Tom Rogers, executive chairman of Engine Media which focuses on Live TV, Gaming, Esports & News said in an interview with CNBC that,
“The ENG in Engine means something. The E stands for “eSports”, N for “News streaming” and G for “Gaming” and that Engine Media is a company that is about creating new sources of revenue for sports and news programming.”
Talking about their UMGTV app on Apple Tom said, “Our eSports interests are very wide and one of them is the competitive gaming platform where eSports competitors play against each other for money and UMGTV was launched as a linear streaming channel to bring in the news component of this and all the coverage related to that industry via streaming.” He even mentioned that their main expertise in eSports is actually car racing, & virtual car racing has been all over ESPN since the pandemic began which came out as a great substitute for their lack of sports programming.
Indy 500 being one of the most popular car racing gaming in eSports, Tom is planning on having a virtual Indy Speedway race, a virtual version of the actual Indianpolis Speedway with six former Indy 500 champions & some formula 1 champions as well to have a great Memorial Day car race.
Due to whats going on around the world, the esports streaming services & platforms have brought some of the sports audience to eSports which will have lasting effects.
Tom Rogers
Tom also talked about competitions around Overwatch, Rocket League and other well known games that eSports fan follow and keep an eye on and that they will have eSports gaming conferences for hundreds of colleges that will be interested.
When the interviewer, Andrew talked about the absence of sports around the globe and its impact on a media company as one owned by Tom due to lack of media & the advertisements that run on them, Tom replied by saying that, “The advertising will come back, sports is game viewing share relative to other broadcasting cable programming.” “NFL on its renewal will get a 75% increase on their rights & with increasing rights & diminishing revenue from court cutting, traditional media company will have to find new sources of revenue to support what they do”, he further added.
