The live broadcast of recently concluded TI5 (4-9 August local time) attracted 1.5 million viewers according to Astro, the sole pay-TV operator in Malaysia.
Astro was impressed by the number, considering the matches are often aired after 1 am local time and it is the first live huge e-sports coverage they’ve attempted. Astro’s head of sports business Lee Choong Kay said, “We managed to reach 1.3 million Facebook users while on Twitter, the Dota topic trended upon our announcement that we would air the programme live. This reaffirms our belief that e-sports [electronic sports] has a growing popularity among youth in Malaysia,” he added, “This was the first time we aired e-sports on our platform, and we are encouraged by the response”
Lee said the decision to air TI5 was driven by the growing e-sports scene in Malaysia. He elaborated, “With a total of 14 sports channels, we offer the best of key live sporting events ranging from the BPL (Barclay’s Premier League football) to Wimbledon and Formula One racing. We would like to expand our ‘home of sports’ proposition to include e-sports, and what better way than to broadcast The International – a highly popular global tournament – with 10 million e-sports fans in Malaysia.”
Will Astro form a specific channel that dedicated to e-sports only? Lee answered it cautiously, “As a content and consumer company, we aspire to bring the best of international, regional and local content of all genres to our customers. E-sports is growing in popularity in Malaysia and Astro aired TI5 to engage a new wave of sports fans, including Dota 2 fans and the fast-growing e-sports community. At this point, there are no plans to launch an e-sports channel. However, we are always open to the idea if there is huge interest.”
Source: Digital News Asia
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