On June 01 2012 05:10 brokenLoL wrote: So since they have ESL, and Blizz is working with ESL to do those shitty regional things, does that mean CBSi will do shit for Blizz as well?
Shitty? What is wrong with people these days? The regional championships is the best thing blizzard ever did for esports.
If Blizzard wants to help our ESPORTS, they'd buy out RIOT games.
As the global analytics manager of an international advertising agency I feel like I can shed some light.
1.) This is a good thing. individual leagues don't have the sales staff and advertising knowledge to sell their own advertising inventory optimally. CBSi has a vast network of existing partnerships with agencies and major brands that it can leverage to get the most advertising revenue out of the inventory. (inventory = potential ad impressions) (Impressions = each time an ad is served to an individual computer)
2.) Most leagues focused on individual sponsorship's which are difficult to secure and often don't generate optimal revenue. Another challenge is that many sponsors prefer to have non-compete rights or the sole ability to display ads. Every sponsor has a target market so having one single advertiser limits revenue because inventory (impressions) will go unused.
For example. MLG is sponsored by Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group U.S. They are only targeting a US audience with their ads. In this scenario MLG does not get paid for any impression seen by a non-US person. The result is wasted inventory. CBSi can ensure that all available inventory is sold which means more revenue for everyone.
There are many more reasons but these two should suffice.
On June 01 2012 05:08 Slasher wrote: I have spoken to CBSi Games General Manager Simon Whitcombe and would like to clarify a few things.
- CBS Interactive has direct partnerships only with MLG, TwitchTV, and now NASL and Own3d. CBSi will sell advertising for those leagues worldwide. EVO, DreamHack, ESL, and IPL were named because of those leagues' broadcast deals with TwitchTV. CBSi does NOT have a direct partnership with any of those leagues at this time, but are included as all broadcasts are done via TwitchTV. Advertising will be sold for these leagues in the US.
- GSL was listed as per their previous streaming via Twitch and Own3d, but there is again no direct partnership with GomTV
- "96% of all the advertising inventory" refers to only to LIVE VIDEO, and does not count VOD's such as YouTube and Blip.tv.
LOL at bolded part
GOM has used Twitch what, 2 times in total? Out of their hundreds of broadcasts.. That can't even be considdered as an "unclear fact", it is straight up false
On June 01 2012 05:11 Ichabod wrote: Pros: Advertising agency representation makes starcraft a more attractive (larger) advertising market (Instead of just MLG and a few million viewers, 96% of starcraft league viewers, more often than MLG events alone.)
Cons: Potentially limited advertisement competition (e.g., Coke and Pepsi probably won't both sponsor MLG, twitch, etc.), if they're advertised all together. This might be averted if CBSi represents the advertising for each entity individually (e.g., Coke can sponsor MLG, Pepsi can sponsor Twitch), we'll have to wait and see.
It seems good in the short run, while eSports is still growing, hopefully CBSi can keep up. The people running these leagues aren't idiots, they recognize the advertising benefit they can gain from this deal, so I hope they are getting good rates compared to having to shop around independently.
Side note: This may help with league cooperation regarding event scheduling, since that potentially wastes ad revenue for both parties, and CBSi can be a middle-man.
CBSi isn't selling sponsorships, they are selling advertising. So the conflicting thing wont matter. When I watch NFL games, I see Coke/Pepsi, Bud/Coors, McDonalds/BurgerKing ads all the time. Same will happen here.