Major League Gaming, ESPN Style

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Major League Gaming, ESPN Style

We've been talking at length about the various developments in the market space for Major League Gaming, and what kind of impact it could have on gaming as a whole. But Major League Gaming is about to make a move that should make most take it much more seriously, having commissioned some new online content, content that will be presented in the grandest ESPN style.

Major League Gaming's new plans revolve around a fixture in Major League Gaming action, broadcaster Chris Puckett. Major League Gaming promoted Puckett to the rank of vice president of programming, and saddled him with the job of producing between six and ten hours of new video content every week. The new shows in question are said to be in much the same style of ESPN's releases, but will focus on the standard content that would be expected of a Major League Gaming presentation, offering insights on game strategy and the competition itself, as well as highlights from previous games and analysis of upcoming matches as well as previous ones.

It's not as though Major League Gaming hasn't already had plenty of content available--indeed, it features regular broadcasts online accessible at any time of the day or night, and that's going a long way toward getting interest--but the league knows it needs to step up its game, so to speak, in order to get full access to the largest possible market. Major League Gaming is growing as a concept, and the audience is growing, a development that Major League Gaming's CEO Sundance DiGiovanni reportedly pins at least somewhat on the quality of Chris Puckett's presentation skills. Thus, upgrading Puckett to handling the network's content should go a long way toward putting out more video for the viewers to watch. Given that there's been quite an upsurge in viewership among the 18 to 24 year old male demographic--which is pretty much the sweet spot for most advertisers--more content should improve the overall picture for the league in general, giving advertisers more opportunities to reach a key demographic.

And once again, this goes a long way toward giving Major League Gaming the extra content that it will likely need to make itself a fully-realized concept. Sure, the games are one thing, and great to watch. But without regular influxes of content, the audience is less likely to get hooked than would be the case otherwise. With constant updates, however--at least daily updates, which seems likely given the amount of content going in--the audience is much more likely to keep coming back, get hooked, and stick around.

With this and the accompanying rise of the e-sports bar, it's looking more and more like Major League Gaming--indeed, all of e-sports in general--has a very real potential to become the next big thing in sports, and give video gaming in general a significant boost in credibility.
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