The Danish arm of streaming television service Pluto TV has launched a dedicated esports channel in partnership with Retake Media, according to its General Manager.
The channel, called ‘Retake e-sport live’, will stream 120+ days of live-esports a year, starting with the Danish-language production of Counter-Strike’s Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024.
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Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming television service operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. The service, available in the Americas and parts of Europe, offers content via digital channels to emulate the experience of traditional television broadcasts.
Jesper Dahl, VP General Manager of Pluto TV, Central and Northern Europe made the announcement via his LinkedIn profile. Jens Sætter-Lassen, Founder and co-owner of Retake Media, quoted the same announcement on LinkedIn, stating that the launch of an esports channel in Denmark is the “beginning of an even brighter future for Danish Esports.” The channel will be available to stream for Danish viewers for free on Pluto TV.
Nikla P., Broadcast Operations Manager at Retake, also said in a post in Danish on LinkedIn that Retake Media had obtained the rights to the Danish production of the Shanghai Major.
Earlier this year, Denmark hosted the first ever Major for Counter-Strike 2, the PGL Major 2024, in the country’s capital Copenhagen. The PGL Major 2024 recorded a peak viewership of 1.85m viewers, higher than the previous CS:GO Major, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
Denmark has always been a major player in esports, particularly in Counter-Strike. The country’s government announced an official strategy in 2019 to bolster esports in the country. Moreover, BLAST, one of the biggest Counter-Strike tournament organisers, is headquartered in Copenhagen.
The ESL Pro League and EU LCS have both also held events in the country. Notably, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) recently claimed that esports contributes almost DDK 4.3bn (~£492m) to Denmark’s GDP (gross domestic product) annually.
