First successful poker TV channel: reality or fantasy?

First 24/7 poker TV channel is going to start its work by the end of the year (perhaps, even in autumn). It is going to broadcast from Las Vegas, NV. Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu are already among the broadcasters. What is going to be aired and does it all make sense?

The idea of full scale first 24/7 poker TV channel seems a little futuristic right now. We got used to watch poker TV shows and big series online reports in Internet. What can be broadcasted whole day long?

Well, that’s the question many people trying to answer. American TV channel Poker Central keeps lots of things in secret, but we can easily guess what’s what.

The debut of poker television is going to be loud. In the beginning of June $500k Super High Roller is going to happen featuring many famous poker players and businessman. Poker Central own television rights to that event.

Poker broadcasters: Negreanu and Esfandiari

Canadian Daniel Negreanu became the partner of Poker Central in the end of April and couple of days later Antonio Esfandiari joined him. They are also going to participate in Super High Roller Bowl.

One logical question arises: what does it mean – to be channel’s partner? Looks like every player “signed” this way is going to have his own TV show or will be involved in other channel activities.

So Negreanu is definitely going to have his own weekly TV show. He told about it in one of his latest interviews. Without any further details, of course.

And considering TV past of Esfandiari (too bad Phil Laak can’t join here) it is certainly his cup of tea. He is an actor, one of the most famous poker shows contestant and a lot of other things in the industry.

Who is behind Poker Central?

So what’s going to be broadcasted on the first world poker channel? Here is official Poker Central representative statement:

"We want to show exclusive poker tournaments, celebrity players, tips and tricks from the pros, player profiles and stunning destinations from around the globe. We’ll show cash games, news and movies. We will launch with well over 2,000 hours of programming. About half of our programming will be premiers."

Sound ambitious. But when we find out who’s behind Poker Central we can see hope. It’s Mori Eskandani!

This man is the author of such TV shows as Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, National Heads-Up Poker Championship and others. He has tons of experience. Valuable experience! So if any poker channel is going to be successful it’s got to have such administration.

And the creators of the channel want to broadcast from everywhere:

“We work at launching channel worldwide. We want us to be seen in the USA and abroad. Our channel will be available for all the devices,” - tells Poker Central representative.

Will there be only broadcasting in English – that’s the big question. At first, probably not, later some other languages could appear.

America has lots of examples of successful TV channels with narrow specialization. For example golf channel, or Investigation Discovery. So Poker TV will be looking genuinely.

One more important topic: sponsors. Existence of the channel is only about money. When we speak about sponsor in poker first company that comes to mind is PokerStars. If they are in it’s all going to be just fine.