Students across Western Canada now have the opportunity to watch their favourite University sports, regardless of whether they are in attendance or not. All 14 members of the Canada West University Athletic Association, including the University of Calgary, will use CanadaWest.tv as their official web-based broadcast. All Dinos basketball and volleyball home games will be broadcast on the network, along with feature games from a selection of other sports, including hockey, football and soccer. All non-televised Dinos football home games will be streamed live.
On Aug. 24th, CWUAA announced a partnership with Stretch Internet in order to launch CanadaWest.tv, the first of its kind in Canada. In a press release Canada West vice-president of marketing Ben Matchett said he was thrilled with the partnership. He said the online network “will greatly enhance the experience of fans who want to catch live Canada West action and cannot make it to the game.”
“Rather than our fans spending time searching the web for links to a broadcast, they can go to one place and find everything they are looking for,” he said. “[We] have worked very hard to see this happen and we are looking forward to a great initial season.”
The website will be available for the 2011-12 season and beyond.
All streamed games will be available online, all Flash 10.1-enabled mobile devices and Apple iOS devices. For the first time in Canadian university sport, iPhone and iPad users will be able to watch games from their devices.
“I cannot emphasize enough how thrilled we are to partner with Canada West,” said Stretch Internet president Ryan Ermeling.
Ermeling said Stretch Internet’s platform is suited perfectly with Canada West and its member institutions.
“Fans will enjoy an incredibly user-rich experience, with high-quality live and on-demand video along with integrated live stats and other features on both desktop and mobile platforms. Since our very first discussions in Calgary, it has been evident to us that quality and professionalism are of the utmost importance to the conference, and we are confident we will deliver on both fronts,” said Ermeling.
The first video stream was on Sept. 2nd when the Regina Rams took on the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the Canada West football opener. The basketball season begins on Nov. 4th — a conference-wide commitment has been made to showcase all Canada West games this season.
The first Dino broadcast on the site is KICKOFF 2011, the football home opener on Sept. 9th when the UBC Thunderbirds visit McMahon Stadium.
“[The website] provides us with a unique opportunity as a conference and as individual schools to have our product seen by fans across Western Canada and around the world,” said Matchett. “Our new mobile platform means they will not miss a minute of the action no matter where they go.”
Of the four Canada Interuniversity Sport conferences, CWUAA is consistently the most decorated and a leader of innovation with the launch of CanadaWest.tv. The website will also provide a scoreboard and statistics in addition to live games, making it the one-stop shop for university sports. Archived broadcasts will be available and during select games you can talk with other sports fans with live blog and chat capabilities.