ATSC 3.0-based pay TV service Evoca might not be just focused on rural areas with subpar broadband.
The innovative Next Gen TV service might just be on the forefront of a new distribution model for live televised sports.
Boise, Idaho-based Evoca, which has quickly rooted itself in the Denver area, just announced an agreement to carry AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, home of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies.
Of course, with MLB management locking horns with the players -- and also locking them out -- who knows if a 2022 baseball season is even happening.
Perhaps the more intriguing aspect of this announcement is what it reveals about Evoca's fast-evolving business model.
Also read: Sinclair Plans DTC Launch In Baseball Markets in First Half of 2022
Evoca set up shop in Colorado Springs last fall, immediately offering residents access to Altitude Sports, home of the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche, among other local pro teams, but also notably engaged in a blackout with Comcast.
Now Evoca, which also just expanded to Denver, is offering multiple local RSNs, covering every major local pro team, plus access to almost every local major broadcast network affiliate, for $25 a month.
As for the NFL's Denver Broncos, Evoca users also get some access to the team's games via NFL RedZone, which was recently added along with the NFL Network. There's also access to Colorado State University athletics through Root Sports,
In all, Evoca is offering more than 60 channels to Denver-area consumers, who have their price locked in for two years but are not locked into a contract.
With Sinclair looking to charge roughly the same amount to license the DTC version of its Bally Sports RSNs, Evoca's competing value proposition might explain why the broadcaster refuses to license Evoca its Phoenix Bally Sports-branded channel.
Evoca, which launched in 2020 in Idaho, is still in its nascent stages of business development, delivering to customers in Idaho, Arizona and Colorado most of its video signal via ATSC 3.0, with a limited amount of metadata coming through via the open internet. ■
