Analyst: eSports streaming media rights set for surge
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 29 March 2020

One of the first knock-on effects of the Coronavirus outbreak has been cancellation of major traditional sporting activities, principally top-flight football and the Olympic Games but it could actually also see a massive uptake in eSports revenues says analyst GlobalData.

eSports is one of the fastest-growing areas of the gaming sector and has actually not been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak with dozens of traditional eSports tournaments held in TV studios with large audiences cancelled, and many more postponed indefinitely. Events scheduled to be held in stadiums are being moved online to mitigate the spread of the disease.

Indeed the analyst says that the online population has risen sharply, bringing more viewers to eSports competitions. Gen.G claims to have seen an 18% increase in the audience for its PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and League of Legends teams on Chinese streaming platforms DouYu and Huya between January and March 2020. Boosting experiences, SK Telecom hosts three virtual reality and augmented reality eSports services over its 5G network including Jump AR, LCK (League of Legends (LoL) Champions Korea) VR Live Broadcasting and VR Replay.

Due to Covid-19, revenue from sales of tickets and merchandise will drop significantly, while in-app purchases on streaming platforms will go up.
The result is that even though organisers will see their ad revenues fall significantly, streaming platforms stand to benefit said GlobalData. It noted that streaming platforms Twitch, with a 73% share of total viewing hours in 2019, and YouTube, with 21%, are seeing viewing numbers increase due to the global lockdown.

Having acquired the exclusive streaming rights to the Call of Duty League, which is being organised online, YouTube’s market share is expected grow in 2020.
“With the industry’s shift to online formats, brands are expected to allocate spending on both online and out-of-home ads, with the former being the primary channel because of its greater security in times of uncertainty. Out-of-home ad spend will decrease in 2020,” said GlobalData senior analyst of thematic research Rupantar Guha.

“As a result, the value of media rights that streaming platforms buy from organisers could potentially surge in the coming years, pushing streaming platforms to look for long-term, exclusive deals. Twitch could take this opportunity to add more mobile esports content. This will allow it to attract mobile esports leagues, the majority of which are currently available on YouTube.”