League of Legends: Huya Signs Chinese Broadcast Rights for LEC & LCS
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author David Hollingsworth
Huya have just announced a massive deal with Riot scoring exclusive broadcast rights for both the LEC and the LCS.
Huya, the Chinese livestreaming platform just signed a deal with Riot Games to become the exclusive Chinese broadcast partner in 2020. The deal includes both the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and League of Legends European Championship (LEC).
The company recently signed a three year deal to be China’s exclusive broadcaster for Riot’s South Korean pro league (LCK). These deals equal Huya is the exclusive broadcast for all four major Leagues in China, including the local LPL.
The move continues Huya’s strategy of bringing Western content to its platform for Chinese audiences. In 2019 the company partnered with Team Liquid to broadcast and translate live its players’ streams for the Chinese audience.
Twitch continues to be the most dominant platform in North America and Europe, the same just isn’t the case in China. Back in December Chinese streaming platform, Bilibili signed a $113 Million deal for the League of Legends World Championship on a three-year contract.
That deal also puts into perspective the level of funding available in China. League of Legends is, without a doubt one of the largest games in the region — certainly the largest Western title. When Activision Blizzard sold the broadcasting rights for the Overwatch League to Twitch it was valued at $90 Million over two years.
The LCS and LEC both return this week. With teams from the regions preparing to start their 2020 season. And see if their hard work through the office season was worth it.
David has written for games media outlets for the last ten years. With his first major esports role being with Esports News UK covering mostly UK League of Legends. David is also a member of the British Esports Association and is an advisor to them on World of Warcraft Esports. More recently David has worked for Esports Insider and Red Bull as an esports journalist.
David later became Editor at ESTNN and now leads the current team.