by Lidia Paulinska | Jul 3, 2018
The Global eSports revenue will reach $905 million in 2018, a year over year growth of 38.2% according to a new report published by Newzoo, the leading provider of market intelligence covering global games, eSports and mobile markets. For those who need to catch up with recent electronic sport here are some useful bits of terminology, statistics and predictions.
Esports is competitive video gaming at a professional level and in an organized format (a tournament or league) with specific goal (i.e., winning a champion title or prize money) and a clear distinction between players and teams that are competing against each other. The eSports Audience is all people who watch professional eSports independent of how often: Esports Enthusiasts (people who watch professional eSports content more than once a month) and Occasional Viewers (people who watch professional eSports content less than once a month.
The total prize money of all eSports events held in 2017 reached $112 million, breaking the $100 million mark for the first year. In 2018 eSports Enthusiasts will total 165 million, a year-on-year growth of 15.2% and 215 million of Occasional Viewers what makes 380 million participants worldwide, a year-on-year growth of 13.5%. The global average annual ticket revenue per eSports enthusiast will be $5.49 this year, up by 20% from 4.58 in 2017. In 2017, there were 588 major eSports events that generated and estimated $59 million in ticket revenue, up from $32 million in 2016.
Although 380 million people actively participate in eSports the global awareness of it is much broader. The number of people who hear about it but are not participants in 2017 was almost a billion worldwide.
The majority of $905 million of revenue from eSports that is expected at the end of 2018, 77% will be generated directly from sponsorship and advertising and indirectly from media rights and content licenses. Brands are expected to heavily invest in the eSports industry. They will pour $694 million to the end of 2018, an impressive 48% increase since last year.
by Lidia Paulinska | Jul 2, 2018
In the next 10 years eSports will be the most popular sport in the world – predicts Frank Azor, co-founder of Alienware and vice president & general manager of Gaming & XPS for Dell who made the prediction statement during an exclusive interview at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), the biggest annual gaming conference in North America that took place in the middle of June in Los Angeles. The E3 expo featured 70 thousand attendees from 106 countries. E3 is the preeminent showcase for ground-breaking new games and technology that serves the growing community of gamers.
In March of this year Alienware opened its first professional eSportsTraining Facility in North America, located in Los Angeles. Just minutes from Riot Games LCS Studio, this new location helps Team Liquid, a professional gamer franchise team, improve the way they practice, train and prepare for eSports tournament. Alienware is the largest supplier of the gaming computer systems in the world, as a sponsor of the team, they provide the eSports athletes with access to incredible technology that is currently available. Alienware is also talking to new partners to build relationships that allows eSports to grow on unprecedented scale.
There are no other sports out there, with the exception of motorsports racing, where the athlete’s performance has a dependency on their equipment is as great as it is as esports athletics – elaborates Frank Azor. If you look at traditional sport like football or basketball, the equipment that the athletes use maybe helps in tiny fraction of the amount of their competitiveness. eSports however is more closely related to auto racing, the skill is in using the equipment to compete, so when your PC fails on you, you are out of the game.
The global industry has not completed the statistics, but the rumors are that number of people in the audience watching eSports tournaments has already passed the audience of baseball games.
Here is a full coverage of the interview with Frank Azor:
by Lidia Paulinska | Jun 12, 2018
April 2018 – At the NAB 2018 show in Las Vegas we caught back up with Carol Hess of the HP Workstation group. Carol talks about the new product offerings for the broadcast industry and the associated capabilities that they bring. One of the areas is artificial intelligence and the role the workstations will take in bringing these tools to the content creators.
This interview was included in the Roadway Media coverage of NAB as part of the Executive Interviews episode of Bright Blue Innovation.
by Lidia Paulinska | Jun 12, 2018
April 2018 – At the NAB 2018 show in Las Vegas we caught back up with Harris Morris CEO of Wazee Digital. This is our first interview with Harris since he took a break from the broadcast industry after leading the LBO of Harris Broadcast and its transition to becoming Gate Air and Imagine Communication.
Harris discusses trends in the industry regarding content availability and a philosophy based on the quality of the content and the quality of experience that results.
This interview was included in the Roadway Media coverage of NAB as part of the Executive Interviews episode of Bright Blue Innovation.
by Lidia Paulinska | May 5, 2018
April 2018 – At the NAB show in Las Vegas, we had a chance to talk to Neumann CEO Wolfgang Fraissinet about the reissued U67 vocal tube microphone and the rollout to the broadcast community of the Generation 4 Evolution wireless system. The G4 technology is the first major update, primarily to address the spectrum auction impact on audio and wireless, in over 25 years.
The introduction to the reissued microphone and the new wireless technology are summaries in the following interview and demo.
https://vimeo.com/273435715
