As technology across the planet continues to evolve daily, so does the way fans are able to consume basketball. We saw the NBA introduce the widely-popular league pass subscription over two decades ago and they’ve also experimented with virtual reality in the past couple years.
Considering this, the NBA is reportedly set to take another step towards making the game more immersive than ever for fans sitting at home. According to Variety’s Janko Roettgers, virtual reality live streaming of NBA League Pass games is set to be offered by NextVR using Facebook’s Oculus Venues.
Basketball fans just got another option to watch this season’s games for free, with a little help from Facebook’s Oculus: virtual reality live-streaming startup NextVR is going to stream a number of NBA games in Oculus Venues without the need for an NBA League Pass subscription.
Oculus Venues launched as a social co-viewing app for Oculus Go and Gear VR users earlier this year. The app, which is available for free on the Oculus Store, allows viewers to chat with their friends as they take their seats with their avatar in arenas around the country. And this season, the Facebook subsidiary is footing the bill for NBA League Pass games, letting everyone view them for free.
NextVR is also once again streaming 26 NBA League Pass games in immersive 3D via its own app, which is available on all major headsets, including Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream, Gear VR, and Windows Mixed Reality.
This new service is set to launch for the first time with the upcoming Golden State Warriors vs. Denver Nuggets game this Sunday.
As viewers around the globe look for better ways to follow and watch their favorite teams, NextVR is ahead of the curve. Allowing the audience to be immersed in the game using virtual reality can take the experience to another level and could start a similar trend across other streaming services sooner rather than later.
