HOW DO YOU PUT ESPORTS ON TV?
Younger audiences are losing interest in television, and esports is one of the few reliable paths to retaining their interest. ProSiebenSat.1 Media, the largest player in the German TV landscape, was one of the first to realize this, and consequently approached us with a request to produce esports programming for their channels ProSieben and ProSieben MAXX.
Bringing esports into German living rooms meant balancing on a tightrope — it had to appeal to mainstream audiences that were completely unfamiliar with the topic, while not alienating the core audience by breaking it down too much.
With decades of experience in both TV production and esports, we took on the challenge of bridging the gap between both audiences, as well as rearranging and presenting esports content in a format that best fit the medium. Nearly everything was realized in-house: designing and building the set in our own studios, editorial services for content, recruiting homegrown talents as hosts and presenters as well as the entire production from start to finish.
The result is a 45-minute weekly show that provides viewers with the latest coverage, unique highlights and exclusive insights into esports. It is well received by audiences, and has been running on ProSieben MAXX since 2017.
As if that wasn’t groundbreaking enough, we have also produced several multi-hour live broadcasts of CS:GO events in cooperation with ProSiebenSat.1 – a first in the history of free-to-air German TV. Complete with complimentary pieces of content, on-site coverage and audience interaction, we have proven that live esports works on TV. The broadcasts did not only introduce a completely new audience to esports, but also persuaded the core audience to watch their favorite sport on the big screen. The result was an average of 230.000 viewers as well as a massive stir on social media that reached an estimated 29.5 million people.
