SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Justin.tv today launched TwitchTV, the largest competitive video gaming broadcast network in the world. TwitchTV is dedicated to supporting, entertaining and inspiring the e-sports community. Leveraging the live video streaming infrastructure pioneered by the team at Justin.tv, TwitchTV features the highest quality competitions on all games and platforms, with the top gamers, the biggest tournaments, and the best commentary.
“This is just the start of what we want to build,” said Emmett Shear, co-founder and CTO of Justin.tv, and general manager of TwitchTV. “We designed this site to support the e-sports community. Since everyone on the team is a gamer, it’s a site made by e-sports fans, for e-sports fans.”
E-sports, another name for competitive video gaming, is a global phenomenon built around real-time strategy games, first person shooters, fighting games, and other games requiring high-level skill and strategy. E-sports has developed an entire professional ecosystem complete with celebrity players, major sponsors and an adoring fan-base. TwitchTV has forged partnerships with the world’s top e-sports personalities and organizations – the best professional gamers, biggest tournaments, and most prestigious leagues - to bring fans the most compelling e-sports video content anywhere in the world.
“TwitchTV wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for our community,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Justin.tv and VP of business development for TwitchTV. “The community’s input has been instrumental in developing the new site’s features and functionality, and their support has been overwhelming. Because of our relationships in the pro gamer community, we’ve been able to improve our platform and build tools that allow them to develop as professionals.”
TwitchTV created an innovative partner program in which gamers and tournaments share in the advertising revenue generated on their video streams. TwitchTV is also beta-testing other revenue generators for its partners including pay-per-view and subscription-based programs in which viewers gain access to exclusive content, or gain premium-level benefits such as ad-free viewing.
“TwitchTV is a major initiative for us here at Justin.tv,” said Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv. “The community that coalesced around live competitive gaming content is clearly very passionate and growing quickly. We’re excited to support that community with a home of their own. We hope the functionality and content featured on TwitchTV will help take the entire e-sports ecosystem to the next level.”
TwitchTV currently generates 3.2 million unique visits per month, 4.5 hours of video viewed per person per month, and more than 45 million total video views per month. TwitchTV is launching at this year’s E3, the world's largest video game expo. The new site is also partnering with GameSpot to stream over 90 hours of E3 content from the show floor, including all major press conferences.
The live video stream from E3 can be seen here: http://twitchtv.com/gamespote3live.
About TwitchTV
TwitchTV is the largest competitive video gaming broadcast network in the world. Dedicated to supporting, entertaining and inspiring the e-sports community, TwitchTV features the highest quality competitions on all games and platforms, with the top gamers, the biggest tournaments, and the best commentary. TwitchTV leverages the live video streaming platform and infrastructure pioneered by Justin.tv. Learn more at http://twitchtv.com.
About Justin.tv
Justin.tv is the Web’s largest live video community. Headquartered in San Francisco, Justin.tv is funded by Alsop Louie Partners, Tim Draper and Y Combinator. Learn more at http://www.justin.tv.