We’re excited to announce the launch of the esports industry’s first 24/7 Counter-Strike channel by ESL America! Hosted on Twitch, the stream is been made possible by a unique proprietary cloud-based content management system, with the channel curated by a dedicated ESL TV specialist.
President of ESL America Han Park, who is overseeing the project, said of the channel’s inception:
“Traditional TV consumption, as we’ve come to understand it, is in flux, but certainly not dead. This new 24/7 venture of ours is set to explore and learn from the evolution underway in TV viewership and audience flows. Our soft launch enjoyed a peak concurrent viewership of over 15,000, which tells us that there is definitely demand for this type of content and we look forward to expanding on it in future.”
ESL TV editor in chief Joe Miller, who also lent his expertise to the project, had the following to say of the channel:
“We have thousands and thousands of hours of ESL Counter-Strike content stored away that I’m eager to share. Games and competitions from ESL’s first years as a company right up to the present day ESL ESEA Pro League - so there is a lot to choose from! We’ve got a plan in place to mix old content with new, so hopefully there’ll be something for everyone as we continue to expand the channel.”
The 24/7 channel will be fully integrated into ESL’s media directory TV.ESLGaming.com, and will initially support ESL ESEA Pro League’s weekly Counter-Strike: Global Offensive action, which will be streamed on the same channel.
Kelly Kline, content manager at ESL, said of the channel’s software:
“The system works in such a way that we can plan scheduling weeks in advance. However, despite scheduling, we remain very flexible: we’re looking to implement a system in which the content we show is selected by the viewing audience. It’s a very exciting project to be working on, as the customization opportunities are endless: we’re working closely with the programmers to constantly improve performance and output.”
Additionally, the new software system will eventually be rolled out to additional channels to include various members of the ESL video network, thus covering multiple games across a wide variety of languages.
For more information about ESL’s 24/7 Counter-Strike channel and to tune into top-notch CS:GO action from ESL and its partners around the clock, please visit Twitch.tv/ESL_CSGO or check the schedule at TV.ESLGaming.com.