With the increasing popularity of live streaming and the growing trend of “cable cutters,” Yahoo has been one of the companies trying to be at the forefront of this movement towards online television. They were the first digital media group to buy the rights to an NFL game—the Bills vs. Jaguars matchup last October in London—and now they have embarked on creating a live streaming platform for eSports that will also come with a news presence for the burgeoning sport.
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They have called it Yahoo eSports and they cover five different games—Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, Street Fighter V and the most popular of all: League of Legends. It is a relative one-stop shop for the eSports fanatic, and gives Yahoo Sports another big branch to compete with the heavyweights in the sports media world. Yahoo eSports will offer live tournaments, commentary, features and interviews for the broad array of games that they cover.
Yahoo has a decent amount of competition though, and they will need to somehow separate themselves from the crowd. ESPN is putting a considerable amount of effort into their relatively new eSports vertical, as they try to be the go-to source for eSports news.
Hello esports! https://t.co/jpXsdZProT
— Yahoo Esports (@YahooEsports) March 2, 2016
As far as streaming goes, Yahoo will have three primary competitors. The first is the already established gamer hub Twitch, which offers a fairly comprehensive platform for online eSports broadcasting.
Recently, YouTube entered the mix, creating YouTube Gaming, a live on-demand eSports channel with a vast array of games to watch. Additionally, Major League Gaming’s official online media branch, MLG.TV, also offers similar amenities to Twitch and YouTube.
So, Yahoo eSports will have to do something right to gain the widespread acceptance of the eSports community, and take away from the numerous other platforms. They will have to bank on eSports becoming a massive sport with a fanatic fan base, or hope that the Yahoo name carries enough clout.