21st Century Fox is the latest media giant to take the plunge into esports and video game streaming, investing $100m into new streaming platform Caffeine.
Created in 2016 by two former Apple TV designers, Caffeine is aiming to be a more diverse streaming platform than Twitch. It will offer live content from traditional sports, concerts and other forms of live entertainment, as well as esports and gaming.
The platform will provide Fox with its own free streaming platform, potentially removing the need to sublicense sports content to social platforms Facebook and Twitter.
Fox’s new investment also means it joins Amazon, Google and Microsoft in the ‘social broadcasting’ sector.
Amazon acquired Twitch, which focuses almost solely on esports and gaming, for $970m in 2014. Google owns YouTube, which keeps its esports and gaming content on subsidiary platform YouTube Gaming. Microsoft opened gaming platform Mixer last year.