Last month during the Paris Major, third-party tournament organizer Blast launched the Blast.tv platform -- a move the company hopes can upgrade the viewing experience and lead to higher event revenues. Throughout the Major, Blast.tv accounted for a modest 5%-10% of the streaming numbers; however, the viewers they did capture seems to represent a more engaged audience. And Blast is good with that.
“For the first time we had done something of that scale, we were super-happy to see a very engaged, but minority, [audience]” which peaked at a little over 10% of the total viewership on Friday (May 19) of the Major. Out of the four teams playing in their quarterfinal match that day, three were decided underdogs -- which Chief Growth Officer Tom Greene tells SBJ is an indicator that the platform is resonating with diehard fans who are there to watch every match, not just the big-ticket teams.
According to Greene, the platform is truly bespoke, and could add more content offerings in the future. To further growth for this specific event, Blast retained the naming rights for the Major and included experience-enhancing features such as:
- Ad-free competition viewing
- 4K broadcasting
- Live statistics
- Engaging with CS:GO publisher Valve’s fan-favorite pick ’ems challenge on the platform
- Choosing drivers’ gamertags (thanks to a partnership with Alpine)
- Fantasy games in partnership with esports betting platform Unikrn
- Shoulder content (like shows on YouTube)
Since the Major, Greene says Blast has been seeing interest from other publishers about the platform. But significant challenges remain.
The main challenge going forward is to build Blast.tv into an “always on” platform. Currently, with the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player’s break in full swing, there’s no action to broadcast. In today’s “attention economy,” Blast.tv’s biggest hurdle is being forgotten by the fickle esports fan, who is more than likely navigating to Twitch to view matches. While Blast is fine with people watching on Twitch, it acknowledges that it’s going to have to add more incentives to make Blast.tv work. “We want people to watch our content on many platforms,” Greene tells SBJ. “For us it’s about offering a menu of options at this point.”
Another challenge Blast must face is how to effectively monetize the platform. There are no plans to paywall Blast.tv content. Greene views the winds shifting toward pay-per-view models as a possibility deep in the future, but that's not immediate solution to the financial problems tournament organizers face. -- Hunter Cooke
