Blizzard Entertainment has signed a multi-year deal with Disney to broadcast the Overwatch League on linear television.

The deal covers multiple Disney-controlled networks including ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC.

Disney will begin by broadcasting today’s OWL playoffs, followed by the season one grand finals and continuing on into next season.

Blizzard Entertainment has signed a multi-year broadcast deal to televise the Overwatch League across ESPN, Disney, and ABC’s family of networks.

Beginning with today’s playoffs, the OWL will be broadcast at least in part on ESPN, ESPN2, Disney XD, and ABC, as well as various Disney-owned streaming services.

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ESPN vice president of digital media programming John Lasker said in the announcement:

“We are turning the corner here in terms of our interest and engagement in the esports category. We’ve had an interest and have been watching pretty closely how the first year of the Overwatch League has been progressing, and we’re really excited to be a part of this. Clearly by the way we’re going to be covering it starting with the playoffs and the finals this year certainly speaks volumes to our excitement and our enthusiasm overall for esports moving forward.”

Both ESPN and Disney XD have broadcast multiple esports events in the past. ESPN has aired the Street Fighter finals of the Evolution Fighting Game Championships (Evo) for the last two years, and Disney XD has featured both the Overwatch League Contenders Series and replays of the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, as well as last year’s Super Smash Bros. Evo finals.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The OWL has an exclusive streaming deal with Twitch, reported to be worth at least $90M over two years.[/perfectpullquote]

ESPN, of which Disney owns an 80% stake, recently signed a deal with Riot Games to stream North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) matches on its streaming service ESPN+. However, this is the first multiyear television deal for both Disney and Blizzard.

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In a recent report, Goldman Sachs predicted that media rights deals would begin to form the majority of revenue generated by esports, making up 40% of all revenue by 2022. The OWL has already accounted for a significant increase in media rights revenue through its deal with Twitch, reported to be worth at least $90M over two years.

Founding franchise owners paid a reported $20M for their spot in the OWL, and expansion teams are expected to pay $30M to $60M. Blizzard is also seeking new media deals in China, a region excluded from the Twitch deal, which could reportedly draw well into the eight-figure mark, annually.

Despite a lack of viewership growth across the first season, a new broadcast deal with a major corporation like Disney, spanning multiple TV channels, shows that the OWL can continue to generate new revenue to support the expanding team list, all of which intend to begin playing from home venues in 2020.