ESL has announced that its EsportsTV service will launch in the near future on PlayStation Vue. This is the first time that EsportsTV will be available in the USA. 
ESL launched EsportsTV back in May 2016; the 24/7 channel launched in Europe and grew at an impressive rate to reach over five million households.
Later this month, PlayStation Vue users will have access to 24/7 esports content. To get access to this however there is a sizable stumbling block; it’s only available to Playstation Vue Elite subscribers which is a premium service that costs $54.99 per month. The launch comes just in time for the first stop in the twelfth season of the Intel® Extreme Masters (IEM) tour, IEM Sydney, which begins on May 4th in Sydney, Australia.
Steven Roberts, Executive Chairman, ESL stated: “EsportsTV is the perfect complement to the PlayStation Vue offering and represents just another step for esports as a form of mainstream entertainment. ESL is in a unique position to significantly expand the reach and impact of premium esports content and we are thrilled to bring esportsTV to the U.S. market.”
PlayStation Vue is available to TV audiences nationwide, and is accessible through a number of devices in addition to the PS4, such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, PC/Mac, mobile devices and more. If esports fans want to keep enjoying plentiful and regular content and coverage of the highest standard then of course the freemium model can’t really last forever, but the jump from free to $54.99 a month may be hard to stomach for a great many fans.
Esports Insider says: With many esports fans used to the likes of Twitch and not having to pay a penny to stream the content they want to watch, it’s questionable how many will go for this at what is a fairly sizable price tag.
