Event organiser and production company ESL Gaming has extended its partnership with Scandinavian telecoms firm Telia.
As a result of the agreement, Telia Finland has been named the exclusive Finnish-language media partner of the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO. The deal will run from January 2021 through to IEM Katowice 2023.
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The announcement is a renewal of its previous deal with Telia Finland, in which the telecom operator became the Finnish media partner of the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO last year.
As a media partner, Telia will acquire rights to broadcast the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO across its various channels, this includes Finnish MTV, C More and Telia TV, as well as Telia’s Twitch channel.
Frank Uddo, Senior Vice President Global Media at ESL, commented: “Our partnership with Telia has been a great success, providing the Finnish esports community and fans with localised broadcasts of some of the world’s biggest CS:GO competitions in 2020.
“We look forward to building on the success of 2020 by working closely with Telia to provide the best viewing experience for our Finnish fans in 2021 and hopefully beyond.”
In addition to CS:GO, Telia has also revealed plans to broadcast selected ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II events in order to provide its Finnish audience with a localised version.
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Niklas Segercrantz, Commercial Esport Manager at Telia Finland, added: “We are pleased to continue our partnership for ESL Pro Tour CS:GO to reinforce our global esports ecosystem.
“Our ambition has been to offer the highest level of international esports to the Finnish audience in the local language and to grow that audience. In addition, we are planning to offer selected StarCraft II competitions throughout the next year to Finnish fans”
The announcement of Telia extending its partnership follows on from ESL and DreamHack revealing its revamped ESL Pro Tour CS:GO for 2021.
This year, the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO will see a minimum of 16 teams be featured in its competitions, with all eight ESL Pro Tour Masters and Masters Championship tournaments being held over two back-to-back weekends.
Esports Insider says: It comes as no surprise to see ESL extend its partnership with Telia, especially given the importance of broadcasting localised media for top-tier esports events, such as the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO. However, Telia’s interest in broadcasting ESL Starcraft II events is certainly an interesting situation to keep an eye on.
