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Blizzard and KeSPA reach an agreement over SC Broodwar Broadcasting

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Still nothing "official" but TL is very good on this subject.



KeSPA, the organization who runs Korean E-Sports for Starcraft BroodWar has reached an agreement with Blizzard to allow KeSPA to continue broadcasting BW matches.

From TL.net:
Since there's a lot of misinformation and bad information spreading about the entire process, here's a brief summary of the entire situation, up to the "most recent" speculative stuff.

So where to start? I guess I'll start at the end of the KeSPA - Gretech negotiations.

Basically, KeSPA and Gretech were really close to reaching an agreement up till about November. KeSPA claims

"KeSPA has put together a negotiation team and met around 10 times now and continued to advance the negotiations. Through negotiations and by narrowing the difference in opinions, there was a complete agreement with the exception of 2~3 articles, and in reality negotiations were very close to being settled."


It's not certain of course, but on November 25th, Blizzard apparently stepped in and demanded that KeSPA agree to Blizzard's original demands with respect to derivative works -- that is, Blizzard owns 100% of the rights. This leads to the lawsuits and leds to MBC/OGN's stance during the law case: They want to see how much rights Blizzard actually have over derivative works as the original author. This isn't too far fetched given that Blizzard announced that legal action would be the best move on October after suing MBC and OGN. Overall, however, the lawsuits didn't really reveal that much, other than a few troublesome articles within the Blizzard - Gretech contract that were called out on.

Gretech then gives up their exclusive rights to Brood War broadcasting. There's two possibilities here. One is the original interpretation -- which is that this is a result of Blizzard complying to the results of the third court case where the judge ordered only Blizzard or Gretech be represented as the plaintiff. The second interpretation, given the new speculation is that Blizzard wanted to renegotiate with KeSPA.

DES, on April 20th reported from an "Blizzard insider" that Blizzard had contacted KeSPA and asked KeSPA to mediate Intellectual Rights negotiations. Essentially: the crux was that Blizzard Korea does not have the manpower to deal with this situation anymore -- since Riot Games opened up a Korean branch and absorbed many of the core Blizzard Korea members. Essentially, according to DES, Blizzard Korea is in a pinch and needs the broadcasting stations more than ever.

Il-Gan Sports reported today that the negotiations are finally settled. The fourth court case that was due on the 13th has been pushed back, and according to an insider this is because they have reached an agreement.

The fine details are still in the works, according to Il-Gan Sports. But what was agreed on was that Blizzard is recognizing the rights of KeSPA, the Progaming Team, MBC and OGN with respect to running Starcraft 1 Tournaments and ownership rights of derivative works. That is, KeSPA and the broadcasting stations can run tournaments as they please, and Blizzard will not restrict the sales of any derivative works that is created from tournaments.

Meanwhile, KeSPA and the broadcasting stations will pay Blizzard a licensing fee for Starcraft 1, as well as putting in Blizzard's logo during the contests. The license fee will be a yearly fee paid to Blizzard by KeSPA, OGN, and MBC Game separately.

An e-Sports insider has said that this was a result of a request Mike Morhaime and other Blizzard higher ups made to KeSPA. KeSPA's executive officer said that while they are not able to reveal anything in detail at this point in time, there will be good news very soon.

So, other than the fine details, it looks like the situation is pretty much settled.

However, please note that this only applies to Brood War, and there isn't anything about Starcraft 2 yet (not to mention Gretech still holds exclusive rights to SC2 for 2 more years). Please keep speculation about Starcraft 2 Leagues to a minimum.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=221245



I dont think many people thought that BW broadcasting would cease to exist after the many lawsuits from both sides, but glad to see them reach an agreement. Maybe once Gretech's (GOMtv) agreement ends, we will see KeSPA enter into SC2 tournaments. This also could mean that the GSL (SC2 Tournaments) could be broadcasted on "real" tv channels.

Long live OSL/MSL/Proleagues :D
 

HolyCheck

I want a tag give me a tag
better than the shitty biased article super daniel man put out lol, glad we waited

awesome news.
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Striek said:
Now GOM should bring back their league and english pro BW casting.... ;_;
I would imagine KeSPA not allowing their BW players on a GOM league still (thats how their BW leagues were killed). At least there are relations there that need to be fixed first.
 

sixghost

Member
Corran Horn said:
I would imagine KeSPA not allowing their BW players on a GOM league still (thats how their BW leagues were killed). At least there are relations there that need to be fixed first.
This, as well GOM basically being the Korean broadcasting arm of Blizzard. They would never run a BW tournament now that SC2 is out.

HolyCheck said:
better than the shitty biased article super daniel man put out lol, glad we waited

awesome news.
Don't you dare talk bad about SDM! That guy is awesome, he has done so much to bring the joy of starcraft to the west.

Anyway, this is great news, but I can't help but think that Blizzard got exactly what they wanted. quite a few BW pros moved to SC2, and BW will probably never return to where it was before this fiasco. Not to mention that it provided a window of time for SC2 to attempt to carve out a piece of the Korean market.
 

Arzehn

Member
55979606.gif


BW will live forever~
Bisu needs to win another MSL, ACE needs to win Proleague, and Nal_rA needs to qualify for OSL when he's back from the army. :D
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Striek said:
Now GOM should bring back their league and english pro BW casting.... ;_;
Tastosis on slave duty. Chained to GOM studio only to cast BW and SC II as people and sets move around them.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
Did't someone mentioned [tastosis or codea casters] that GSL have started to be broadcasted on korean live tv this season?
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
DieH@rd said:
Did't someone mentioned [tastosis or codea casters] that GSL have started to be broadcasted on korean live tv this season?
They are, but on some children cartoon channel. And I think only certain days.
 

HolyCheck

I want a tag give me a tag
Corran Horn said:
They are, but on some children cartoon channel. And I think only certain days.

All days I beleive! That's why we start at 10past the hour!

and SDM sucks.
 

(._.)

Banned
Heard BW is still has a huge pro scene in SK and still has tens of thousands playing around the world. It's hard to follow broodwar because it just isn't as over in NA pro scene wise. Doesn't get the coverage SCII does. Only time I watch games is old replays on youtube.
 

slayzz

Member
sixghost said:
Anyway, this is great news, but I can't help but think that Blizzard got exactly what they wanted. quite a few BW pros moved to SC2, and BW will probably never return to where it was before this fiasco. Not to mention that it provided a window of time for SC2 to attempt to carve out a piece of the Korean market.

well not exactly, Blizzard wanted a lot more such as the players and teams. Also BW is still very popular in korea. This was the question from the Activision/Blizzard conference few days ago.

Question: On SC2, are you starting to see a ramp up in interest in Korea as more of the professional players shift toward the newer version, give us an update on the professional market there.

Michael Morhaime: The Korean E-Sports ... our partner, GOMTV, is running GSL, it continues to be very popular ... but we are seeing that SC1 has maintained popularity, and so the transition to SC2 has been slower than we anticipated.
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Earthstrike said:
Crap meant sc BW (which was sc2 in my head before sc2 came out.).
Already payed for a season ticket for this season of sc2 on gom.
With English commentary? Kinda hard now. GomTV.net still has their previous BW games...but if you want current games go to here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nevake

They upload games every day of Korean broadcasts.
 

Arzehn

Member
Earthstrike said:
Crap meant sc BW (which was sc2 in my head before sc2 came out.).
Already payed for a season ticket for this season of sc2 on gom.

Torrents on the right sidebar, don't let the seeders/leechers fool you, there's generally 10-15 times that amount on:
http://www.teamliquid.net/vods/

For youtube (generally about a 16 hour wait from live):
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=50875

Strongly recommend watching live though, there's normally people like GTR, Kentor, Craton running restreams from MBCGame and Ongamenet, found on TL stream sidebar. :p
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
I forgot to update this post, sorry, but officially a few days ago Blizzard and Kespa announced the agreement to the public finally.

As we know from past leaks, Blizzard and KeSPA were very close to a settlement. The settlement is now official and finalized, as Blizzard, KeSPA, OGN, and MBC Game have entered into a license contract. It's a two year license contract, and it will allow OGN and MBC to broadcast Starcraft BW officially.

Naturally, the ongoing court case has been dropped.

[image loading]


Mike Morhaime commented that "We are glad to work with KeSPA and both broadcasting stations, who has contributed to the growth of Korean e-Sports industry", and "This is a first step towards a enduring and positive relationship, and we expect to bring exciting content wiht our new partners.". Finally, he added that "As Korea is the center of e-Sports, we will be able to contribute to global e-sports industry through this contributing relationship with KeSPA and the broadcasting stations"

KeSPA's chairman Kim Joon Ho commented that "KeSPA and all the companies that make up KeSPA are very glad to have the cooperation of the best game developer in the world, Blizzard". He noted that "All the participants went into the negotiations with passion, and the negotiations went through in a fun and open way". Furthermore, he commented that "Blizzard's devotion toward e-Sports is reflected directly into the game development. Through this positive relationship, I hope we will be able to accomplish our vision to bring e-Sports tournaments that will catch the attention of many and to grow the global e-Sports industry"

There will soon be an announcement about future StarCraft: Brood War Tournaments.

Source: http://e-sports.or.kr/

An e-Sports commentator noted that the biggest gains from this license agreement is the possibility of expanding the market into Starcraft 2, instead of just Starcraft 1.

Source: http://fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=117418&db=issue
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=223866


Also note that GomTV has SC2 for 2 years.
 
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