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If there was any doubt as to whether esports is deserving of sporting designation, the Overwatch League (OWL) grand finals was created to smother those thoughts and bundle them off into a darkened room.
The Activision Blizzard concept – with its city-based franchises, fully branded teams, headline stars and slick media operation – is the most deliberate attempt by an esports entity to emulate the traditional North American sports model. July’s grand finals at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York served to enhance that image and it delivered.
More than 10,000 very passionate fans packed out the venue on each of the two nights. They saw a final between the Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire franchises played out by ten South Koreans, one Israeli, one Frenchman, one Spaniard and one Briton; clearly, homegrown talent is not the appeal here. That is the clearest difference between esports and traditional sports but there are others facets that simply do not translate.
In fact, very little about esports currently makes sense to those looking in from the outside – or even the OWL’s own rights holders. That lack of clarity was borne out by the ratings bomb sat on by grand finals broadcaster ESPN, which aired the action in US primetime on the Friday night. According to Nielsen’s overnight scores, ESPN’s full Friday broadcast earned a 0.18 rating, compared to 0.34 for the network’s Sports Center programme that ran just before. Whilst those figures might have been poor, there was no sense of despair from the OWL, for ESPN makes up just one part of its broadcast picture.
With esports a digitally native product, league commissioner Nate Nanzer (pictured, left) was able to dismiss concerns for a variety of reasons. Although ESPN’s eponymous flagship station headlined the July rights deal, the agreement also included coverage on the ESPN2, Disney XD and ABC channels. In the post-event ratings analysis of the OWL’s first linear TV offering, coverage on Disney XD, a channel Nanzer actually sees as a big part of the league’s strategy, was overlooked. The Saturday finale broadcast scored a 0.1 on Disney XD and a 0.3 for the re-airing on ABC, not stunning numbers but solid additions. During the play-offs Disney viewers matched or bettered the number on endemic platform Twitch.
The Disney angle is one OWL are keen to champion, especially given the importance of its 12-17 viewer demographic. “[Disney XD] is a cable network that has a much younger audience,” Nanzer tells SportsPro. “I think Overwatch as a game is broadly appealing, it’s much more stylised graphically. Being on Disney XD I think gives us an opportunity to get in front of younger fans and build fandom around our league from younger ages, which is really exciting.”
London Spitfire celebrate their victory in the Overwatch League grand finals, held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
Whilst the grand finals success on linear TV is debatable, an undeniable win for the league was the event’s performance on Twitch. A key stakeholder in the league, the Amazon-owned digital platform signed a reported two-year, US$90 million streaming deal in January, and reached viewing peaks during the finals not seen since the league’s debut on the service.
The finals achieved an average concurrent Twitch viewership of 179,500 on the first day, and 177,600 on the Saturday, with reported peaks in excess of 350,000 viewers. Those numbers dwarf the league’s Twitch audience for the rest of the play-offs.
Digital nativity is clearly an esports strong point. It was not long after the grand finals that Nanzer signed off on a content deal with Twitter, a platform on which he believes the league can thrive given it is able to produce targeted content in tune with its fans.
“We know our audience is having conversations in real-time during our matches on Twitter,” says Nanzer. “Let’s go see if we have some content that’s tailored to that platform. I think we have a lot of flexibility in terms of what we can do and what we can try. It’s super-exciting because there is no playbook that we have to follow.”
Herein is the inherent advantage of the OWL’s unique position at the cross-section of gaming and traditional sports. Whilst the OWL has followed the trodden path of an upstart organisation and secured the kinds of media rights deals so coveted by fledgling sports bodies such as Major League Rugby or the XFL, it does not have to be in any way conventional about its presentation.
Although some traditional sports struggle to explain themselves to new viewers, the OWL sees its need to do so as an advantage. Using traditional broadcasting to appeal to first-timers is actually central to the league’s plan to crossover from the digital realm in which it currently sits. That approach differs from traditional sports with a more limited appeal in certain markets, such as rugby in the US or football in the UK. For them, linear broadcast is likely to produce their biggest audiences among both new and hardcore fans, so they have to contend with striking a balance between explaining the action and not alienating the informed. For OWL, that is not the case.
OWL can naturally rely on a digitally savvy fanbase but has to find a way to translate that into a linear audience
“We have this linear television opportunity; we need to make sure that we’re being thoughtful about the content we create and the way we produce our show,” explains Nanzer. “If there is somebody who tunes in for the first time ever, has no idea what Overwatch is and they tune in near the end, pretty quickly they [have to be able] to get a sense of what’s happening. [We must] make that product as appealing as possible and as acceptable as possible to a broad audience.
“Particularly Disney XD: [we have to ask] is there content that we should be producing that’s more targeted to a younger audience? If you think about ESPN – if you watched grand finals you started to see some of that [introductory content], like the map explainer videos – the content that’s more educational and more informational. I think we’ve already started to use some of that [explainer content] and I think we will continue to do that.”
There is an element of learning on the fly and out in the open for the OWL when it comes to its TV output. The league is pioneering a new model for esports and very early on in that process has secured a deal which brings pressure to produce a groundbreaking broadcast product. The situation poses an intriguing question for the OWL that goes back to the core of where esports sits in the sporting landscape.
Clearly, although esports has some facets that are unique and new, Nazner wants to align his league as a TV product alongside the old guard of sports, rather than target the entertainment sphere. Asked what the OWL had learned from its primetime ESPN debut, the commissioner says he was most concerned about positioning its broadcast alongside highlights of the sporting calendar.
“If you think about the Champions League Final, the Super Bowl – any of these events – it would start at 7pm; you’d tune in and they’re kicking off or they’re throwing the ball by 7:01,” he says.
“[For us], should the pre-show start at 6.50 pm? Do we want to get straight into the action? I think there’s a lot that we can learn from ESPN as a partner on what works best on the platform. So those are the types of things that I think we’re learning and conversations we’re having to make sure that we’re constantly improving the product.”
There’s a lot that we can learn from ESPN as a partner on what works best on the platform
Those considerations are important but for a product like the OWL, and esports in general, the strengths lie in the devotion of its fans. At a grand finals press event, an OWL marketing officer was keen to impress on the attendees its position as a sporting league that is built and run in the best interests of its players, but also the people who watch it. Some of the biggest problems for sports bodies have come when they place growth markets before their core base, the current tussle involving Spanish soccer’s La Liga and its proposed Miami game being a case in point.
The OWL has a natural global appeal, so it does not need to be as concerned with moving out of its home market. However, for the sake of its consumers, the media needs to figure out how to cover the league, first and foremost. Certainly, the answer is not going to be the same in all of the league’s target markets.
The New York grand finals media day was dominated by outlets producing digital content – video and podcasts – which makes sense in countries with strong digital infrastructure. With a recent round of expansion having seen franchises added in the developed markets of the US, France, Canada and China, the OWL does not need to implement a different approach just yet. However, when it comes to expansion into markets such as South America, it will have to call on different types of coverage and consider how best to position itself, which could mean rowing back towards linear coverage.
“We have to look at how many fans we have there and what the overall distribution landscape is,” says Nanzer on the league’s thought process when contemplating new markets. “Brazil is an interesting example. Brazil is a market where broadband penetration lags a little bit behind some other big markets. Maybe linear makes more sense in a market like that, where maybe it’s more difficult for people to access it.
“We have a tremendous amount of fans in the Middle East. Platforms like Twitch and YouTube and others that are still in the process of building infrastructure in those regions, maybe [linear] would also make sense there. We’re approaching it on a case-by-case basis, but we’re actively engaged in those conversations and I expect that you’ll see more of that in years to come.”
July’s grand finals marked the Overwatch League’s mainstream TV debut
What is abundantly clear from across the sports landscape is that any serious organisation is working in a place where an over-the-top (OTT) service is either part of its present or its immediate future. This year alone has seen the release of a host of new direct-to-consumer offerings such as F1 TV, Disney’s ESPN+ and Turner’s B/R Live.
The OWL’s existing OTT strategy encompasses Twitch and the Blizzard-owned Major League Gaming (MLG) platform – which Robert Kotick, the chief executive of Activision Blizzard, said he wants to turn into the “ESPN of video games”. However, Nanzer believes a more all-encompassing platform for his league is a natural progression. As the OWL moves from its base at Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles to become a globetrotting entity across multiple timezones, such a product may become a necessity in the not-too-distant future.
“Half of all the watched league content is on MLG this year, so we do have the ability to distribute our own content,” Nanzer says when questioned on OTT. “You can envision a future where you have teams all around the world playing in their home venues. At that point, maybe it does make sense to have some kind of league service, where fans can come in and get multiple feeds, like in a world where there’s multiple games going on simultaneously.
“I wouldn’t close the door on anything. I think all this can get on the table, but we’re going to see how it evolves over time, and the way that we distribute the content will evolve as the league evolves.
“We feel we’re in a really good place right now to grow and we’ll see where the league grows to. I think there are other groups that are doing similar products, so I think the overall sports distribution landscape is changing rapidly. I think we will be heavily involved in those conversations as it moves along.
“From a league perspective, we’re very good at producing the show each week out of Blizzard Arena, and we can go and do big one-off events like the grand finals, but we also have to work on our plans on how we do broadcasts around the world in the most efficient way possible.”
Ahead of just its second season, the OWL is serving as a living and breathing test case for esports on mainstream TV. Nanzer is trying to use the medium to foster interest in his competition and learn how to be a credible and watchable product, all whilst simultaneously growing as an organisation.
It is a careful balancing act that will be fascinating to watch unfold.
This is an edited version of a feature that appears in Issue 102 of SportsPro magazine. To subscribe, click here.
If there was any doubt as to whether esports is deserving of sporting designation, the Overwatch League (OWL) grand finals was created to smother those thoughts and bundle them off into a darkened room.
The Activision Blizzard concept – with its city-based franchises, fully branded teams, headline stars and slick media operation – is the most deliberate attempt by an esports entity to emulate the traditional North American sports model. July’s grand finals at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York served to enhance that image and it delivered.
More than 10,000 very passionate fans packed out the venue on each of the two nights. They saw a final between the Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire franchises played out by ten South Koreans, one Israeli, one Frenchman, one Spaniard and one Briton; clearly, homegrown talent is not the appeal here. That is the clearest difference between esports and traditional sports but there are others facets that simply do not translate.
In fact, very little about esports currently makes sense to those looking in from the outside – or even the OWL’s own rights holders. That lack of clarity was borne out by the ratings bomb sat on by grand finals broadcaster ESPN, which aired the action in US primetime on the Friday night. According to Nielsen’s overnight scores, ESPN’s full Friday broadcast earned a 0.18 rating, compared to 0.34 for the network’s Sports Center programme that ran just before. Whilst those figures might have been poor, there was no sense of despair from the OWL, for ESPN makes up just one part of its broadcast picture.
With esports a digitally native product, league commissioner Nate Nanzer was able to dismiss concerns for a variety of reasons. Although ESPN’s eponymous flagship station headlined the July rights deal, the agreement also included coverage on the ESPN2, Disney XD and ABC channels. In the post-event ratings analysis of the OWL’s first linear TV offering, coverage on Disney XD, a channel Nanzer actually sees as a big part of the league’s strategy, was overlooked. The Saturday finale broadcast scored a 0.1 on Disney XD and a 0.3 for the re-airing on ABC, not stunning numbers but solid additions. During the play-offs Disney viewers matched or bettered the number on endemic platform Twitch.
The Disney angle is one OWL are keen to champion, especially given the importance of its 12-17 viewer demographic. “[Disney XD] is a cable network that has a much younger audience,” Nanzer tells SportsPro. “I think Overwatch as a game is broadly appealing, it’s much more stylised graphically. Being on Disney XD I think gives us an opportunity to get in front of younger fans and build fandom around our league from younger ages, which is really exciting.”
Whilst the grand finals success on linear TV is debatable, an undeniable win for the league was the event’s performance on Twitch. A key stakeholder in the league, the Amazon-owned digital platform signed a reported two-year, US$90 million streaming deal in January, and reached viewing peaks during the finals not seen since the league’s debut on the service.
The finals achieved an average concurrent Twitch viewership of 179,500 on the first day, and 177,600 on the Saturday, with reported peaks in excess of 350,000 viewers. Those numbers dwarf the league’s Twitch audience for the rest of the play-offs.
Digital nativity is clearly an esports strong point. It was not long after the grand finals that Nanzer signed off on a content deal with Twitter, a platform on which he believes the league can thrive given it is able to produce targeted content in tune with its fans.
“We know our audience is having conversations in real-time during our matches on Twitter,” says Nanzer. “Let’s go see if we have some content that’s tailored to that platform. I think we have a lot of flexibility in terms of what we can do and what we can try. It’s super-exciting because there is no playbook that we have to follow.”
Herein is the inherent advantage of the OWL’s unique position at the cross-section of gaming and traditional sports. Whilst the OWL has followed the trodden path of an upstart organisation and secured the kinds of media rights deals so coveted by fledgling sports bodies such as Major League Rugby or the XFL, it does not have to be in any way conventional about its presentation.
Although some traditional sports struggle to explain themselves to new viewers, the OWL sees its need to do so as an advantage. Using traditional broadcasting to appeal to first-timers is actually central to the league’s plan to crossover from the digital realm in which it currently sits. That approach differs from traditional sports with a more limited appeal in certain markets, such as rugby in the US or football in the UK. For them, linear broadcast is likely to produce their biggest audiences among both new and hardcore fans, so they have to contend with striking a balance between explaining the action and not alienating the informed. For OWL, that is not the case.
“We have this linear television opportunity; we need to make sure that we’re being thoughtful about the content we create and the way we produce our show,” explains Nanzer. “If there is somebody who tunes in for the first time ever, has no idea what Overwatch is and they tune in near the end, pretty quickly they [have to be able] to get a sense of what’s happening. [We must] make that product as appealing as possible and as acceptable as possible to a broad audience.
“Particularly Disney XD: [we have to ask] is there content that we should be producing that’s more targeted to a younger audience? If you think about ESPN – if you watched grand finals you started to see some of that [introductory content], like the map explainer videos – the content that’s more educational and more informational. I think we’ve already started to use some of that [explainer content] and I think we will continue to do that.”
There is an element of learning on the fly and out in the open for the OWL when it comes to its TV output. The league is pioneering a new model for esports and very early on in that process has secured a deal which brings pressure to produce a groundbreaking broadcast product. The situation poses an intriguing question for the OWL that goes back to the core of where esports sits in the sporting landscape.
Clearly, although esports has some facets that are unique and new, Nazner wants to align his league as a TV product alongside the old guard of sports, rather than target the entertainment sphere. Asked what the OWL had learned from its primetime ESPN debut, the commissioner says he was most concerned about positioning its broadcast alongside highlights of the sporting calendar.
“If you think about the Champions League Final, the Super Bowl – any of these events – it would start at 7pm; you’d tune in and they’re kicking off or they’re throwing the ball by 7:01,” he says.
“[For us], should the pre-show start at 6.50 pm? Do we want to get straight into the action? I think there’s a lot that we can learn from ESPN as a partner on what works best on the platform. So those are the types of things that I think we’re learning and conversations we’re having to make sure that we’re constantly improving the product.”
Those considerations are important but for a product like the OWL, and esports in general, the strengths lie in the devotion of its fans. At a grand finals press event, an OWL marketing officer was keen to impress on the attendees its position as a sporting league that is built and run in the best interests of its players, but also the people who watch it. Some of the biggest problems for sports bodies have come when they place growth markets before their core base, the current tussle involving Spanish soccer’s La Liga and its proposed Miami game being a case in point.
The OWL has a natural global appeal, so it does not need to be as concerned with moving out of its home market. However, for the sake of its consumers, the media needs to figure out how to cover the league, first and foremost. Certainly, the answer is not going to be the same in all of the league’s target markets.
The New York grand finals media day was dominated by outlets producing digital content – video and podcasts – which makes sense in countries with strong digital infrastructure. With a recent round of expansion having seen franchises added in the developed markets of the US, France, Canada and China, the OWL does not need to implement a different approach just yet. However, when it comes to expansion into markets such as South America, it will have to call on different types of coverage and consider how best to position itself, which could mean rowing back towards linear coverage.
“We have to look at how many fans we have there and what the overall distribution landscape is,” says Nanzer on the league’s thought process when contemplating new markets. “Brazil is an interesting example. Brazil is a market where broadband penetration lags a little bit behind some other big markets. Maybe linear makes more sense in a market like that, where maybe it’s more difficult for people to access it.
“We have a tremendous amount of fans in the Middle East. Platforms like Twitch and YouTube and others that are still in the process of building infrastructure in those regions, maybe [linear] would also make sense there. We’re approaching it on a case-by-case basis, but we’re actively engaged in those conversations and I expect that you’ll see more of that in years to come.”
What is abundantly clear from across the sports landscape is that any serious organisation is working in a place where an over-the-top (OTT) service is either part of its present or its immediate future. This year alone has seen the release of a host of new direct-to-consumer offerings such as F1 TV, Disney’s ESPN+ and Turner’s B/R Live.
The OWL’s existing OTT strategy encompasses Twitch and the Blizzard-owned Major League Gaming (MLG) platform – which Robert Kotick, the chief executive of Activision Blizzard, said he wants to turn into the “ESPN of video games”. However, Nanzer believes a more all-encompassing platform for his league is a natural progression. As the OWL moves from its base at Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles to become a globetrotting entity across multiple timezones, such a product may become a necessity in the not-too-distant future.
“Half of all the watched league content is on MLG this year, so we do have the ability to distribute our own content,” Nanzer says when questioned on OTT. “You can envision a future where you have teams all around the world playing in their home venues. At that point, maybe it does make sense to have some kind of league service, where fans can come in and get multiple feeds, like in a world where there’s multiple games going on simultaneously.
“I wouldn’t close the door on anything. I think all this can get on the table, but we’re going to see how it evolves over time, and the way that we distribute the content will evolve as the league evolves.
“We feel we’re in a really good place right now to grow and we’ll see where the league grows to. I think there are other groups that are doing similar products, so I think the overall sports distribution landscape is changing rapidly. I think we will be heavily involved in those conversations as it moves along.
“From a league perspective, we’re very good at producing the show each week out of Blizzard Arena, and we can go and do big one-off events like the grand finals, but we also have to work on our plans on how we do broadcasts around the world in the most efficient way possible.”
Ahead of just its second season, the OWL is serving as a living and breathing test case for esports on mainstream TV. Nanzer is trying to use the medium to foster interest in his competition and learn how to be a credible and watchable product, all whilst simultaneously growing as an organisation.
It is a careful balancing act that will be fascinating to watch unfold.
