With an impressive and unprecedented growth in popularity and live audiences for eSports, how could media companies and, specifically, sports networks such as those powered by the NBC Sports Group, align with and/or adapt to these trends to ensure they remain a leading engagement and delivery platform for sports entertainment?
Where we see the opportunities and challenges surface is in organized events, tournaments, etc. While traditional professional league sports (e.g. – NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc.) have been largely consumed via live television, there has been a material shift to more “digital” platforms in recent years allowing for consumption to take place via connected televisions and mobile-connected experiences. eSports is estimated to have nearly seven (7) billion hours of such consumption this year (2018) conducted via digital platforms such as Amazon’s Twitch and Google’s YouTube.
Your analysis should address the first question as well as one or more of the additional questions:
- Are there any common viewership demographics between eSports and traditional sports live viewership? Are certain sports better aligned with eSports audiences?
- In assessing the type of advertisers/brands that engage traditional sports viewers vs. eSports live viewing, what types of changes should a media company explore in better connecting advertisers/brands to eSports audiences?
- Based on some of the included industry reports, as well as your own research and analysis, how would you adapt a media company’s strategy considering the changing viewership trends? While this is a qualitative assessment, please reference any insights that support your recommended strategy.
While specific viewership data and actual consumption behavior data may not be shared due to both privacy considerations and respective copyrights, we feel there are enough insights, both quantitative and qualitative, in the materials listed below, as well as available through alternative market and/or research resources, to help you gain an understanding of the patterns, trends, and potential factors in helping media companies better adapt to and engage the growing eSports audience. This is a rapidly changing and exciting space for consumers, marketers, media companies, and publishers.
Datasets
Click here for NBCU Data & Info
- Be certain to view the PDF file named NBCU_2018_analytics_challenge first for detailed information about the datasets and other reference materials.
- There are 11 files in the Datasets folder including the PDF noted above. The file names are listed below.
- esports_viewers_age.csv
- esports_viewers_gender_duration.csv
- MAGNA-SBJ.pdf
- NBCU_2018_analytics_challenge.pdf
- pwc_consumer-intelligence-series_esports_april-2016.pdf
- nielsen-esposrts-playbook.pdf
- reference_values.xlsx (updated 10/19/2018)
- thesportjournal.org-Gender Age and Race as Predictors of Sports-Viewing Behavior of Sport Management Undergraduates.pdf
- tv_viewership_age_trend_magna.csv
- tvsports_adbuys.csv
- NBCU_analytics challenge – Hack_Hint (added 10/19/2018)
