Tonight in Unpacks: In a troubling sign for Activision, the game developer and esports organizer's Call of Duty League is set to start its season on Friday without a media rights partner. SBJ’s Kevin Hitt looks at where the streaming situation sits and what those in the know are saying.
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In today's Morning Buzzcast, SBJ's David Albright looks at Disney completing its acquisition of BAMTech, the Coyotes proposed arena deal going to a vote and the Race Team Alliance looking into exhibitions outside of NASCAR.
Call of Duty League without media rights deal with season set to begin
The Call of Duty League is set to head into its new season on Friday without a streaming platform for its matches after a deal with YouTube expired following last season, reports SBJ’s Kevin Hitt. Activision Blizzard, which operates the CDL along with Overwatch League and competitive Hearthstone, signed a three-year, $160 million media-rights pact that has since run its course, and now the leagues are without a streaming home for competition.
CDL is the first of the Activision leagues to begin a new season following the expiration of the deal, and league officials have yet to announce where this weekend’s matches can be viewed. When signed in early 2020, the deal moved the Activision leagues away from Amazon-owned Twitch and over to Google-owned YouTube (the deal terms at the time also saw the league purchased Google Cloud services). The deal saw the average annual value of media rights jump from a reported $45 million annually to $53.3 million.
Concerns over the lack of a streaming rights deal have mounted over the past several months, with both fans and pundits taking notice of the lack of announcement of a new deal. Behind the scenes, owners also have been quietly concerned, as they have been left in the dark as to the details of any new agreements (or lack thereof).
Sources close to the situation tell SBJ that there has been a general concern over less-than-stellar viewership statistics since moving exclusively to YouTube. Additionally, sources say that both YouTube and Twitch are unwilling to put up the money they have in previous years.
While there is still a chance a deal gets done, there is support growing among team ownership for a more open streaming system that would allow the league and its teams to stream in more places, along with co-streams to grab more viewership numbers. That in turn could lead to more advertising and sponsorship revenue.
