riot Games ($40M+/year) or the reported Overwatch League figure ($45M/year), it’s enough that would warrant any drop in viewership or ad revenue. Facebook even recently announced the hiring of Eurosport head Peter Hutton to spearhead their sports rights initiative.
What else can Facebook bring to the table that helps ESL?
/01 SCALE: Facebook hit 2 Billion monthly users by the end of Q2 2017. Over half of those users are daily. Which also leads to…
/02 MOBILE: 85% of Facebook’s revenues comes from Mobile. As the rest of the world comes online, this is how they’re going to access content — not via a PC or console. Same goes for esports with some platforms approaching 50% usage on Mobile.
/03 MONETIZATION: Ads, Donations, Subscriptions, Virtual Currency, Sponsorships, Influencer Campaigns — the list goes on.
/04 VR: As VR eventually gathers more audience and others are trying to build VR platforms on top of Twitch or create separate ones, Facebook already has the hardware end with Oculus. From both playing and viewing, the experience potential is endless.
/05 Facebook Watch: Facebook is clearly trying to get as much content for Facebook Watch as possible. Now Facebook Watch allows you to view together with your friends — the social glue that allows engagement with your followers vs. a firehose of viewers.
While the viewership numbers may not be Twitch/YouTube levels at the beginning, there is more to this deal than viewer counts.
Thanks for sharing your time and hit the 👏 if you liked this!
You really want THE NEXT LEVEL Newsletter early every Weekday for Free right? Click here → http://eepurl.com/b6qZLT
