Ex-Canwest boss Asper eyes ‘eSports’ enterprise
Ex-Canwest CEO aims to grow Fight Network owner Anthem into another media empire
It’s partly that I have a 14-year-old son (who plays video games). But you can’t be alive and in the sports business and not see what’s going on in eSports.
Leonard Asper and his brother David long ago used to mimic the bombastic matches of the American Wrestling Association, the Midwestern predecessor of today’s giant World Wrestling Entertainment enterprise.
The former chief executive of Canwest Global Communications Corp. would pretend to be Baron von Raschke (also known as The Clawmaster), while David would be The Crusher.
“He was six years older than me, and he used to sit on me and crush me, literally,” Asper said.
Yet those vivid childhood memories weren’t the motivation behind Asper’s recent legal tussle (with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, no less) over control of a wrestling promotion company, Tennessee-based Impact Ventures LLC, and its wholly owned subsidiary wrestling network, TNA Entertainment.
Instead, he said it was just about numbers. TNA’s wrestling programming was the second-highest rated show on the Fight Network, a combat-sports network owned by his Anthem Sports and Entertainment Corp.
It was also Asper’s latest move as he pushes to grow privately held Anthem into another media empire, though he is reluctant to use the word empire.
“I like sports. But I’m not doing this because I’m a wrestling fanatic. It’s a business decision,” he said. “We want to own content as a company.”
The content Anthem offers is starkly different than that of the legacy media that Canwest — which Asper’s family built into the biggest media company in Canada at one point, before losing it during the global financial crisis — was made of, in both style and delivery.
Canwest came to its ultimate demise “unfairly,” he said. “I just think the idea (this time) was to try to do it again, on my terms.”
Instead of newspapers such as the National Post and broadcast assets like HGTV Canada that Canwest owned, Anthem has doubled down on multiplatform networks focused on niche sports such as mixed martial arts, hunting and fishing, and extreme sports. Anthem has cable and satellite subscribers in dozens of countries, but the content is largely delivered online, via webcasts, smartphone apps and YouTube.
But the genesis of Anthem’s strategy came out of what Asper learned at Canwest, where targeted television assets such as HGTV continued to be successful even as global markets roiled.
“I just said, ‘OK, I’m going to do that, but I’m going to do it for sports,’” he said.
The lifestyle space and mainstream sports were already established and spoken for, but there were still opportunities in the combat sports landscape with the growing popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he said.
Since making a “significant investment” in the Fight Network back in 2010, Asper has added the fantasy-sports based FNTSY Network and a hunting and fishing channel called Pursuit. Anthem has also launched extreme sports channel Edge in conjunction with IMG, a global sports company, in beta, with an eye to a full launch in May or June.
As for TNA, Asper walked away with the prize in December following a three-month legal battle for the Nashville-based wrestling promotion company with Corgan, its former president and a creditor.
After paying back Corgan’s debt and buying equity from another majority shareholder, Anthem now owns more than 90 per cent of Impact. The acquisition was completed at the end of last year, and TNA Impact Wrestling — whose roster once included Hulk Hogan — was rebranded Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions.
Part of Asper’s potential plans for his newly acquired wrestling outfit is to set out on a WWE-style tour this year.
“Hope we can bring it to Toronto. It’s certainly on the agenda, for sure,” he said.
After the dust settled, Asper “parted friends” with Corgan (whose band, he said, he is a big fan of ).
“He was going to do some other things in the wrestling world. We said when we get all of this blocking and tackling done, we’ll reconvene and see what we’ll do together,” Asper said.
By “blocking and tackling,” Asper is referring to getting more distribution and television deals.
His next battleground, however, is a virtual one.
Anthem is in the midst of making a “small” investment in an eSports data company as the phenomenon of fans watching their favourite video game athletes continues to gain popularity.
Asper targeted the eSports company — which crunches statistics on a particular gamer’s record that can then be used by broadcasters or even gamers to augment video content posted on platforms such Twitch — as Anthem’s entry point into the space. Other avenues such as buying a league are too “high risk,” he added.
“We’re dipping our toe in, just trying to get to know the industry better,” he said. “It’s partly that I have a 14-year-old son (who plays video games). But you can’t be alive and in the sports business and not see what’s going on in eSports.”
He cites the growing number of universities granting scholarships to competitive gamers (the University of Toronto started offering a $1,000 scholarship in January) and the dedicated eSports stadiums being built in places such as Seoul and Orange County, Calif.
Northern Arena, Canada’s first-ever professional eSports league, nabbed Bell Canada as its title sponsor, it was announced Wednesday.
Industry growth estimates vary widely. The Canadian League of Gamers estimates eSports will generate $1.3 billion in gross revenues by 2018, with the global audience exceeding 427 million by 2019. Market researcher Newzoo estimates the eSports economy will grow to US$696 million this year, up 41.3 per cent from 2016. It estimates the global eSports audience will reach 385 million in 2017, made up of 191 million enthusiasts and 194 million occasional viewers.
However, Deloitte in a 2016 technology predictions report said eSports advocates overestimate the current market size.
“Although eSports might not match or surpass traditional sports any time soon, its potential business value is clearly too significant to ignore,” it said.
Asper believes the opportunity in eSports is huge.
“Because so many people play, they like watching other people play,” he said. “And it’s really no different than hockey or soccer.”
Anthem’s expansion efforts are also being fuelled by a recent round of funding in September. Anthem secured an undisclosed investment from Northern Pacific Group, a growth equity investor based in Wayzata, Minn.
Anthem will focus on securing more distribution deals for its existing verticals for now, while also evolving from just a pure channel into more of a content ownership company and purveyor of live events.
“It’s a defensive move, you know, we protect our supply, and make sure we have great content,” Asper said. “And No. 2 ... (we) have more ways to monetize the digital world.”
Anthem’s growing audience is largely digital. Fight Network’s digital reach, including subscribers and app downloads is now 70 million, but 10 million of that is via cable or satellite.
FNTSY has a digital reach of 30 million, but two million is on the traditional tube or dish. The fishing and hunting channel Pursuit, however, has deals with Direct TV and Dish, which reaches some 40 million subscribers, he said.
Asper still sees Anthem as being in its “adolescence” — the UFC and boxing posters and hockey paraphernalia throughout its offices in Toronto’s Liberty Village would not be out of place in a teenager’s bedroom — but it is building upon the foundation his father, Izzy Asper, laid before him.
Back in 2009, he stood at his father’s grave in Winnipeg just months after control of Canwest had been stripped away and apologized. He “left a loonie there and pledged to build another mighty oak from that acorn,” he wrote in his journal, which was later reported in the Financial Post.
Anthem, Asper now says, is that oak.