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German commercial sports television broadcaster Sports 1 is planning to launch a dedicated TV channel for esports. A spokesperson of the company said that it is “pushing ahead with the development of an esports channel, and we are also talking to potential partners in this regard.” Sport1 started broadcasting esports events with ESL One Frankfurt 2016. In August 2017, it beamed ESL One Hamburg, a Dota 2 major, on free television across Germany through a partnership with ESL that also included broadcast rights for other ESL events that year. The company has also aired coverage of the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS) and various Counter-Strike events, along with producing its own online content and dedicated esports Twitter feed.
Despite most viewership for esports being online, TV networks are still looking to add esports amongst their programming.
In Germany, sports channel ProSieben broadcasts its own esports content, including a highlight show “ran eSports.” Internationally, Activision Blizzard recently signed a multiyear media rights deal to broadcast the Overwatch League across several Disney-controlled channels including ESPN, ESPN2, and Disney XD. Gfinity Australia also recently secured its own linear TV deal with Network Ten to cover the Rocket League portion of the Gfinity Elite Series Australia.
Source: esportsobserver.com
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