Huya Signs Two-year Exclusive Broadcasting Rights Agreement with ESL
Chinese game live streaming company Huya and ESL Gaming GmbH announced on Thursday that they have reached a two-year exclusive media rights agreement. Exclusive broadcast rights within the deal will include ESL’s Dota 2 and Mobile ecosystems, as well as its ESL Pro Tour for CS:GO and StarCraft II.
Huya will cover tournaments in standard Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. This cooperation is also the first time that ESL has signed a multi-year live-streaming copyright agreement in the Chinese market.
ESL is well known in Europe as it hosts a series of global e-sports events, such as IEM and EPL in the fields such as CS: GO and Dota2, which often attracts attention from players and spectators around the world.
Huya‘s live-streaming market share in CS:GO and Dota2 has been on the rise since it reached a copyright agreement with ESL in 2019. In the future, Huya and ESL will integrate their strengths, focus on the output of CS:GO and Dota2 events, and further enhance users’ experience of watching and interacting during the broadcasts.
One Huya insider said: “Renewing the exclusive live-streaming copyright with ESL for two years will not only achieve a win-win situation, but also be consistent with Huya‘s plan to bolster its footprint in e-sports.”
According to Huya‘s 3Q2021 financial report of Huya, the number of its monthly active users in China reached 85.1 million, a record high.
During the recent popular S11 Global Finals of League of Legends, Huya‘s live-streaming app was the main platform for watching the game and ranked second place in the Apple Store’s app store during the event. At the same time, Huya has launched new features such as non-delay AI subtitles and HDR image quality, which will continue to be optimized and utilized in other live events.
