Polsat Games, the esports channel of Polish commercial broadcaster Polsat, has reached an agreement with esports organisations ESL and DreamHack to showcase a range of Counter Strike: Global Offensive content.
Polsat Games has acquired rights to CS:GO’s ESL Pro Tour circuit, which links more than 20 tournaments and leagues. The year-long agreement will deliver up to 2,000 hours of CS:GO content across Polsat platforms.
Polsat Games was launched in 2018 and is available as a linear channel on the Cyfrowy Polsat, Netia and UPC platforms. Selected programmes are also available to watch via Twitch and YouTube.
Polsat’s agreement began with the Intel Extreme Masters event in Katowice, which ran from February 24 to March 3. Polsat Games reported 100-per-cent growth in viewership figures compared to the same time frame in 2019.
ESL has also announced recent rights agreements with TV2 Denmark, TV2 Norway, Telia Finland and ProSiebenSat.1.
The majority of Polsat’s broadcasts will be hosted directly from Polsat Games’ studio in Warsaw.
Ewa Czekała, programme manager for Polsat Games, said: “Extending Polsat Games’ offer to broadcast the prestigious ESL Pro Tour tournaments in CS:GO is a very important step in the development of linear television.”
ESL said that the ongoing 11th season of the ESL Pro League, which forms part of the ESL Pro Tour, has reached an all-time record peak for concurrent users (excluding China) with over 355,000 – a 66-per-cent increase.
This year’s ESL Pro Tour features an aggregate prize pool of more than $5m (€4.6m) and includes competitions from across five continents.