2017 ESPORTS TV RATINGS: CAN TURNER'S ELEAGUE DRAW BRANDS?
ELEAGUE's New Season (Photo: Turner)
TNL Take: A relatively quiet week on the eSports TV programming side compared with the flood over the past month.
TNL Infographic 061: 2017 eSports TV Ratings: ELEAGUE Season 3 (Infographic: The Next Level)
TURNER
TBS had the only eSports related programming this week with a Preview show to the start of their third season of Counter-Strike. These 1-hour overview episodes tend to perform well as the viewership doesn't run to midnight like the normal programming.
Here is 2016's Season 2 Preview show for comparison:
2016 eSports TV Ratings (Chart: The Next Level)
Now here's the million dollar question - where are the brands?
Turner made great fanfare by announcing a slew of sponsorships to start Season 1:
Season 3 begins this Friday and not one major partnership has been announced.
With as many televised events in 2017 already as 2016, the brands should be increasing along with the vast number investing now in eSports.
The canary in the coal of mine of advertising is always brand renewals and I can definitely say this: Season 3 will not have nearly the presenting sponsors as Season 1.
Why? Let's say one of the big reasons has nothing to do with the ratings or the game being a First Person Shooter.