Pilgrim Media Group to Develop Halo E-sports Series

Pilgrim Media Group is partnering with 343 Industries, developer of the Halo video game franchise, to develop an e-sports series featuring Halo 5: Guardians. Published by Microsoft Studios, the Halo franchise has registered more than $5 billion in sales to date. The game has a strong presence in e-sports, central to the Halo World Championship and the Halo Championship Series; the latter's Pro League Finals is held Dec. 10-11.

Earlier this year, Pilgrim, in collaboration with Lionsgate and e-sports giant ESL, announced plans to create and distribute original e-sports entertainment content for television and digital platforms; this deal pegs Halo 5: Guardians as the first project to emerge from that joint initiative.

We continue to be blown away by the sheer excitement surrounding e-sports; the scope and buzz are growing every day, said Craig Piligian, Pilgrim Media Group CEO. E-sports and Halo fans are exceedingly passionate about gaming and devoted to their favorite titles and franchises-they are exactly the kind of audience we want to produce for.

According to Baird Equity Research, the e-sports industry was a $200 million business in 2015 that is expected to climb to $1 billion in revenue by 2018. Agency giant WME-IMG and Turner Broadcasting are partners on the worldwide e-sports league ELeague.

We're thrilled to be partnering with Pilgrim on developing a reality series that will bring the intensity and extreme competition of Halo 5: Guardians e-sports to a television audience, stated Kiki Wolfkill, studio head of Halo Transmedia. There is no better partner than Pilgrim to give our fans insight into the world of Halo e-sports.

Producers have been keen to adapt Halo to screens large and small. Among the various projects, Halo: Nightfall was an Xbox digital series from Ridley Scott, while Steven Spielberg is developing a series for Showtime.

Pilgrim Media Group shows include Street Outlaws on Discovery and The Ultimate Fighter on Fox Sports 1.

LINK:	http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/pilgrim-media-group-...
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