NBA Set To Broadcast A Game A Week In VR
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has partnered with NextVR to offer one game per week in virtual reality, in a statement released by NBA Digital.
The debut broadcast will be on 27th October when the Sacremento Kings play the San Antonio Spurs. During the broadcasr, the NBA will broadcast the game in 180-degrees, so viewers can move their heads and follow the game. A graphical disply of the game’s statistics will also be displaye in another 180-degress.
Access to the stream is available to fans with an NBA League Pass subscription, Samsung Gear VR headset, and Samsung smarphone.
The NBA hope to make the 360-degree broadcasts available to the Daydream View headset, amongst others including the Oculus Rift and Sony PlayStation VR.
NextVR will be working with the NBA to do a lot of the production work, including setting up a broadcastin truck outside the arena filming the game. The company will also look at how the game will be presented, and the NBA will also have dedicated announcers and reports to narrate the game.
NBA vice president of global media distribution, Jeff Marsilio said in USA Today:
We’ve got fans all over the world. We broadcast our games in over 210 countries now, and these are passionate fans. But for most of them, they’re not able — for logistical reasons — to attend a game in person, let alone sit courtside.
So we do feel that VR provides the potential, if we do it right, to be the next best thing to that in-person experience. But in order to get there, we’ve got work to do. That’s why we felt that it was time to make a commitment.
In October 2015, the NBA and Turner Sports teamed up with NextVR to broadcast the Golden State Warriors’ season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans in VR.
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