Welcome to the future. Once per week, the NBA will broadcast a game in virtual reality, reports Jonathan Vanian of Fortune.com:
NBA Digital, a joint venture between Turner Sports and the NBA that manages the league’s online properties, said that it will broadcast one basketball game a week that viewers can watch in 360 degrees. The first custom broadcast will debut October 27 when the Sacramento Kings play against the San Antonio Spurs. During the broadcast, the NBA will stream the game in 180-degrees, in which viewers can turn their heads to follow the action, while a graphical display of the game’s statistics will be streamed in another 180-degrees to accompany the broadcast.
Viewers can watch the first game for free as long as they sign up for a free trial of the NBA League Pass, the NBA’s video subscription service, and have a Samsung Gear VR headset as well as the appropriate Samsung smartphone.
Eventually, the NBA will make 360-broadcasts available to the Google GOOG -0.57% Daydream View virtual headset, says Jeff Marsilio, NBA vice president of global media distribution. Marsilio adds that it’s “likely” that other headsets like Facebook’s Oculus Rift FB -0.08% , the HTC Vive HTC 0.00% , and the Sony PlayStation VR SNE -0.58% will be supported.
The NBA is partnering with virtual reality startup NextVR, which will be doing a lot of the production legwork, such as setting up a broadcasting truck outside the arena and filming the game. NextVR will work with NBA producers on how the game will be presented, and the NBA will have dedicated announcers and sideline reporters who will narrate the game.
Now this is cool. You can have the experience of being at an NBA game without actually physically being there. This is the sort of technology that everybody thought we’d be using in 2016. Now we’re just waiting on the hovercars.
