Facebook announced as CS:GO Pro League and ESL One exclusive broadcasting platform, internet isn't impressed
Facebook has been announced as the main broadcasting platform for CS:GO Pro League and the ESL One circuit. As you will see, the internet has responded.
The ESL announced today Facebook will its "main broadcast partner" for the CS:GO Pro League and the ESL One circuit, and will be broadcast exclusively on the Facebook platform.
Grated, viewers will still be able to watch embedded streams at live.ESL-One.com and live.Proleague.com, but that made little difference to esports fans on Twitter.
If you look over the announcement tweet from the official ESL Twitter account, you'll see all sorts of memes, gifs, general head scratching, and complete disdain over the news.
The news wasn't taken very well on Facebook either.
Most folks were wondering why Twitch or YouTube were passed over for Facebook, but exclusivity agreements are nothing new. Just recently, Activision announced and exclusive two year deal with Twitch to broadcast the Overwatch League. The deal is reportedly worth a staggering $90 million, which amounts to $45 million per year.
The figure is higher than the $300 million BamTech paid Riot Games in 2016 for a seven year contract, which equals $42.8 million a year, give or take.
It's unknown at present how much Facebook paid for the exclusivity deal with ESL.
The ESL said the move was made in order to "grow the overall esports audience and to bring our sports to an even broader group of viewers than ever before."
"One of the key components that brought this project to fruition was the recent introduction of Facebook Watch," reads the announcement. "With it, Facebook has not only introduced a structured platform for video distribution, but also implemented technological upgrades that esports audiences have grown to expect, such as streaming in 1080p/60fps and VR.
"Facebook will also make video content easily accessible for Facebook’s 2 billion monthly active users, allowing much easier promotion of esports content to the millions of esports fans on the platform."
Official tournament broadcasts will star with Dota 2 at ESL One Genting 2018 from January 23-28 and CS:GO Pro League Season 7 on February 13. A weekly Dota 2 show is also in the plan.