BLAST Premier launched BLAST.tv: a streaming service focused on CS:GO content

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Famous tournament organizer company BLAST Premier launched their independent streaming platform called BLAST.tv, which will contain live and offline content and will focus on CS:GO. From now on the streaming service will be the home of all the company tournaments, and will bring fans a unique viewing experience. However, the company will continue to broadcast its tournaments on the usual streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. 

The goal is to give viewers a new and exciting way to watch esports. Fans will be able to watch live games or vods of the previous matches. Viewers can also play pick 'em, keep up to date with everything that is going on in the tournament, and interact with other CS:GO fans in the broadcast chat. The platform will also have news, and other exclusive content, such as suggesting interview questions to presenters, voting for dream teams, and much more. BLAST.tv will also have a behind-the-scenes doc series called Ready Up in 2023. 

“Currently fans might be fourth or fifth screening with stats, Reddit, Twitter, etc, so we want to put the whole consumer experience in one place.” - chief growth officer Tom Greene

ESL did something similar a few years ago when they created ESL TV, which is a place where fans can watch all the live games or vods, of the multiple tournaments the company organizes. It makes it easier for fans to find the broadcast of the specific match they want to watch, and to choose the language broadcast they prefer.

As mentioned previously, BLAST.tv will focus on CS:GO, which has some similarities with Booyah!, a streaming platform built around Free Fire and its esports scene. Booyah! had a partnership with LBFF, one of the biggest Free Fire leagues in the world, and it was one of the most popular streaming platforms in Brazil for a time. Unfortunately, Booyah! ended up closing.

So BLAST.tv already has an idea of what will work, and what won't, especially in a long term. This way BLAST.tv will probably not make the mistakes their predecessors did, giving them a better chance at creating a very successful streaming service.

Where do viewers watch BLAST Premier events

To understand what audience BLAST.tv will target, and will need to bring over for their streaming platform to be a success, we first need to know where viewers prefer to watch their events. BLAST Premier tournaments are mainly watched on Twitch, with the streaming platform holding 76.5% of the Hours Watched of all the CS:GO events organized by the company in 2022 so far.

There is also a considerable amount of viewers, that prefer to use YouTube to watch BLAST Premier events since 15% of the HW comes from there. These two platforms are mainly used by Western viewers, with English being the most popular language on both platforms. When it comes to NimoTV, which contributed to 8.35% of all the HW, most of the viewers are Vietnamese. Worth noting that these numbers don't include the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022, which finished recently. 

BLAST.tv will need to attract fans from their Twitch, YouTube, and Nimo TV broadcasts, making them choose to watch the games on the recently launched app, instead of seeing them on their regular streaming platform, which will not be an easy feat. There are two key languages the app will need to target, English and Portuguese since together they make 67.9% of all the HW of the BLAST Premier events. This means that BLAST.tv will need to mainly redirect viewers from their Twitch and YouTube broadcasts, and give them reasons to watch their product on the new platform from now on.

In the case of the Portuguese language, it’s an extremely difficult task, since most Portuguese- speaking fans prefer to watch the co-stream of Brazilian Twitch star Gaules. Gaules has built a big and loyal fan base, so it's going to be hard to encourage his viewers to watch the matches anywhere else. Even if BLAST.tv has a dedicated Portuguese stream, it will be hard to make Brazilian viewers leave “La tribonera”.  Captivating the interest of viewers from the Russian and Vietnamese languages will also be very important for the long-term success of the platform. Together, these two languages make up 23.7% of the total HW.

As mentioned above, winning over English-speaking viewers is also fundamental for BLAST.tv, since they make the majority of the people that tune into their events. With English making 47% of all the HW, if the streaming platform manages to attract some of those viewers, especially the hardcore fans that want to consume as much CS:GO content as possible, it can become a huge success. 

With many interesting fixtures, it will for sure catch the attention of the hardcore CS:GO fan, and we will see many viewers at least try out the new streaming platform. Whether the platform is going to be a huge success, will depend on its ability to retain first-time viewers, and attract viewers that usually watch events on Twitch and YouTube. Since it offers a unique viewing experience and exclusive content, BLAST.tv has all the ingredients to “revolutionize” how esports are watched. Whether they can do it or not, only time will tell.