NCAA March Madness Live—the live streaming and second screen destination for the NCAA Men’s Tournament—is offering several new ways to watch and engage with all the action from the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship this year. The updated platform experience will include the debut of a new multigame viewing feature across select connected devices. 

NCAA March Madness Live is managed by Turner Sports in partnership with the NCAA and CBS Sports and is available to download across 18 mobile and connected devices including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox, Google TV and select LG Smart TV devices.

New this year is a Multi-Game Viewing option, which allows fans to watch up to two games simultaneously, providing users a live look-in to a second game without audio. Multigame viewing is available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and Xbox One. This feature will join the picture-in-picture option (available on mobile, desktop and tablet), which allows users to navigate through the MML app while watching a game in real-time.

NCAA March Madness Live will also introduce Starting Lineup Challenge, a new interactive experience, developed in partnership with SharpLink Gaming. To play, fans are given a budget to pick a lineup of five teams before the start of the Tournament. Those teams then gain value by winning games and conversely stop gaining value when they lose. After every round, users can buy and sell teams to tweak their lineups or hold the teams they currently own to earn loyalty points. At the end of the Tournament, the lineup with the highest value wins.

Capital One NCAA March Madness Men’s Bracket Challenge will add a new feature that reminds users of the outcomes they predicted so that they know which results to root for in anticipation of winning their Bracket Challenge.

NCAA March Madness Live will once again feature Matchup Analysis, allowing fans to choose from over 20 stats to personalize their bracket picking experience as part of Bracket IQ presented by Invesco QQQ. Fans will also gain extra insight with Path to the Championship, which lets fans calculate possible Tournament outcomes based on remaining games in the bracket, giving users a visualization of their best possible ranking. Path to the Championship will be available at the start of "Sweet Sixteen."

Fast Break presented by AT&T 5G and Nissan, will now feature enhanced analytics powered by Second Spectrum, part of the Genius Sports family, that will breakdown gameplay stats and augment video with graphic overlays detailing the most critical data points. This live, whip-around coverage will also offer quick turnaround highlights, real-time analysis by industry stars, social reaction and commentary for all games.

Game Center, the central hub of NCAA March Madness Live, will be featured on all connected devices and include Condensed Games presented by AT&T 5G to spotlight the most important moments of live game action. To fuel engagement and connection with users, Game Center will feature the Madness Feed, powered by LiveLike, to offer Tournament updates, interactive polls and quizzes. The feed will be updated during the busiest rounds of the Tournament to create a unique experience alongside video viewing.

Turner Sports and CBS Sports will provide live coverage of all 67 games from the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV, and via NCAA March Madness Live. Additionally, Turner Sports’ Bleacher Report and CBS Sports will provide coverage of the games across their respective social media platforms and apps, redirecting fans to watch games live on NCAA March Madness Live and the four networks.

Fans can also access all Tournament games via live streaming on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV’s digital platforms, as well as participating TV provider websites and apps. The CBS telecast can be viewed via the web and on mobile devices with no authentication required and via Paramount+ on connected devices.

ATLANTA—Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation have reached an eight-year multimedia rights agreement that will make TNT/TBS and HBO Max the exclusive English-language home to more than 20 Women’s and Men’s National Team matches each year. 

The Sports Business Journal has valued the deal at being worth more than $200 million. 

The new agreement, set to begin in 2023, marks HBO Max’s first big move into offering live sports on the streaming service. 

HBO Max will live stream more than 20 United States National Soccer Team matches each year. TNT or TBS will televise approximately half of those matches – all simulcast on HBO Max – with the remaining matches being exclusive to the rapidly growing streaming platform.

In addition, the deal will include digital and highlight rights for Bleacher Report and its portfolio brands, among additional content opportunities throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio, the companies said. 

“This is a significant milestone for Turner Sports and WarnerMedia, further demonstrating our commitment to the distribution of premium live sports content on HBO Max, while simultaneously fueling our leading entertainment networks, digital and social assets,” said Lenny Daniels, president, Turner Sports. “We’re excited to spotlight one of the most popular Women’s teams in the world, along with an ascending Men’s National Team, over the eight years of this agreement. This partnership offers us an opportunity to engage with their avid, young and diverse fan bases through all of our Turner Sports and Bleacher Report platforms.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Turner Sports at this amazing time for soccer in the United States," said U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone. “During our discussions it was clear how dedicated they are to growing soccer in the United States, especially their commitment to expand the women’s game. As we build towards 2026 and beyond, we have found a fantastic partner to spotlight the stories of our Women's and Men's National Teams."

Per the terms of the agreement, Turner Sports will be the exclusive domestic, English-language rightsholder for U.S. National Team World Cup qualifiers, National Team friendlies (including premium U.S. matches against Mexico), send-off matches and special events leading up to and following the World Cup and Olympic Games, and the SheBelieves Cup, among additional events involving the Women’s and Men’s National Soccer Teams.

Additional highlights of the deal include:

• Turner Sports and Bleacher Report will have exclusive rights to live event coverage, including the potential to create interactive companion broadcasting experiences and/or newly developed matches or tournaments; behind-the-scenes content, such as the opportunity to produce docuseries and ancillary programming; along with bespoke digital experiences, in association with both teams;
• Bleacher Report, including its leading B/R Football platform, will have expansive digital and highlight rights;
• Turner Sports will have TV Everywhere rights that will allow its networks to make these matches and related programming available to authenticated subscribers across all WarnerMedia platforms;
• The agreement also includes additional content and storytelling opportunities throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio, eCommerce rights, the possibility of integrating sports betting experiences, among others.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.—LG Electronics USA has launched a three-year partnership with the NCAA, Turner Sports, and CBS Sports for category exclusive marketing and distribution rights to NCAA Championship competitions. 

LG's support of NCAA Championships will include the launch of the NCAA Championships Channel, a new smart TV streaming channel for NCAA championships available exclusively on LG Smart TVs, the companies said.

As part of the partnership with CBS Sports and Turner Sports, up to 50 NCAA Fall, Winter and Spring championships, both live and on-demand, will be featured on LG's exclusive streaming service, LG Channels. A top-five app in terms of streaming hours on LG TVs, LG Channels features more than 350 free ad supported channels in the United States.

The exclusive NCAA channel on LG Smart TVs will also offer a unique series featuring behind-the-scenes content from student athletes and their schools in addition to recaps of NCAA championships throughout the year. 

"As a fan of the NCAA, LG is excited about this one-of-a-kind sponsorship opportunity which will deliver various services for fans, including live streaming content through a big screen experience and enhanced access to games," said Peggy Ang, senior vice president of marketing at LG Electronics USA. "Working with the NCAA, CBS Sports, and Turner Sports, LG will offer a new platform that celebrates these accomplished athletes while simultaneously empowering their development and success with LG technologies."

The NCAA Championships Channel launches this month, airing highlights and games from previous college championships. The Fall 2021 NCAA championship games will be available on-demand starting mid-November, with live streams expected to be available starting for the Winter season in the first quarter of 2022. LG, the NCAA, Turner Sports, and CBS Sports will work closely together on integrated marketing activities to celebrate this momentous partnership.

"We're thrilled to welcome LG to the NCAA Corporate Partner family as it brings a platform that will put more of a spotlight on outstanding student-athlete accomplishments with its SmartTV channels," said Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball.  "NCAA student-athletes are high achievers in the classroom and in competition. LG is providing a special opportunity for athletes to be seen and to have a voice around their championships. We thank LG for providing this unique platform where student-athletes can talk about their overall experiences and their competitive achievements."  

NEW YORK—The NBA is looking to cash in on the rise in popularity of sports betting, with NBA Digital announcing a collaboration with Turner Sports and BetMGM on its first betting-focused program, “NBA Bet.”

“NBA Bet Presented by BetMGM” is NBA TV’s first live studio show dedicated to sports betting information and analysis. Based out of WarnerMedia Studios in Atlanta, the show will feature experts discussing betting analysis and breakdowns, while BetMGM’s data feed will be integrated and the latest odds displayed throughout the show.

A multiplatform offering, “NBA Bet” will have a 30-minute weekly TV show available to NBA TV subscribers, as well as content across NBA.com, the NBA App and social platforms. A new @NBABet social media account will feature video segments, highlights, analysis, insights and more.

“NBA Bet” debuts May 21 at 6:30 p.m. ET, just before the NBA playoffs get underway; it will continue through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

ATLANTA—Turner Sports is taking to the ice, announcing a seven-year broadcast and digital rights agreement with the NHL to bring hockey to its TNT and TBS networks, as well as HBO Max, starting with the 2021-2022 season.

Turner will make up the second half of NHL’s broadcast rights package, along with ESPN, which announced its deal with the league back in March.

The deal also officially signals the end of the NHL’s tenure on NBC, which had been the broadcast home of hockey since 2005.

The deal with Turner Sports, which is a division of WarnerMedia, will bring 72 exclusive national regular season games to its networks, half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs each year and exclusive coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals in three of the seven years of the deal; ESPN has the rights to the other years of Stanley Cup Finals and playoff games. In addition, TNT will exclusively present the NHL Winter Classic each year, as well as other live events.

Live game, studio coverage and other programming details will be announced in the months ahead.

In addition, the deal includes a multimedia agreement between Turner Sports and the NHL for live streaming and digital rights across WarnerMedia for mobile, web, tablets and connected devices. This will include live streaming and simulcasting rights for HBO Max; TV Everywhere rights; and expansive digital and highlight rights for its Bleacher Report platform, with plans to create ancillary programming, events and bespoke digital experiences.

Part of the NHL’s deal with ESPN also included streaming rights for its ESPN+ platform.

The NHL is the second major sport league to put a larger emphasis on digital streaming as part of a new broadcast rights package. The NFL announced that it had agreed to give Amazon Prime Video exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football in its new deal, as well as additional rights to CBS and NBC digital platforms.

No financial details on Turner Sports’ deal with the NHL was shared in the official announcement, but according to multiple reports, the deal is for $225 million a year. ESPN is paying $400 million per year for its share of the rights, per reports.

“Turner Sports is known for its outstanding sports coverage, quality and innovation and we are thrilled that this new partnership will provide our fans with the content they love on the platforms and devices of their choice,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “TNT is a proven and acclaimed destination for sports fans and we will also benefit from the deep connection Bleacher Report has with young digital-savvy fans. Having WarnerMedia join the NHL family as co-rightsholders for the next seven years gives us incredible reach, positions us well for the future as the media landscape continues to evolve, and will fuel continued growth for the NHL and our Clubs.”

NBC will continue to carry the NHL for the remainder of the 2020-2021 season and the NHL playoffs.

ATLANTA—The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness, is set to return after not taking place in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Turner Sports has shared its redesigned NCAA March Madness Live streaming and second-screen platform that fans can use to watch the tournament action.

NCAA March Madness Live is a multiplatform viewing experience, and this year it is focusing on providing fans with dynamic live video of games, according to Turner Sports. Among the highlights of the new platform are a redesigned Game Center and “The Catch Up” feature.

Game Center serves as the central hub of NCAA March Madness Live, providing news, highlights and interactive content. This year, Game Center will be available on all connected devices and include “Condensed Games” from AT&T 5G, which focus on the most important moments of live game action. Game Center will also feature a new tab with interactive widgets offering polls, quizzes, alerts and more; the widgets will update for every game.

Another new feature, “The Catch Up,” is presented by AT&T 5G and provides a summary of key plays and moments in a game before a viewer starts watching live streaming coverage.

Returning to NCAA March Madness Live is “Fast Break,” presented by AT&T 5G and Nissan, providing an “all-encompassing” look at live tournament action from a single viewing location, according to Turner Sports. Fast Break also offers quick turnaround highlights, real-time analysis, social reaction and commentary for games. Fast Break will be available when there are multiple games being played during the first two rounds of the tournament.

In addition, for fans who fill out tournament brackets with the Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge, NCAA March Madness Live will provide information on their picks and results, including following their Bracket Challenge group leaderboards.

March Madness Live will share live coverage of all 67 games of the tournament across TNT, TBS, CBS and truTV.

The 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is taking place entirely in Indiana, with most games taking place in Indianapolis. The tournament begins on March 18 and goes through April 5. 

ATLANTA—Turner Sports and Major League Baseball have agreed to a seven-year multimedia rights extension that will keep the MLB and Turner partnership going through 2028. The deal is worth a reported $3.7 billion. 

MLB and Turner Sports have been broadcasting games together since 1973, and this new deal will maintain the relationship that has TBS as one of the homes of the MLB Postseason. With this agreement, TBS will actually have the most postseason games of any network, including one Wild Card game, two Division Series and one League Championship Series each year.

TBS will also launch a new studio show anchored by Ernie Johnson, with Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, World Series Champion Jimmy Rollins and three-time All-Star Curtis Granderson joining him. This broadcast team is set to debut during this year’s postseason.

The deal also includes digital rights, including TV Everywhere rights that will allow TBS to make its MLB games and related programming available to authenticated subscribers across Turner Sports platforms. There will also be increased footage and highlights for Turner Sports websites and apps, including Bleacher Report, and rights to create companion and ancillary products related to the TBS broadcast of regular and postseason games.

“We’re delighted to extend our long-standing relationship with Major League Baseball and all of the opportunities this agreement offers us as we broaden our coverage of the game across all of our platforms,” said Jeff Zucker, chairman, WarnerMedia & Sports. “We will continue to further evolve our multiplatform delivery of content with a focus on storytelling and innovation in all forms.”

The 2020 MLB Postseason is scheduled to begin on Sept. 29.

WASHINGTON—Even though the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, more affectionately known as March Madness, was cancelled because of coronavirus (COVID-19), CBS Sports and Turner Sports have committed to paying the contracted technicians, utilities and freelancers that were set to work the tournament, according to reports.

Initially reported by Sports Video Group, the news was shared through an email from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW said it was not able to share internal emails with TV Technology). SVG also said that it received confirmation from CBS Sports and Turner Sports.

The email detailed that CBS Sports would pay “straight-time hours” for when individuals were contracted to work, and that they would be paid over the next few weeks as originally intended had the tournament gone on. Corresponding benefit contributions will also be made to flex plans and entertainment industry 401K plans, per the email.

The range of those being paid will include any professional or freelancer who was scheduled to work the NCAA Tournament, the Final Four and Division II and Division III national championship games. It will also extend to those who were contracted (professional and freelancers) working in the broadcast centers’ studios, edit rooms and coordination rooms.

NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO—As part of a deal with the National Basketball Association, Turner Sports and Twitter will allow NBA fans to follow single player action via an isolated camera feed during basketball games broadcast on TNT. The option, which will tip off with the 2019 NBA All Star Game Feb. 17, will be offered on 19 other regular season and playoff games and only be available to fans in the United States.

During the second half of the games, fans can vote via Twitter on which player to focus on, then the ISO camera will follow the fans’ selected player for the rest of the game.

“The NBA Twitter community is among the most vibrant in sports and entertainment,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “While watching NBA games on TNT, our fans on Twitter can now enjoy a unique second screen experience that will further enhance the way fans engage with each other and the game.”

“Turner and the NBA have always taken a leadership position in providing fans with engaging experiences and this partnership with Twitter is the latest example,” said David Levy, President of Turner. “This complementary live stream on Twitter – from the distinct vantage point of the fan-voted, most coveted player on a given night – will provide an additive experience for fans to go along with the fully-produced coverage on TNT.”

Since the NBA joined Twitter in 2009, the league says it has built the largest Twitter community of any sports league in the world with 27.5 million followers.

Photo credit: ESPN

NEW YORK — Video games are not just played by teenagers these days, and there are now professional gamers who regularly take part in eSports competitions around the world. According to research from Newzoo, a marketing tracking company, eSports was on track to have an audience of more than 427 million people by 2019, up from 226 million in 2015.

The global eSports market, which began as PC and video game console-based competitions, is currently expanding to mobile. A Newzoo report from April 2017 found that already 42 percent of the gaming market was on mobile devices, and it is slated to increase by more than 50 percent by 2020.

As a sport there are still challenges in providing a compelling viewing experience to the audiences watching not only on TVs but on PCs, tablets and increasingly mobile devices as well. To overcome these challenges the eSports industry has been taking cues from how past sports have been delivered to the masses. This is already apparent with ELEAGUE, the professional eSports league that began broadcasting in 2016 on TBS.

FOLLOWING THE ‘STICK AND BALL’ MODEL

“We’re taking what we’ve learned from traditional ‘stick and ball’ sports on how to produce this,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and CCO of Atlanta-based Turner Sports. “First, it is important to have those with a passion working on it.”

In this regard eSports is just sports with an extra letter in front.

“All of the innovation that we’ve seen used for basketball or baseball as just two examples, is now being utilized with eSports,” said Stuart Lipson, executive director of the Esports Ad Bureau in New York. “This has been about extending it to a wider audience, complete with the arena like experience.”

[Read: 2018 Guide To Sports Production Is Now Available]

What sets eSports apart from more traditional sporting events is that the audience is just as likely to be watching on a mobile device as their living room TV.

“This is a young audience that watches it on multiple platforms, just as it is a sport that uses multiple platforms,” Lipson said. “The downside is that this makes it more complex on the production side. We have to ensure that we can provide the same experience to the viewer, whether they are actually seeing it at Madison Square Garden on their handset on the other side of the world.”

IN YOUR FACE

eSports differ from the traditional team-based sports — notably football, basketball and baseball — in that the players aren’t technically “in the arena,” at least not in a physical sense. This is different even from auto racing where the drivers are on the course, albeit in vehicles. The closest comparison may be to chess where the players are looking at the same competition “field” as the audience.

The way this is being presented is steadily evolving suggested Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, a Los Angeles new media firm. “Currently this involves capturing action on multiple screens that can include having the gameplay heavily emphasized, where the player/competitor is emphasized less so than in other sports,” he said.

However, individual eSports athletes/competitors are making a name for themselves and thus getting their close-up.

“Normally the athletes always have a camera on their face, in order to catch any emotions that come from the gameplay — and there is a LOT of emotion — this is often placed picture-in-picture with what they are doing in the ‘virtual world’ or-in game,” said Reggie McKim, video game analyst at SuperData Research. “This allows the viewer to tie an action in game, to the emotion elicited, i.e. something happens in game and the athlete shouts and high-fives his teammates out of game vs. something happens in game and the athlete shouts and puts his face in his hands out of game.”

In most situations this is quite easy for the production team to cater to both experienced viewers who have played the game and inexperienced viewers who may not play games.

“The experienced player already knows what has happened and whether it is good or bad, because they have most likely experienced a similar action and response," said McKim. “The inexperienced can glean the same information by watching the athlete’s emotion. Catering to both viewer types is one of the biggest hurdles for any eSports production/broadcast, especially something that will be broadcast on television to the general public.”

Another way that eSports is evolving when it comes to production is how it is taking cues from the way the NBA puts the spotlight on key star players.

“You can find the same thing happening in the more professional and established eSports; more tournaments have a pre/post- show, post-game interviews with the MVP, fan meet-up opportunities, personable/out-of-game produced shorts,” added McKim. “Presenting all of the information of the game state in an easily digestible way tends to be the biggest problem for any production team, outside of technical hiccups.”

DELIVERING THE ACTION

Because it is still a growing industry — and lags behind true billion dollar sports such as professional basketball or football — eSports hasn’t gone prime time. However, broadcasters like Turner are treating it like they would other sporting events.

“We approach it like any other sport,” said Turner’s Barry. “The back-end infrastructure is super important. That is first and foremost the most important part of this.”

ELEAGUE has standardized the gaming hardware the competitors use — typically Dell monitors and computers from Alienware, a Dell-owned gaming PC manufacturer.

“This is no different from how the cameras are calibrated for a stick and ball sport, and sent to a standard truck,” Barry said. “What is different is that we need two different production teams. There is an observer feed that is cutting the gameplay; and there is the show feed that is capturing the players, spectators and action in the arenas.”

In most situations Barry said the observers are just watching the on-screen competition and cutting from virtual cameras so that the audience sees essentially the same thing as the player. This feed is then intercut with the show feed.

“In most matches the observer feed is on 75 percent of the time,” said Barry. “These need to come together to deliver the experience, and then these are processed together and sent out on that very wide pipe.”

The biggest challenges relating to eSports broadcasting primarily stem from the intensive hardware use required to capture, compile, and transmit feeds from several computers involved in the competition.

“The technology exists but with any production, the introduction of more potential points of failure adds to the necessary quality-assurance workload,” said Justin Dellario, head of eSports programs for online video game channel Twitch, a live streaming video platform and subsidiary of Amazon. “Another challenge worth mentioning, which can also be seen as a positive differentiator for the content type, is the sheer number of camera feeds involved in any broadcast.”

One example is the recent “Overwatch” competitions, a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game that can require a dozen feeds for the gameplay video and another dozen for the audio, before compiling and transmission just to capture the game feed for every competitor.

“This is often combined with a ‘player’ showing the player’s reactions in real time along with gameplay, adding 12 more feeds which have to be properly synchronized,” Dellario said. “In a live setting, these are on top of the feeds capturing the physical location, broadcast talent, and any other special views the production wishes to use to provide their total desired viewing experience for the consumer.”

Another important aspect of eSports broadcasts is the in-game spectator tools, which truly differentiate it from more traditional sporting events. These allow customization not only by those playing but on the production side and even by the viewer at home.

“The overall quality of broadcast resulting from presenting a gaming competition is heavily reliant on how deep of an in-game spectator tool set that the game developer has produced,” said Dellario. “In-game spectator tools are sometimes the only enabler the production teams have to zoom around the in-game environment and quickly switch between players views, birds-eye views, and present in-game stats in real time. This must also be combined with specialized graphics and overlays tailored to each individual game’s UI and tracking needs, adding additional workload to all graphics and UX design needs.”

DIFFERENT PLATFORMS, DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES

While Twitch is just one of the ways that eSports fans are watching the games, streaming media continues to play a key role.

“Twitch has been extremely effective in providing the gaming experience to those who aren’t typically sitting in front of the big TV in the living room,” said Gayle Dickie, CEO of Los Angeles-based Gamer World News Entertainment, Inc. (CWNe), a 24/7 go-to source for eSports and gamer news. “Video streaming services are becoming the go-to place for these competitions.”

The challenge today is trying to provide that everyone — from the viewer of the action on a large screen TV to a mobile handset — gets a similar experience, and that the audience remotely can see the action the same way as the player. While it is true that live sports in the arena, stadium or other venue differs from what the audience sees at home, the goal of eSports is to ensure that the playing field — literal and figurative — is as close to the same for everyone.

“One challenge is that players are spending thousands of dollars on computers with the latest graphics engines,” said Dickie. “This is why when we deliver the news we use the same motion tracking software that is based on the Unreal Engine that is used to make the games. We have to use the gamer technology to get that same look to keep it consistent.”

At least in the short term however the experience will differ based on the platform being used to watch it.

“We are for now, a prisoner of the technology,” added Dickie. “You are going to have a different experience on mobile vs. a high-end TV. There is no way around it right now.”

The type of game can also determine how it is presented.

“During a match of any first-person shooter — “Counterstrike: GO,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” — often the presentation will offer a ‘mini-map,’ a simplistic top-down view detailing the layout of the current map and the position of all the players, in a small section of the screen while the majority of screen is either the first-person view of a particular individual or a third-person perspective camera,” explained McKim. “Additional information such as match time, point count, and life totals often frame the screen as well.”

Many eSports are also team-based, so not all of that above information needs to be provided for each player. With up to six players per team, directing the action can be complicated.

“These individuals must be very talented and knowledgeable of the game they are working with,” added McKim. “This entails having to learn the metagame and strategies of professional players or teams and putting themselves in the shoes of a viewer with no experience with the game. Nothing is more off-putting to a viewer than missing a big play because of the camerawork.”

eSports may not need more specialized tools than other sports, but the challenge is one of scale.

“With the popularity of Battle Royale genre games at an all-time high, the ‘optimum’ way to capture this gameplay would be to pull and direct 100-plus competitors’ audio, video, and personal cams,” said Dellario. “This leads to 300+ input needs in this optimal circumstance, which is why it isn’t very common to see broadcasts utilize this depth of content capture.

However with all of the action is occurring within a game there is no worry of a miscall by a referee or illegal actions by the players, as the games won’t allow it. In addition information — notably stats — can be provided in real time in a way not possible in other sports.

“Back only a few decades ago announcers for pro sports didn’t always know the score as it was an individual’s job to keep track,” said Vorhaus. “Now this information on statistics can be pulled up in real time and provided to the audience. There is so much more data that you can push to the screen. eSports is able to provide this information faster than any other sport and that can be very compelling to the viewer who knows — and often plays these games.”

All this could be why eSports promises to be a game changer in more ways than one.

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ATLANTA—It’s the most wonderful time of the year for college basketball fans, as March Madness is officially upon us and this year, fans will have more ways to watch all the games of the NCAA Tournament. NCAA March Madness Live—the live streaming suite of products from Turner Sports, in partnership with CBS and the NCAA—will cover all 67 games of this year’s tournament across 16 platforms, more than any previous year, per Turner’s press release.

March Madness Live will be available on fans’ iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Apple Watch Android handset, Android tablet, Amazon Echo family of devices, Amazon Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, mobile web, Roku players, Roku TV models, web and Xbox One.

In addition to the expanded availability, the March Madness Live suite also has a number of new features with the goal of improving the users viewing experience. The new “Fast Break” feature, presented by AT&T and Lowe’s, offers live streaming whip-around coverage of every tournament game during the first Thursday and Friday of tournament action. The feature will switch from game-to-game with live look-ins, highlights and commentary.

Apple TV users will be able to watch up to three live games at once through a new multi-game viewing experience available through the March Madness Live app for Apple TV. Also, select games will be offered in virtual reality via March Madness Live VR powered by Intel True VR and available in the Oculus Store and Google Play store; specific details about what games will be available in VR will be announced closer to the tournament.

Other features looking to boost fan experience include an enhanced Capitol One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge Game, which will provide push notifications for live games and keep them updated on their picks, as well as Bracket IQ, which will offer analysis for game picks. Additional “excitement alerts” will be delivered for big alerts and for access to live radio broadcaster from Westwood One.

Turner’s iStreamPlanet provides the live streaming infrastructure for all games on March Madness Live. Games this year will be available at up to 60fps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku and Xbox.

The NCAA Tournament will be broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, while also being offered on the companies’ digital platforms.

The 2018 NCAA Tournament will take place from March 13 to April 2.

ATLANTA—The NCAA’s March Madness College Basketball Tournament kicks off next Thursday, March 17, and Turner Sports has announced a deal to offer a new way for fans to experience it, a partnership with Snapchat and its Live Story product. This announcement is the beginning of a multi-year deal that will use Snapchat’s Live Story to provide coverage for a number of major sporting events.

This partnership will take the Snapchat’s Live Stories, which are a collection of videos and photos from Snapchat users to create a collective story, to offer unique perspectives for all the action of March Madness. Users will also have access to official brand marks, imagery and behind-the-scenes Snaps to add to their own content as part of the deal.

Advertising opportunities for the deal include Snapchat’s 3V ad product, which offers full-screen, vertical video ads that are interspersed throughout the user-submitted content in a Live Story.

In addition to college basketball, Snapchat is expected to offer similar services to the other sports that Turner Sports covers, including the NBA, Major League Baseball, boxing and professional golf.

The 2016 NCAA College Basketball Tournament will run from March 17-April 4.