motbob Profile Blog Joined July 2008 United States 12383 Posts Last Edited: 2012-05-31 20:43:11 #1 http://www.cnbc.com/id/47633993



RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - CBS Interactive, the gaming wing of CBS Corp, has locked up exclusive advertising deals with six major professional leagues, capitalizing on a sport that is rapidly growing in popularity while managing to run under the mainstream radar.



Executives for CBS Interactive told Reuters on Wednesday that they had signed agreements to stream pro competitions with the North American Star League, Dreamhack, Electronic Sports League, Global StarCraft II League, EVO Championship Series, and Major League Gaming. CBSi also has a non-exclusive deal with a seventh, IGN Pro League.



"We've locked up 96 percent of all the advertising inventory around eSports, and now we have an opportunity to take that to market and turn this pond into an ocean," said Simon Whitcombe, general manager of CBSi Games.



...



CBSi Games also has partnered with Own3D, one of the world's largest live streaming companies to expand its reach. Own3D already attracts over 10 million people a month to watch live streaming game competitions and events.



The deal with Own3D comes on the heels of a separate CBSi partnership with TwitchTV, which attracts another 17 million gamers per month through its streaming game content.

Note: CBSi does not actually have direct partnerships with Dreamhack, ESL, GSL, or IPL.



Having control over the "advertising inventory" means that CBSi now has the right to sell advertising space during MLG, ESL, NASL, etc in a way that they choose. Since CBSi (I assume) has more knowledge about how to get the most out of advertising space than most of the leagues do, I'd imagine that this deal will be great for all parties, at least in theory.



According to Slasher, the control that CBSi has over advertising for Dreamhack, ESL, IPL, and GSL only exists if those leagues use Twitch TV. And even then, CBSi will only be handling their advertising in the US. So, for example, if ESL uses Twitch for the next IEM, CBSi will be handling their advertising in the US, but if ESL uses a stream of their own, CBSi will not be handling the advertising at all.



For reference, ESL, IPL, and Dreamhack used Twitch to stream their last major event. GSL did not.



Note: CBSi does not actually have direct partnerships with Dreamhack, ESL, GSL, or IPL.Having control over the "advertising inventory" means that CBSi now has the right to sell advertising space during MLG, ESL, NASL, etc in a way that they choose. Since CBSi (I assume) has more knowledge about how to get the most out of advertising space than most of the leagues do, I'd imagine that this deal will be great for all parties, at least in theory.According to Slasher, the control that CBSi has over advertising for Dreamhack, ESL, IPL, and GSL only exists if those leagues use Twitch TV. And even then, CBSi will only be handling their advertising in the US. So, for example, if ESL uses Twitch for the next IEM, CBSi will be handling their advertising in the US, but if ESL uses a stream of their own, CBSi will not be handling the advertising at all.For reference, ESL, IPL, and Dreamhack used Twitch to stream their last major event. GSL did not. On June 01 2012 05:08 Slasher wrote:

I have spoken to CBSi Games General Manager Simon Whitcombe and would like to clarify a few things.



- CBS Interactive has direct partnerships only with MLG, TwitchTV, and now NASL and Own3d. CBSi will sell advertising for those leagues worldwide. EVO, DreamHack, ESL, and IPL were named because of those leagues' broadcast deals with TwitchTV. CBSi does NOT have a direct partnership with any of those leagues at this time, but are included as all broadcasts are done via TwitchTV. Advertising will be sold for these leagues in the US.



- GSL was listed as per their previous streaming via Twitch and Own3d, but there is again no direct partnership with GomTV



- "96% of all the advertising inventory" refers to only to LIVE VIDEO, and does not count VOD's such as YouTube and Blip.tv.

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