Overwatch League to be aired on ESPN

tamagao

July 11, 2018

ESPN has announced a multi-year partnership with the Overwatch League to air the Overwatch League playoffs, grand finals, and the second season of the Overwatch League on Disney's family of networks. This includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNEWS, ABC and Disney XD.

The partnership does not infringe on existing broadcast agreements, meaning all matches will continue to be streamed on Twitch. While most playoff broadcasts will be aired on Disney XD and streamed on ESPN3, a select few broadcasts will be aired on the flagship ESPN network, ESPN2 and ABC.

The first day of the Overwatch League grand finals on Friday, July 27 will be aired on ESPN at 7 p.m. EDT. The second day of the grand finals will be shown live on Disney XD and ESPN3, but will be re-aired later that night on ESPN 2. A highlight recap show will appear on ABC at 3 p.m. EDT Sunday, July 29.

ESPN broadcast times Table courtesy of ESPN

Beyond coverage of full matches, the agreement includes a "broad swath of digital rights the networks 'plan to take full advantage of,'" the ESPN article sourced to ESPN Vice President of Digital Media Programming John Lasker. ESPN theorized this could take the form of highlight packages or content geared toward new fans less familiar with Overwatch and the Overwatch League.

Both Blizzard and ESPN will attempt to use this partnership to put Overwatch competition in front of a wider audience.

This is not ESPN's first time airing esports, nor is it Disney XD's first time airing Overwatch. However, this will be the first time Overwatch will be broadcast on ESPN.

The first day of the quarterfinals begins tonight with a match between the Philadelphia Fusion Philadelphia Fusion OWL Rank #11 AimGod Min-seok Kwon flex support MN3 Yoon Jae-hee dps ZEST Kim Hyun-woo (김현우) dps Belosrea tank FiXa Kwon Young Hoon (권영훈) support and the Boston Uprising Boston Uprising OWL Rank #16 Valentine Kim Byoungju dps punk Leyton Gilchrist tank Faith Hong Gyu Kim support Crimzo William Hernandez support . The match can be seen on Twitch, MLG, Disney XD and ESPN3.

Comments:

Threaded Linear

#1

darkcvc

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Pogchamp. And day 1 of the finals is on actual ESPN thats so huge.

#22

Weekend_Jesus

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I Have a two day pass I need to sell !! Is anyone interested ??

#23

LordOfHorns

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If you give me a hotel and transportation I got about 20 bucks

#24

Snivy

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Sent a pm

#2

KEEVAN

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thank you for another amazing article Scrubasaurus

#3

NerfMei

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YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

#4

PGZ

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hype

#5

Pixelfish

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This is MASSIVE MY DUDES

#6

paolodicandio

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esport on tv is literally a bad idea for now.
we had here some shows also i think germany had some shows for csgo/dota and they all had really really low viewership cuz ppl just prefer twitch cuz its layf.

#7

wentaway

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As long as they'll keep streaming also in the future (once the current deal expires) on Twitch this can only be seen as a huge step forward.

Otherwise as an European, things could become more problematic (e.g. there's no way for me to watch all NBA's matches, that is without paying or resorting to tier Z quality illegal streams).

#11

SoftWhisper

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Watching matches without paying for them.. that is problematic... imagine paying for shows.. omegalul

#13

wentaway

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Well everyone has his/her preferences on how to spend money, I prefer to spend it on my old parents, my house, my dog, videogames and some beers at the pub with friends.

As I did with the NBA, the moment I need to pay a monthly fee, to have the privilege to be up at 2 AM and watch 1/2 a match before falling asleep... well is the moment I stop watching it.

#14

SoftWhisper

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It's not okay to steal because you feel you're entitled to watch something others have invested money/time into producing. It's not a preference, it's theft and people get sued for it on a regular.

#15

wentaway

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Who said I steal? I said I stopped watching NBA, and I will stop watching OWl if i'll have to pay. ;)

EDIT
I'm actually so against stealing that, in 2017 I even tried this, again:
https://imgur.com/a/tGBj9kN

But then again usually falling asleep in front of my PC at 2 Am (see I wake up at 5:30)

#20

Wombat

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Haha I love the editing!

I'm 100% with you here, if I have to pay to watch a load of games that aren't timezone friendly to me then there just isn't much point

#21

Emaxmagnus

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Thatd be like paying for vods at this point for us eu people with adulthood responsibilities.

Would you pay for vods?

I wouldn't

#8

Hi

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Whoahhhh

#9

ideekae

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hey does anyone know the first time ow was on disney, didnt we had that
thanks

#10

tamagao

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Last years Overwatch Contenders Season One was rebroadcast on Disney XD.

#12

gabeconte

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I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE I GET ON TV AT THE GRANDFINALS!!!!!!!!!

#16

verb

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check twitter when it's on ESPN1 so many angry old people lmfao

#17

Babouh

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Not only old people, a lot of young people don't understand the hype for esport

#19

darkcvc

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Where are my sports ball what are vidgy games on my sports channels for?

#18

Blue

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So I turned on the xd broadcast last night, the colors were less vibrant (ex:Soe was pale) and everything was less sharp then twitch was

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