Credit: Riot Games/SK Telecom
- SK Telecom will live broadcast the 2019 LCK Spring Finals and serve as the official LCK sponsor until 2020.
- LCK events will also be broadcast in live AR/VR, beginning with the 2019 LCK Summer Split in June.
- In February, SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor created a joint venture that includes League of Legends (LoL) team SK Telecom T1.
South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom signed a partnership deal with Riot Games Korea 
that includes broadcasting rights and the creation of exclusive augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) content.
SK Telecom will serve as the official sponsor of League of Legends Champions Korea
(LCK), the game’s top professional league in South Korea, until 2020. The partnership will focus on promoting SK Telecom’s 5G brand, “5GX” through logo placement and live “diverse” events such as experience/photo zones.
SK Telecom T1 is the only esports team to have won the League of Legends World Championship three times. As SK Telecom T1 is competing in LCK, SK Telecom’s sponsorship deal represents a potential conflict of interest.
“Esports is one of the key areas where 5G can truly make a difference,” said Ryu Young-Sang, executive vice president and head of MNO business of SK Telecom said in a release. “SK Telecom will realize a new level of customer experience by combining its 5G-based immersive media technologies with LoL, one of the most popular games in the world.”
Related Article: Comcast Spectacor and SK Telecom Announce Joint Esports Venture
On April 13, SK Telecom will broadcast the 2019 LCK Spring Finals live from the front page of its OTT service, oksusu. “5GX View” will simultaneously livestream 10 different UHD videos of player screens and the main broadcasting video. Users watching on a touchscreen will be able to pinch and zoom to enlarge the screen up to four times without image quality degradation.
According to the release, SK Telecom also plans to retain the rights to broadcast all League of Legends matches including LCK, LoL World Championship, Mid-Season Invitational, and All-Star Event.
SK Telecom also plans to develop exclusive LCK-related AR and VR content, the company said.
Oksusu viewers with a VR headset would be able to view the matches from a stadium view and watch match replays. Fans would also be able to play a one-on-one AR game with a professional gamer, says SK Telecom, and engage in a virtual fan meeting based on gamers’ content preferences.
In February, SK Telecom announced a joint venture with Comcast Spectacor called T1 Entertainment & Sports. The new organization will include the SK Telecom T1
League of Legends team and will compete in a variety of games including Apex Legends.
The contracts with Riot Games Korea and deal with Comcast Spectacor were designed to “strengthen SK Telecom’s presence and competitiveness in both the 5G and esports content markets,” the company said.
SK Telecom also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singtel, the largest mobile network operator in Singapore to “cooperate and leverage each other’s assets and capabilities” in an effort to grow the esports and gaming industries in Asia. The companies will aim to make original and third-party content, and provide services tailored directly for gamers.
