Overwatch<\/em> League and esports writ large.<\/aside>Beyond introducing new viewers to the Overwatch<\/em> League, the deal brings added benefit to teams participating in the league. Twelve Overwatch<\/em> League teams make up the league in the first season, but Blizzard hopes to bring in a few more for season two. As the president of Immortals, Segal is invested in the success of Overwatch<\/em> League\u2019s Los Angeles Valiant, which is owned by his company. \u201cFor better or for worse, there is a business undercurrent that runs through everything we do,\u201d Segal said. \u201cSomething needs to finance all that activity.\u201d<\/p>
The Disney deal adds a lot of weight to the value of esports from a sponsorship perspective. Both endemic and non-endemic brands are looking at third-party agencies to calculate sponsorship value, and those agencies are looking at numbers and impressions. Media impressions are weighted differently\u2014Twitch and live streaming carries a lot of weight, but a linear cable deal is something that appeals to more traditional brands.<\/p>
\u201cPrimetime ESPN impressions on linear cable is a massive value driver of any sponsorship,\u201d Segal said. \u201cI\u2019ve been on the phone with many current and prospective partners to let them know about the exciting development and explain how this will enhance exposure through a partnership with us.\u201d<\/p>
In the end, it doesn\u2019t come down to whether esports needs TV to succeed or if TV needs esports to stay relevant, Segal said. It\u2019s more complex than that. Esports\u2019 legitimacy doesn\u2019t hinge on whether it\u2019s successful on linear TV. “I don\u2019t think that esports needs a cadre of 50-to-60 year-old white males to deem it legitimate for it to be<\/em> legitimate,” Segal said.<\/p>
My mom will probably never become a die-hard Overwatch<\/em> fan, but the ESPN2 broadcast pulled her in for two hours, despite not entirely<\/em> understanding the ongoing matches. She called me and asked me questions. By the end of the two hours, she had a favorite player. This is just one instance of the indirect value of the Disney and Overwatch<\/em> League deal, and it hasn\u2019t even been showcased on the \u201cbig\u201d channels yet. The Overwatch<\/em> League will air on ESPN on July 27, with a follow-up highlights show on ABC on July 29.<\/p>
There are a lot more eyes to be reached through this deal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Overwatch League grand finals will be broadcast on ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":909,"featured_media":516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gamurs_wordpress_blocks_hide_tags":true,"_is_affiliated":false,"dotesports_deal_href":"","dotesports_featured_video":"","_notify_users":1,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"invoiceable_action":[],"internal-label":[],"article_type":[],"coauthors":[{"id":909,"display_name":"Nicole Carpenter","user_login":"nicole_carpenter","user_nicename":"nicole-carpenter"}],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-overwatch"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOWL on linear TV is a \u201clandmark\u201d event for esports, Immortals president says<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Overwatch League grand finals will be broadcast on ESPN.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/overwatch\/news\/ow-league-espn-disney-immorrtals-ari-segal-interview-31377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OWL on linear TV is a \u201clandmark\u201d event for esports, Immortals president says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Overwatch League grand 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She lives in Massachusetts with her cat, Puppy, and dog, Major. She's a Zenyatta main who'd rather be playing D.Va.","url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/nicole-carpenter"}]}},"raw_content":"On Saturday nights, my family flips through TV channels looking for something to watch. It\u2019s almost a ritual\u2014check HGTV, Food Network, ESPN, Animal Planet\u2014despite already knowing what\u2019s probably on each channel. This past Saturday was different. By chance, my mom flicked past ESPN2 during the Overwatch League semifinals. She stopped. The screaming casters were a shock, the flashing colors even more so.My mom texted me. I think the game you write about is on TV, she wrote. Do you know that? A couple seconds passed. It\u2019s exciting. I have no idea what\u2019s going on.Related: The Ovewatch League will be broadcast on ESPN and ABCOn July 11, the Overwatch League announced a broadcast deal with Disney, a partnership that\u2019s bringing the league\u2019s playoffs and finals to ESPN, Disney, and ABC. Overwatch League will continue its broadcast deal with Disney into the season second, too. (The $90 million Twitch deal remains unchanged.) To say that this deal is huge is an understatement, Hundreds of hours of programming is expected to be broadcast across the included networks, according to ESPN. It\u2019s not the first time esports has been on TV but it\u2019s still a \u201clandmark\u201d deal, Immortals president Ari Segal told Dot Esports.\u201cIt\u2019s nothing short of a landmark deal for Overwatch League and esports writ large,\u201d Segal said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t say that because it legitimizes esports. That term is coded language to suggest esports is illegitimate until someone else deems it legitimate.\u201d Instead, Segal pointed to the \u201cindirect impact\u201d of the Overwatch League on ESPN, ABC, and Disney.Photo by Robert Paul via Blizzard Entertainment\u201cThere will be hundreds of thousands of people who see the Overwatch League grand finals because they are in a place where ESPN is on, or the last time they turned off their TV, ESPN was on,\u201d Segal said.This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean these indirect Overwatch League viewers will become fans\u2014but it eventually could bring in casual viewers or prospective fans down the line. The downstream effect of consuming the Overwatch League without seeking it out is \u201cvery powerful,\u201d Segal said. And it\u2019s not all just because of ESPN.\u201cEveryone is focused on the 18 to 34 [year old] consumer market, which is what brands want to reach\u2014but tomorrow\u2019s 18 to 34-year-olds are today\u2019s 15-year-olds,\u201d Segal said. \u201cRegular coverage on Disney and Disney XD gives us a chance to directly serve the next wave of Overwatch fans.\u201dLike with TVs being tuned to ESPN for sports fans, many families keep their TVs set to Disney XD. The next time they turn on the TV, the Overwatch League could be on. \u201cRightfully a lot of the focus has been on ESPN, which is a cataclysmic event for esports media,\u201d Segal added. \u201cBut I personally believe the Disney XD component is equally exciting.\u201dIt's nothing short of a landmark deal for the Overwatch League and esports writ large.Beyond introducing new viewers to the Overwatch League, the deal brings added benefit to teams participating in the league. Twelve Overwatch League teams make up the league in the first season, but Blizzard hopes to bring in a few more for season two. As the president of Immortals, Segal is invested in the success of Overwatch League\u2019s Los Angeles Valiant, which is owned by his company. \u201cFor better or for worse, there is a business undercurrent that runs through everything we do,\u201d Segal said. \u201cSomething needs to finance all that activity.\u201dThe Disney deal adds a lot of weight to the value of esports from a sponsorship perspective. Both endemic and non-endemic brands are looking at third-party agencies to calculate sponsorship value, and those agencies are looking at numbers and impressions. Media impressions are weighted differently\u2014Twitch and live streaming carries a lot of weight, but a linear cable deal is something that appeals to more traditional brands.\u201cPrimetime ESPN impressions on linear cable is a massive value driver of any sponsorship,\u201d Segal said. \u201cI\u2019ve been on the phone with many current and prospective partners to let them know about the exciting development and explain how this will enhance exposure through a partnership with us.\u201dIn the end, it doesn\u2019t come down to whether esports needs TV to succeed or if TV needs esports to stay relevant, Segal said. It\u2019s more complex than that. Esports\u2019 legitimacy doesn\u2019t hinge on whether it\u2019s successful on linear TV. \"I don\u2019t think that esports needs a cadre of 50-to-60 year-old white males to deem it legitimate for it to be legitimate,\" Segal said.My mom will probably never become a die-hard Overwatch fan, but the ESPN2 broadcast pulled her in for two hours, despite not entirely understanding the ongoing matches. She called me and asked me questions. By the end of the two hours, she had a favorite player. This is just one instance of the indirect value of the Disney and Overwatch League deal, and it hasn\u2019t even been showcased on the \u201cbig\u201d channels yet. The Overwatch League will air on ESPN on July 27, with a follow-up highlights show on ABC on July 29.There are a lot more eyes to be reached through this deal.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/11084041\/6020b606-9f36-49bc-83a4-1e09810baa73.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
