Blizzard Entertainment, Disney and ESPN have announced today that the Overwatch League will be coming to the Disney, ESPN and ABC family of networks. It’s a multi-year deal that includes the Overwatch League playoffs which start on Wednesday night, the Season 1 grand finals next month, the Overwatch World Cup later this year and the entirety of Season 2 next year.

This means that all of the above will be found in some form on ESPN, ESPN2, Disney XD, ABC and relevant streaming services. Hundreds of hours of Overwatch League content will be played across these channels, along with the regular streaming schedule through platforms like Twitch.

John Lasker, ESPN Vice President of Digital Programming said "We are turning the corner here in terms of our interest and engagement in the esports category. We've had an interest and have been watching pretty closely how the first year of the Overwatch League has been progressing, and we're really excited to be a part of this. Clearly by the way we're going to be covering it starting with the playoffs and the finals this year certainly speaks volumes to our excitement and our enthusiasm overall for esports moving forward."

This deal has been introduced as part of a plan by Blizzard to bring Overwatch competition to a wider audience. Each channel and network is meant to be address a different demographic who could be keen on competitive Overwatch.

"It's a cross section that's a hardcore sports fan, especially on ESPN channels," Pete Vlastelica, president and CEO of Activision Blizzard esports leagues, said. "They love watching competition, they love watching the best in the world compete at a great game. Maybe they have played video games. Maybe they know of Overwatch. Maybe they even play Overwatch or play it a lot. But they're fundamentally looking to be entertained by the highest possible level of competition around a great game. And that's what we've got."

This broadcast deal gets underway tonight at 8pm ET on Disney XD and ESPN3 as Philadelphia Fusion take on Boston Uprising in the quarter finals of the league. In other Overwatch news, Pink Mercy raised $12.7 million for Cancer Research.

(Header image courtesy of The Verge.)