Activision Blizzard and Google announce multi-year partnership

Snivy

January 24, 2020

Activision Blizzard and Google have announced a multi-year partnership between the two companies. The deal includes the Google-owned YouTube becoming the exclusive worldwide streaming partner for the Overwatch League (excluding China).

Same league. Same heroic moments. New home 🏠

Watch #OWL2020 only on @YouTubeGaming at https://t.co/tbTGBsbQac pic.twitter.com/NpgLBUWkcv
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) January 24, 2020

The deal follows the end of Blizzard’s two year partnership with the Amazon-owned Twitch, who exclusively hosted the streams for the league since the 2018 season up until last December.

The first match of the 2020 Overwatch League season is between the Paris Eternal and the Toronto Defiant on February 8 in New York.

Comments:

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karzahni14

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I wonder how this affects the all access pass

Snivy

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Note: edited the first paragraph to add "worldwide".

raymond907

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youtube gaming? wow that really sucks, i loved watching it on twitch

Hellafine

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how you deal with low viewership on twitch? - you move to youtube 4head

irishfire

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Why can’t they be like league of legends and have both

Snivy

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IIRC, League of Legends doesn't have any exclusive broadcasting deals (there was Huya getting the broadcasting rights for the LCS and LEC in China, but it's only for that region), so that's likely why the LCS and LEC can stream on multiple platforms. Activision-Blizzard got a deal with Google to stream on YouTube, and according to Adam Stern from SBJ, the financial situation was "much better" for OWL teams than the Twitch deal. So from what I can speculate, they probably got the deal to help them money-wise.

gomak

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.........

Frozello

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Not really familiar with Youtube Gaming, but if it's better video quality than Twitch I'm cool with this.

Dreth

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Is this why we aren't getting any contenders right now?

#10

irishfire

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No I think it’s because it’s so many games going on rn

#15

robokun87

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What kind of piss poor excuse is that? both EU and NA had 1 game on yesterday yet it wasn't streamed, this deal clearly has something to do with it.

#16

Wombat

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Can we be so certain of that? I've just had it pegged down to how little Blizzard cares about Contenders

#17

irishfire

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Well isn’t the deal with YouTube for overwatch league. Not contenders. And isn’t this just the trials too. Not the real thing

#18

Frozello

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Well Contenders is moving to Youtube too.

#11

raymond907

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the more i think about this the more i hate it. God this is truly an awful decision, im probably gonna miss half of the games because of this. viewer numbers are gonna drop dramatically

#19

DixR

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Why? The biterate is way better l
on YT and you have more control over the stream

#22

raymond907

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YouTube gaming really isn’t good. The chat system is worse, even the ability to find the live-stream is more difficult than twitch. With twitch if you go to the home website the overwatch league is right there at the top. I’ve watched live-streams on YouTube because channels I’m subbed to are live at the moment, I legit have no idea how to find live-streams on YouTube. There is a very high chance I’m going to miss half of the games because it’s so much more inconvenient

#23

karzahni14

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Just click the link from over.gg lol

#25

raymond907

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I only come on this website at the beginning and end of the day

#24

irishfire

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or use the search bar and type in Overwatch League and click on the video that has live in red

#26

raymond907

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I don’t go on YouTube a lot. I’m on twitch more, I moved there because of OWL and hate having to move back

#27

Wombat

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What do you mean you'd hate to "move" back, it's a website not a physical location. You're still allowed to watch other streams on Twitch.

I don't understand your trepidation at having to type Overwatch League into a search bar at a designated time that you'll be able to look up thanks to over.gg when you check it in the morning. You've even solved your own problem, subscribe to the OWL channel and YouTube will tell you that it's live when you go on the website.

I'll admit the chat isn't as good but does it really matter for OWL when all you get is a stream of PogChamps that fly by at the speed of light.

#12

Hiagain

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Like I'll watch as long as the quality is good, but this makes me worried about viewership.

#13

MKT

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I hope to god that you can still get drops.

#14

robokun87

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If that isn't the case the viewership will take an even bigger hit, free shit is what brings in extra viewers.

#20

Banterlife

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How the fuck am i going to spam my OMEGALULs now

#21

irishfire

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In the comment section?