BTN is dipping its feet into the world of esports with its new partnership with Riot Games for the upcoming BTN League of Legends season. The network will televise the BTN League of Legends championship on March 27 with competitors receiving scholarships while the winner competes in the League of Legends College Championship. Cynopsis spoke with Erin Harvego, BTN’s VP of Marketing, about the initiative.
Harvego on BTN’s interest in esports: Last year, we had a couple of Big Ten students reach out because they were interested in putting together a tournament with other schools in the conference, and through that, we were introduced to Riot which encouraged us to put together a Big Ten Invitational at PAX East. That was out first trial run into the esports world and we were excited to see how passionate the fans were at the event and the crowds were enormous. So we then had conversations to expand that into a trial run for a full season and we are looking forward to finally trying it out this year.
On lessons learned: One thing that really stood out to when I watched the fans, was that for the entire time they were watching it, nobody picked up their phones during the competition and I remember being surprised by that because these days, everyone is multi-tasker and Riot told me it was because nobody wanted to miss anything because they are also learning how to improve their own game. That struck me as a content provider that this was something that was quite powerful.
On benefits for the network: We are looking at it this year as just a content move, something we also serve for football fans, basketball fans, etc. I think that there is a huge audience for esports, and we have the opportunity to reach some viewers that, perhaps, we haven’t reached in the past. For us, this is a branding and marketing initiative, and moving forward we will see what our best strategy for esports is going to be.
On the plans: Starting on Jan. 30, we will show matchups between different schools every Monday and then that will lead into a playoff with the Championship taking play at the Riot Studios in Los Angeles. In addition to streaming it and carrying the Championship on the network, we are still considering some other things on the linear network so there may be more matchups televised as well.
