Starting Sunday, NBA fans will be able to watch Sportsnet’s live coverage of Toronto Raptors hoops games on their computers and smartphones.
“We’re thrilled to deliver live games to Raptors fans across Canada,” said David Purdy, vice president and general manager of television products at Rogers Communications. “At Rogers, we’re passionate about sports, and we recognize our customers want to follow their favorite teams. This means you’ll never have to miss the final minutes of the game wherever you are.”
Rogers digital customers with Sportsnet and Sportsnet One can access 18 live regular season Raptors games via Rogers’ Web portal. Rogers wireless customers across Canada can follow the action via the Rogers Live app on their smartphones for $5 per month.
Roger’s D’Arcy Hunt, director of product management, said in a recent interview with CED that Rogers has used digital rights management (DRM) offerings from Brightcove and Microsoft’s Silverlight in the past, but Rogers wants to move to a single DRM platform.
Hunt said on the mobile and broadband platform, Rogers was in the middle of implementing content and digital rights management (CDRM) from Irdeto, depending on the content player. Rogers didn’t say what DRM it was using for the live Raptors games.
In December, Rogers announced the beta launch of its Rogers Live TV app for iPads, which enables live streaming of shows in subscribers’ homes.