My brief thoughts:
In South Korea (if I remember correctly) the game Starcraft is like a national past time to these people. They televise the shows and get huge audiences to attend and watch at home as the best players in the country square off.
As a note about the gaming industry coming onto television: I don't think it will take off. Non-avid gamers will have a hard time becoming interested and avid gamers are simply too spread out into what each believes to be the best types of games. Real Time Strategies, first person shooters, fighting games, sports games, etc... most people I know who play video games can and have played all types but really only prefer 1 or 2 game types. This will cause a programing problem since all the Madden players won't want to watch people playing Halo 2 and the opposite is true as well.
Small circles of videos from gaming clans going head to head have circled around the internet and usually gotten good responses (my own included). Within a group of similar people where people can Identify with the people playing it becomes 10x better to watch, so the other key will obviously be getting to know the players somewhat either through seeing them enough or segments getting to know the players.