How many meetings must go on at ESL HQ each day? The organisation has signed yet another deal, this time with Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group. 
The partnership will see Canal Plus and ESL working together to launch France’s first official esports leagues, which will be based on the existing ESL national championship.
This is a similar deal to the ones which was established in the past week with African sports network Kwesé.
The competitions will be aired on Canal Group channels, giving them a potentially huge audience and also turning the broadcaster into a major esports player in France.
In terms of what content will be rolled out, it’s a wait and see situation as the company is reportedly in negotiations with developers to select the games which will be covered by the new leagues.
A Vivendi statement read as follows: “The re-imagined national league will help French pro-gamers to stand out and compete against the best teams in international competitions held around the world by ESL and partnering game publishers.”
Canal Group and ESL will also be teaming up to help develop the French esports scene, and raise France’s profile internationally. To help meet this end Vivendi will also involve its subsidiary brands including Universal Music Group and Dailymotion, in addition to its live events arm via L’Olympia and Digitick.
Esports are recognised legally in France; the government created an esports federation earlier this year and more recently amendments to the ‘Numeric Law’ saw esports boosted with stipulations around player contracts which’ll help to further professionalise the scene and should encourage the world’s top players to move to French organisations.
Canal Plus Group has some grounding in esports already as a sponsor of Team Vitality, and the company will be represented at the upcoming Paris Games Week. Moreover it also launched Canal eSports Club, a new television show dedicated to esports, the scenes and the players, and it’ll soon show ‘Game Fever’, an esports focused documentary.
Esports Insider says: Une grande victoire for the French esports scene. This year continues to see dramatic strides forward for the scene and industry in France, and ESL’s involvement with a major player such as Vivendi and Canal Plus can only be a positive.