The eGG (Every Good Game) network is the first eSports HD channel available in South East Asia, launching in June 2016 to focus on eSports broadcasts and live tournaments from around the world. The first tournament broadcast by eGG was The International Dota 2 Championships in 2015, and the network has since broadcasted the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eLeague, the FIFA Interactive World Cup, League of Legends World Championship and several others.

The new partnerships were signed with television networks Singtel (Singapore), Globe’s BEAM TV (Philippines), and Orange TV and Genflix (Indonesia). Due to the broadcasting rules in the Philippines, eGG’s broadcasting times will be reduced to 18 hours in accordange to the country’s current rules regarding network-affiliated media groups.

Vice President of Sports Business for Astro, Lee Choong Khay, confirmed the new partnerships, saying, “We are excited with the growing demand of eSports, and we can only get better as we seek more strategic partnerships in the region.?eGG is off to a good start, and we expect it to play a pivotal role in driving expansion for us into new markets.

“We look forward to more on-ground events to strengthen our offerings for our partners in the region. In October 2016, we collaborated with PGL to bring CS:GO Minor Championship Asia to Malaysia. eSports transcends languages and borders hence opens up unique content creation and advertising opportunities.”

Khay estimates the new partnerships could increase the eGG audience by as many as 36 million viewers.

Jil Go, Globe Vice President for Content?said, “The eSports and gaming community in the Philippines continues to gain ground and we are thrilled with the opportunity to be able to provide these types of content to our customers, whether on their mobile or at the comfort of their homes. Through our original productions arm, Globe LIVE, we are also set to strengthen our events portfolio to give our customers more experiential events to enjoy their favorite content on a larger scale.”

Astro says the eGG network aims to attract the eSports generation back to television instead of just streaming content online.

You no longer need to be fit to participate in the Asian Games, but you do need to be exceptional at video games.

The Olympic Council of Asia has announced competitive video games will officially join the number of medal sports at the 2022 Asian Games.

The council said including eSports reflected “the rapid development and popularity of this new form of sports participation among the youth”.

This will give eSports competitors the chance to share the podium with runners, weightlifters, and an array of other medallists in just over four years’ time.

The exact games which will be included haven’t yet been revealed, but we may get a picture when the demonstration event takes place at the 2018 Asian Games, in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.

FIFA 2017 is the only game which has been confirmed to appear, while a multiplayer online battle arena game, such as League of Legends, and a real-time strategy game, like StarCraft 2, will also make the cut.

There will also be a preview at this year’s Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games held in September which is held every four years, one year before the Asian Games.

This is part of the introduction of eSports’ as a medal sport in 2022, which will take place in Hangzhou, China.

The Asian Games in a Pancontinental multi-sport event, and is considered to be the second-biggest multi-sport event in the world, just behind the Olympics. It takes place every four years and athletes from all over Asia attend. Almost 10,000 attended the 2014 event in South Korea.

The Olympic Council of Asia has also announced a partnership with Alisports, which is a subsidiary of Alibaba, commonly referred to as China’s eBay and will sponsor the event.

It’s no wonder Alisports is interested – eSports has an audience of 226 million gamers from all around the world last year which generated hundreds of millions in revenue globally.

Alisports has already invested over KRW170 million in the South Korean organisation, International eSports Federation. The company then requested consideration for eSports to be included by the international Olympic Committee.

Reportedly, the Asian Games will act as a test to see if eSports will be considered in the Olympics and many media outlets are contemplating that it might be a real possibility. One media outlet addressed the recent additions to the 2020 Olympics, that being skateboarding as well as sport climbing, to prove it isn’t that far fetched.