The void in the esports entertainment industry might soon be filled by VENN, the newest brainchild of former Riot Games head of esports content Ariel Horn and Vivendi Universal Games veteran Ben Kusin.
The Video Game Entertainment & News Network (VENN) will feature fifty-five (55) hours of original programming per week, while also featuring content from streams and gaming media partners from other media platforms. It aims to distribute esports & entertainment content 24/7 live from two freshly furbished studios in New York and Los Angeles. The aim is to cover a broad scope of media platforms in partnership with the biggest names in the industry.
The fragment esports & gaming media market has had its fair share of players providing content for audiences. Turtle Entertainment the company behind ESL and ESL TV and ESPORTSTV has had its cut of the market on satellite and Twitch.tv broadcasts with some success. OGN (Ongamenet) has dominated the South Korean esports cable market for over a decade. ESPN and Cheddar have also dipped their fingers into esports in the growing battle to reach the Gen-Z and millennial generation audiences.
© VENN
The difference maker for VENN is the vote of confidence and support granted by industry veterans and investors like Marc Merrill (Riot Games), Mike Morhaime and YuChiang Cheng (Blizzard Entertainment) among others. The platform went through a solid seed round co-led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures netting $17 million in funding. What is most notable for an ambitious endeavor like this, which also garners praise from within the industry is that finally a confidence boost will be given to advertisers and creators in the industry. A serious platform is entering the market that will service their needs of reaching a larger audience.
“VENN will bring together the best and brightest talent to apply the same creativity and big-picture thinking to greater gaming and entertainment content, building a bridge from our industry into the world that surrounds it.” – Ariel Horn VENN Co-CEO stated in a press release.
It is also mentioned that VENN will focus only a fraction of its attention on esports coverage, with the majority of the focus will be on elevating, and translating for television, other gaming formats that are quickly gaining traction on YouTube and Twitch. VENN will aim to distribute as far and wide as possible, including YouTube, Twitch, Hulu and Roku and should be operational somewhere in 2020.
Additional information about the announcement is available at https://www.venn.tv/
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