The UK is getting its first 24-hour esports TV channel

The Ginx eSports TV channel will be available on Sky with investment from ITV

The UK's first esports channel, broadcasting competitive video gaming, will launch this month.


Ginx eSports TV will be available on Sky and has also received investment from fellow broadcaster ITV. The channel will show "major esports tournaments from across the globe" as well as creating independent programming.

"The schedule will include coverage of Turner’s ELEAGUE tournament, FACEIT‘s esports Championship Series, and Valve’s The International Dota 2," a statement from the company said.

Live broadcasts will be made from Ginx's studio in Kings Cross, London. The company was founded in 2007 and has previously broadcast in Asia and Europe.

Michiel Bakker, the CEO of Ginx TV Ltd, said the deal would give "significant mainstream TV exposure" to the world of eSports. In recent months esports have received high level backing from the UK government, BBC, and major gaming companies have expanded their own offerings.

In April the government backed a new esports tournament that will run alongside the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer. The eGames calls itself "the pinnacle" of competitive gaming and is being overseen by the International eGames Committee, a non-profit organisation. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it "welcomed the launch".

In May Activision Blizzard updated its Major League Gaming streamingplatform. The company added high-definition streams of gaming tournaments with a new package of match statistics, leaderboards and in-game insights. The streams launched on June 10 during the MLG Anaheim Open and are currently broadcast on Facebook and MLG.tv.

A 2016 report from Deloitte predicted that esports will generated revenues of $500 million (£352m) throughout the course of the year; a rise from $400m in 2015. Deloitte also said that it was "likely" that competitive gaming would have a regular audience of around 150 million by the end of 2016.


Last year the BBC aired the League of Legends Championship for the first time, with the broadcaster saying it wanted to bring the event to a wider audience.

The new GINX esports channel will also be "distributed" to 23 million households outside of the UK, the company claimed. It said this would make it "the largest eSports TV channel in the world, reaching 37 million homes" across the world.

The channel will be available on Sky channel 470 from June 23.

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