Telecommunications company Telefónica has signed a wide-ranging partnership with ESL through which its commercial brand in Spain, Movistar, will showcase content from the esports organisation.
Telefónica will create a professional esports club, Movistar Riders, and a Movistar eSports channel.
The channel will show events such as ESL One, ESL Intel Extreme and ESL Masters Series. Each of the 13 tournaments scheduled for 2017 will offer up to 25 hours of live broadcast coverage.
The Movistar Deportes 1 and Movistar Deportes 2 channels will also feature specific timeslots for esports content, while Movistar’s Channel #0 will provide daily news and updates through the Minuto #0 programme.
Movistar Stadium will broadcast a weekly magazine show that will follow the day-to-day lives of esports professionals and round up the season’s most memorable moments.
In addition, Movistar will create a digital ecosystem to provide fans with an online space to check updates and programming schedules.
Movistar will also have a presence at major gaming shows and esports events associated with ESL Arena and ESL Expo.
Luis Miguel Gilpérez, president of Telefónica España, said: “This will create an electronic gaming ecosystem in the country which, in addition to the very best telecommunications networks, will position Telefónica and its Movistar brand at the epicentre of this mass phenomenon that young people are joining with unbridled enthusiasm. We want to do our part for esports, which we believe is the sport of the 21st century.”