CBS May Broadcast MLG On TV This Fall

ANAHEIM – With the 2012 Major League Gaming Spring Championship in full swing this weekend in Anaheim, Sundance DiGiovanni, founder and CEO of MLG, said that CBS will broadcast an MLG event this fall. CBS Interactive Games, which has an exclusive partnership with MLG to sell advertising for its events, was in Anaheim to live stream coverage through Gamespot.

“We had meetings during E3 with major mainstream advertisers and there’s a lot of interest in what we’re doing,” said DiGiovanni. “While streaming will remain an integral part of the expansion of eSports, there will be a broadcast component on CBS this fall.”

CBSi Games has hired pro gamers to complement its coverage of eSports. TSquared and Mrs. Violence were both in Anaheim with camera crews to provide original streaming coverage of the event. Additional pro gamers that CBSi is working with include Huk, Grubby, InControl and Idra on Starcraft II. They’re also working with Starcraft casters like Husky.

“We will help MLG distribute their content, we will carry their content on Gamespot, and on top of that, we’ll do our own content with pro players and wrap-ups,” said Simon Whitcomb, vice president, CBSi Games. “We’re a distribution point. We take existing content and broadcast it out to a wider audience.”

MLG held pro gaming tournaments at the Gamespot booth throughout E3 week with StarCraft II on Tuesday, Mortal Kombat on Wednesday and Call of Duty on Thursday.

Moving forward, Whitcombe said CBSi Games will follow the audience of eSports into new games, including the Dota 2 community and League of Legends.

DiGiovanni said that a growing number of game publishers and developers are incorporating elements specifically for eSports into new games. Activision has already said Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have features catered for eSports. And Microsoft and 343 Industries are expected to showcase exclusive features for Halo 4 designed for this growing community. Other games will be unveiled in the coming months. With this type of implementation, DiGiovanni said next season could see even more games integrated into MLG.

The CBS brand creates a level of comfort with a wide stable of advertisers because CBS brings a lot of serious brand advertisers to the table,” said Whitcombe. “We add a reach to eSports events that it’s been difficult for individual leagues to do until now.”