Esports in the Italian Free to Air Television: The Case Of House Of Esports

The initial diffusion of electronic sports (esports) has been driven by digital technologies (Mirón, Lago, 2017) such as the Over The Top Platforms (OTT). Among these, a case of particular interest is Twitch, the video-streaming platform owned by Amazon since 2014. These platforms allow the circulation of the esports contents published by professional and amatorial users and promote the discussion on the related topics, in line with the principles of the connected television (Marinelli, Celata, 2012; Marinelli, Andò, 2018). In this scenario, users can be both consumers and content creators (Ewalt, 2013), watching competitions among other users or participating. The progressive growth of esports in terms of economic return and social implications has encouraged the traditional publishers to invest in this ecosystem (Roncero, Garcìa, 2014). The key role that esports are starting to play in the sport-entertainment system is well represented by the Italian case. The presence of esports in the italian media system is still developing and shows the leadership of both the digital native publishers and the news websites managed by traditional players, such as Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport and Tuttosport. At the same time, the most important television channel completely esports oriented is Ginx Esports Tv, the international network broadcast by SkySport. We start from the assumption that mainstream media – and above all the free to air television – don‘t fully understand the potentiality of esports for the editorial strategy. In this sense, an interesting case of study is House of Esports (broadcast by DMAX), the first Italian Tv show in the free to air television completely dedicated to esports. After a pilot episode aired in 2019 and focused on the videogame Fortnite, today House of Esports is composed by two seasons. This Tv show is an infotainment talk show presented by the television celebrity Daniele Bossari and the content creator Sara ―Kurolily‖ Stefanizzi, who plays the role of the expert for the program audience. Given these premises, the paper‘s aim is to analyze the Tv Show House of Esports because of its importance for the growth of esports in the Italian television, through a content analysis of all episodes of both the first and the second season, for 13 episodes in total. In doing so, we will study the role played by the two presenters, the guests and the relationship between these social actors; the function of the setting and the type of conversation; the main issues treated in order to determine the esports coverage of the case study House of Esports. In conclusion, the paper‘s goal is to underline, on the one hand, the editorial strategy of House of Esports to intercept new audiences and traditional esports fans and, on the other, the future prospects for a mature relationship between esports and the mainstream media.