YouTube's new channel, IPL, and ESPORTS

YouTube is investing heavily in entertainment, hoping to lure more eyeballs to its site with broadcast-quality content. The site has partnered with IGN Entertainment to launch the official game channel, START. IGN will also be working with Shine Group’s Reveille, the production company behind internationally successful TV series like “The Biggest Loser” and “MasterChef”. All three companies are owned by News Corps.

Debuting in early 2012, the online channel will introduce new TV-quality content around gaming to YouTube. Among the first shows to debut will be IGN Pro League. This show will follow top-ranked pro gamers as they traverse the globe to compete in a world class professional gaming tournament complete with cash prizes, screaming fans and all the trappings of a nationally televised sporting event. IGN has been streaming its new pro gaming events to fans already, but this new deal with YouTube will give pro gaming a potentially huge mainstream audience.

Other shows that will run on START include: The Next Game Boss, an elimination competition series where teams of independent game producers compete to win funding to build the next big indie game;

Game Over, a game, tech and entertainment news show and Celebrity Assassin, a show that allows celebrities to show off their gaming skills. Roy Bahat, president of IGN Entertainment, talks about the role eSports will have on START and what’s in store for gamers in this exclusive interview.

What type of gaming content will you be rolling out?

It probably won’t be information shows talking about games. It will probably be things that convey the emotion of being part of the video game world. Some of it is going to be competitive gaming and eSports. Some of it could be things set in a game world that use the game characters in a funny or dramatic way. Some of it is just going to be comedy that anchors in the world of games. One of our concepts is basically two guys who are working at a game store and it’s a comedy where they play off of each other, basically. So stuff like that where the references are anchored in the world of games, but it’ not necessarily talking about a game as an information thing. The Siskel and Ebert format applied to games, we think is really hard to make work. It works for like a minute and a half, which is what we do with our Daily Fix on the Web, but to do it as longer form on a television screen, we just think that’s hard.

Within the eSports realm, will you focus on the IGN Pro League or also the other leagues out there?

I think we’re going to want to bring great content to the screen. We obviously believe that the IGN Pro League is great content and so we’re open to talking to everybody. But of course we’re going to focus on the stuff that we’re making because we think it’s of very high quality.

Will reality shows be part of START?

I think there’s some room for reality type formats for sure. One of the things that we experimented with on IGN is a show called The Next Game Boss, which is basically a contest to be a video game creator. It works because what those shows are ultimately about is people and their dreams. I would argue there are few bigger dreamers than guys who want to make video games. These men and women are so determined and they’re working in a visual medium, so it looks great on a television screen. I think there is going to be room to do some reality type programming, competitive programming that’s set in the video game space.

Do you have a sense of how many shows you’ll launch with?

The first thing I’d say is I’d be lying to you if I told you I knew which shows were going to work. Part of the magic of this format is you don’t have to commit to doing a super expensive pilot before you have feedback from the audience. We are going to try some things and then evolve once we see what’s popular. We’re going to start with a handful of shows and I’d be surprised if over time there’s more than let’s say10 or 12 that we really end up focusing on. We may try many, many more concepts than that, but we want to be focused on a few things that we think can really work.

Are these things being designed specifically to exist on YouTube or IGN versus digitally distributed content or television shows?

We’re trying to design all of this content so that it works on a big screen. It will all be delivered on YouTube. Whether it goes from there to broadcast, cable, or other top platforms, all remains to be seen. But this is content for you to sit on a couch and be entertained by, as opposed to on-demand content where you’re looking for something that’s about a particular game because you want to solve a certain level in Angry Birds and you need to figure out how to get the last star.

Most new TVs have Internet channels. Will this feed into that?

One hundred percent. We love the opportunity to create content that’s going to entertain. We’re thrilled to be working with YouTube now and what unfolds down the line we’ll just have to play the ball as we find it.