Touting itself as the “NextGen broadcast partner of Rip City,” Evoca wants everyone in Oregon to know that it's the cheapest regional sports network option available to catch Portland Trail Blazers games this upcoming season.
Evoca, which delivers ATSC 3.0 access to live broadcast channels and a handful of other networks for $25 a month in Oregon, first announced deployment into the region back in May, as well as carriage of the local NBA franchise’s exclusive RSN home, Root Sports Northwest, which is jointly owned by AT&T and Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners.
With the Trail Blazers entering training camp next week to begin their 2022-2023 season, Evoca is now marketing the live sports relationship, even billing it as the ”Rose City Partnership.“
Evoca notes that using the service’s proprietary Android TV receiver, subscribers can tap into player and in-game stats while the game is playing.
Based in Boise, Idaho, Evoca started out as a kind of virtual MVPD targeted to rural consumers lacking the broadband to efficiently stream video, delivering the bulk of its signals via the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard.
More recently, Evoca seems to have evolved its business model to compete with operators of RSNs including Sinclair and New England Sports Network, which are taking their services direct-to-consumer via $20-a-month streaming services.
In the Denver region, for example, Evoca subscribers have access to AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, home of MLB’s Colorado Rockies, as well as Altitude Sports, home of the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche, all for $25 a month.
Through a marketing partnership with Dish Network, Evoca tells its customers that they can flesh out their channel lineups with a $35-a-month subscription to Sling TV.
Notably, Evoca CEO and co-founder Todd Achilles said his service hasn't been able to engage Sinclair in carriage talks folr Bally Sports Arizona, which houses the NBA's Phoenix Suns and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Sinclair plans to roll out its big DTC streaming play, Bally Sports Plus, on Monday.
“Our mission at Evoca is to make live sports, news, and programming accessible and affordable for local communities around the country,” Achilles said in a statement regarding the Trail Blazers partnership. “As a native Oregonian, I couldn’t be more thrilled to not only bring the Trail Blazers’ games to more households across Oregon but to provide a better, more interactive experience for fans watching the game on Evoca.” ■
