CORRECTED - National Amusements brings live gaming to theater

(Corrects company name to National Amusements throughout from National Amusement in some instances, and corrects year company first showed a baseball game to 2003, not the 2001 World Series)

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. movie theater chain National Amusements Inc. is bringing a live video gaming tournament sponsored by Rupert Murdoch-controlled companies to a Los Angeles theater this weekend in a first for an industry seeking new ways to fill empty seats.

National Amusements would be the first U.S. theater chain to tap into the $30 billion global video game market by staging a type of gaming that is enormously popular in Asia.

The tournament, held by the newly formed Championship Gaming Series (CGS) professional league, aims to qualify gamers for its first draft of professional video gaming teams.

"In Korea, they have taken gaming and really made it into an incredible sports entertainment experience. I am hoping this will lead to what is happening over there," said CGS Chief Executive and Commissioner Andy Reif.

The league is sponsored by DirecTV Group Inc. DTV.N, British satellite group BSkyB and STAR in Asia and Australia. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) owns almost 40 percent of satellite broadcasters DirecTV and BSkyB and STAR is a wholly-owned unit of News Corp.

The league will provide programming to more than 100 million households worldwide via the News Corp cable and satellite providers. CGS was founded by PepsiCo's (PEP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Mountain Dew, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Xbox 360 and IGN Entertainment Inc. IGNT.O.

National Amusements aims to host other CGS events as it tests the concept of video gaming arenas, called CyGamZ, adjacent to its theaters.