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Machinima Looks Beyond YouTube for More Gamers, Partners With Twitch

Gamer-focused video-streaming site Twitch just picked up a big content partner — Machinima, the YouTube juggernaut that caters to a similar audience.

The numbers: Twitch brings in more than 45 million unique visitors per month, according to the press release announcing the partnership, while Machinima reaches 203 million viewers monthly, generating some 2.4 billion views for YouTube. The tie-up gives Machinima a new destination for its “existing and new” content, while Twitch gets an influx of weekly known-value content.

Twitch — which spun off from Justin.tv in 2011 — is growing, thanks in large part to the increasing prominence of e-sports, one of Machinima’s facets. That 45 million figure is up from 28 million uniques in February, and 34 million in March of this year. Its channels are supported by a combination of preroll and midroll ads and monthly ad-free Twitch Turbo subscriptions.

Machinima, meanwhile, dates back to 2005, and was an early poster child for success on YouTube. My colleague Peter Kafka has written extensively about all this, but a quick refresher course: Google directly invested last year, which was a notable first for the former “we’re not a media company” giant; more recently, Machinima has been on the prowl this year for a new mega-round of funding in the dozens of millions of dollars; it laid off 10 percent of its staff in March; and co-founder/current CEO Allen DeBevoise is looking for a new CEO to run day-to-day operations.

It appears that not all of Machinima’s videos will be crossing over to Twitch — the press release singles out “live, in-house, and eSports content” — but that’s still a big chunk of it. Excluded from that list is a blanket guarantee that content creators from Machinima’s affiliates program will get redistributed, too; farther down, the release notes that live coverage on weekdays will give way to on-demand selections from some of the network’s other programming on weekends.

Here’s the full text of the announcement:

MACHINIMA PARTNERS WITH TWITCH TO BRING BEST-IN-CLASS CONTENT TO LEADING LIVE VIDEO PLATFORM FOR GAMERS
Machinima Expands Its Reach by Distributing Content on the World’s Leading Live Gaming Platform

Los Angeles, CA, November 4, 2013 — In a groundbreaking partnership that brings together two of the largest video game entertainment programming brands in the world, Machinima has announced it will bring its innovative live, in-house, and eSports content to Twitch.

Through the newly-formed partnership, Machinima—the number one global video entertainment network for young males—will develop and distribute existing and new highly sought-after programs on Twitch, the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers, which attracts more than 45 million unique visitors per month.

Machinima’s Twitch channel launched today, November 4, kicking off with Machinima’s annual Call of Duty: Ghosts gaming marathon which lasts for 7 days and is live 24 hours a day during the duration of the marathon.
The channel can be found here: http://www.Twitch.tv/Machinima

Machinima will offer a wide variety of daily live programming, such as competitive and community gameplay, major events like the annual Inside Gaming Awards and the Call of Duty livestream, animation, comedy and live-action series. Monday through Friday, the channel’s live events will leverage core programming from across the Machinima network, offering deeper live experiences with its in-house talent and familiar show concepts, as well as more than a dozen brand-new shows. Each month will feature a large-scale tentpole event, from tournaments and marathon streams to award shows and event coverage. Weekends will offer the best of Machinima on-demand featuring Machinima’s most popular franchises—including Happy Hour (animation), Respawn (FPS), Realm (MMO/RPG), and Prime (premium/live-action).
“This partnership is a huge step forward in extending Machinima’s reach to other platforms to ensure our audience can consume our programming where and when they want it,” said Allen DeBevoise, Co-Founder and CEO at Machinima. “Machinima and Twitch both have massive, passionate, and engaged audiences, and I’m excited to collaborate with Twitch to evolve and shape the future of live-streaming.”

“Twitch has established itself as the live-streaming platform of choice for the video game ecosystem, spanning publishers, developers, and media outlets to casual and professional broadcasters,” said Emmett Shear, CEO, Twitch. “Having Machinima’s top-notch content on our platform helps cement Twitch as the premier destination for the world’s best video game entertainment.”

About Machinima
Machinima is the dominant video entertainment network for young males around the world. One of the top entertainment networks on YouTube, Machinima serves more than 2.4 billion video views per month and reaches more than 203 million viewers monthly. The network features scripted series, original content, weekly and daily shows, official publisher content, and gameplay videos, all aimed at the coveted 18-34 year-old male demographic. The company is backed by MK Capital and Redpoint Ventures and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
For more information, please visit www.Machinima.com and YouTube.com/Machinima.

About Twitch
Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers. More than 45 million gamers gather every month on Twitch to broadcast, watch and chat about gaming. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for leading video game broadcasters including casual gamers, pro players, tournaments, leagues, developers and gaming media organizations. Twitch is leading a revolution in the gaming community, working to create a participatory experience that transcends gameplay. Learn more at http://twitch.tv.

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald