The professional esports organization ESL has announced that it is launching the industry's first 24/7 Counter Strike channel on Twitch. Featuring high quality action from ESL and its partners, the channel will be watchable by CS fans around the clock.
According to press release, the channel has been made possible by a "unique proprietary cloud-based content management system," managed and curated by a dedicated ESL TV specialist.
“The system works in such a way that we can plan scheduling weeks in advance,” said Kelly Kline, Content Manager at ESL. “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.”
The channel is fully integrated into ESL's media directory and will initially support ESL ESEA Pro League's weekly CS: Global Offensive matches, streamed on the same channel. Eventually the organization plans to roll out the software to additional channels to include various members of the ESL Video Network, covering a host of games across many different languages.
“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!” said Joe Miller, Editor in Chief at ESL. “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.”
“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,” said Han Park, President of ESL America. “Our soft-launch reached concurrent viewership numbers of over 15,000 on multiple occasions, which tells us that there is definitely demand for this type of content, and we look forward to expanding on it in future.”
If you're keen to watch on-going matches of Counter Strike, just head on over to the Twitch channel. You can check for scheduling here.
