A dispute over the broadcast rights to the ProLeague has recently come to light. Potentially it's a body blow to proffesional e-sports in Korea, more likely it's a business problem that will be worked out in some way.
Originally it was posted by
Waxangel over at teamliquid. If you are unaware of what the ProLeague is and how it operates, you might want to familiarize yourself with it first, by checking out this feature. The problem that has emerged is that KeSPA decided to auction off the broadcast rights. OGN and MBC both refused to bid on this as they created and have been running the ProLeague. Some of the history behind this
OGN and MBC used to run seperate team leagues. This turned out to not be profitable for either channel. Therefore they merged the leagues into one collaborative league, the ProLeague, under the supervision of KeSPA. KeSPA is made up of representatives from the corporate sponsors of the proteams. SKT, Lecaf, CJ, etc. OGN and MBC does all the work arranging the league, but then KeSPA decided it owned the broadcast rights and auctioned them off. Feeling cheated, OGN and MBC refused to bid, but rather the rights went to the lone bidder, International E-Sports Group Inc (IEG).
What will happen to the ProLeague?
Potiential outcome
There are several worrying potiential outcomes. One of which is that OGN and MBC go back to making their own team leagues and that IEG sells the rights to broadcast ProLeague to someone else. In that case it's possible we will see three smaller leagues instead of the one huge ProLeague. This could be a good thing, but most likely it will end up with a inferior organization and coverage. This will also make it difficult to attract sponsors to three seperate leagues of course. If OGN and MBC decides to pay IEG for the rights though, the ProLeague will most likely go on exactly as before.
Information from IEG
After
uhjoo's news post on teamliquid, a representative from IEG posted some replies. He claims that the situation is not so dire and there is no need to worry about the future of the ProLeague. He also claimed that KeSPA, contrary to popular belief has been doing a lot of the work in organizing the ProLeague. Then he says some very interesting things. Keep in mind, while you read these quotes, that this person works for IEG."We are trying to reinvigorate the StarCraft community by spreading the Proleague contents to the US and Europe, whether its online or TV. We are working on getting StarCraft hosted at other major events (besides just WCG) as well as creating a new StarCraft league that players in North America, South America, Asia and Europe can all participate in."
"Expect more online coverage of StarCraft, especially in the States."
"Things are in motion that will reinvigorate the worldwide StarCraft community so there should be more opportunities to play in competitive leagues as well as more events to watch."
"Expect more online coverage of StarCraft, especially in the States."
"Things are in motion that will reinvigorate the worldwide StarCraft community so there should be more opportunities to play in competitive leagues as well as more events to watch."
These are some very interesting ideas. Could more online StarCraft coverage mean we would get an international stream with an English commentator? At the moment we will just have to wait and see. The IEG representative also said he understood why OGN and MBC were upset, but that this is part of a natural evolution and professionalization of e-sports. As a last interesting note, uhjoo said that he would try to get OGN and MBC's side of the story.
This could be status quo, very bad news, or the best news StarCraft has seen in quite some time. We can only wait and hope.
Links
TeamLiquid - Source
