NAB 2019: Esports targeted by kit vendors

With the global audience forecast to hit 450 million and industry revenues set to breach $1 billion for the first time in 2019 according to Newzoo, esports’ rapid growth is a godsend for under-pressure live event kit vendors.

NAB show organisers recognised this too, introducing a dedicated ‘Esports Experience’ exhibit.

“Clearly, esports is a programming content category that is moving beyond millennials and into the mainstream of American society,” explained Dennis Wharton of the NAB.

For the media and broadcasting industries, esports and, more broadly gaming and game streaming, “will be a key component of their future media strategies,” underlined Newzoo’s Cleo Sardelis.

Vendors keen to cash in include those whose camera channels, switchers, replay machines and graphics gear has been staple to the outside broadcast industry for the last 30 years.

Grass Valley, for example, hosted a live esports competition at its booth to…