CGS’s TV rights for CS not that exclusive

Tournament organizers are still free to have their Counter-Strike matches broadcasted on television, says Doug Lombardi, Valve’s Director of Marketing, in an interview with Readmore.de.

With the launch of DirecTV’s Championship Gaming Series news was posted online that the CGS has exclusive rights to broadcast Counter-Strike on television. It looked like the license would discourage other major tournament organizers from holding CS 1.6 events, but it turns out that CGS’s license is not as exclusive as it seemed.
“The game can still be broadcast on TV,” said Lombardi. “If somebody wants to make news coverage about this tournament and wants to do it on TV, the rights are not exclusively held by the CGS.”

Lombardi also said that CS matches can be broadcast as long as they are not a part of “just a Counter-Strike competitive show,” but a part of a larger esports-related program.

This would mean that tournaments like the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games will not be affected by CGS’s license. The ESWC already announced a couple of weeks ago that their 2008 event will feature CS 1.6.

The entire interview with Doug Lombardi touches upon other topics like Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and ads in games. If you are interested, it can be read here.