US movie theatre chain National Amusements is bringing a live video gaming tournament, sponsored by Rupert Murdoch-controlled companies, to a Los Angeles theatre this weekend in a first for an industry seeking new ways to fill empty seats.
National Amusements would be the first US theatre chain to tap into the $30 billion global video game market by staging a type of gaming that is enormously popular in Asia.
The tournament, held by the newly-formed Championship Gaming Series (CGS) professional league, aims to qualify gamers for its first draft of professional video gaming teams.
"In Korea, they have taken gaming and really made it into an incredible sports entertainment experience. I am hoping this will lead to what is happening over there," said CGS chief executive and commissioner, Andy Reif.
The league is sponsored by DirecTV Group, British satellite group BSkyB and STAR in Asia and Australia. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation owns almost 40% of satellite broadcasters DirecTV and BSkyB, and STAR is a wholly-owned unit of News Corporation.
The league will provide programming to more than 100 million households worldwide via the News Corp cable and satellite providers. CGS was founded by PepsiCo's Mountain Dew, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and IGN Entertainment.
National Amusement aims to host other CGS events as it tests the concept of video gaming arenas, called CyGamZ, adjacent to its theatres.
Company president Shari Redstone, who comes out of her father, Sumner Redstone's, Viacom company, told Reuters that National Amusement sees alternative forms of entertainment, such as video game tournaments, luring more people to theatres and to CyGamZ.
"I want to be (a) community entertainment destination. I believe it will grow my core business and assist in growing revenue," Redstone said.
Moreover, boosting video game play overall should aid the company's video game maker, Midway Games.
Video games and other in-home entertainment have been blamed for helping to erode US movie theatre admissions, which peaked in 2002 at 1.63 billion before sliding back to 1.45 billion last year.
US box office revenue reached a record $9.53 billion in 2004 before falling into a two-year trough and only partially recovering last year.
In the meantime, stadium-style gaming has boomed in Asia, where professional gamers enjoy rock-star status and draw tens of thousands of spectators to competitions.
Theatre owners and video game makers share the same core audience - teens and young men. So, the idea is to draw them into theatres with two forms of entertainment they enjoy, as opposed to losing them to home gaming systems.
National Amusements, the parent company of Viacom and CBS, has been among the most experimental chains in finding uses for its more than 1 500 US and overseas screens when movies aren't playing.
The chain brought live baseball games to East Coast theatres starting with the 2001 World Series, and has offered live entertainment, including stand-up comedy, vaudeville-style shows and music at its theatres.
"One of the things I'm trying to do is really have niche demographic programming. I think we can no longer look at movie-going as a generic experience," Redstone said.
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