Virtual reality, or VR, is gaining traction in sports broadcasting as a growing number of content providers look for opportunities that provide new interfaces and features to live events.
With demand for immersive experiences fueling changes in the way sports content is produced, created and distributed, VR in sports is set to see continued momentum during the upcoming International Broadcasting Convention, or IBC, taking place Sept. 14-19 in Amsterdam.
Leading the theme this year is pan-European pay TV giant Sky plc, which is teaming up with Swedish telecoms equipment provider Ericsson AB and VR streaming company Tiledmedia to showcase how VR can be used to boost viewer engagement in live sports.
It follows the first ever 360-degree VR broadcast of the UEFA Champions League soccer final, back in June, which was aired by Britain's BT's BT sport, Sweden-headquartered Modern Times Group and 21st Century Fox Inc.'s Fox Sports. Sky Deutschland also delivered the footage in VR in collaboration with Sony Corp.'s Playstation VR.
Meanwhile, across the pond, NBA fans with a Samsung Gear VR headset and software are able to stream weekly basketball games, as part of a partnership between NBA Digital and NextVR, which broadcasts live events in virtual reality.
"VR is an exciting prospect for sports because it harnesses the power to give people access to viewpoints that they could never normally see," according to Dave Elliott, enterprise business development manager at VR specialist Holovis.
Whether you are watching a Formula One race from the perspective of Lewis Hamilton or watching from the perspective of a referee in the Six Nations rugby tournament, it opens up a "world of possibilities" that can extend the sports experience of fans either during the event or as a post-match takeaway, he continued.
VR could therefore have a "phenomenal impact" in the area of extreme sports, in particular, Elliot explained.
"[Activities] like skydiving, surfing and mountain boarding are obviously highly dangerous for the unskilled so VR has a place either in training or in gamifying these experiences so people can have the adrenaline rush without the danger," he argued.
Industry observers also believe that the nascent VR sports market has the potential to draw in younger audiences to TV networks.
For instance, when Amsterdam-based sports VR company Beyond Sports teamed up with Fox Sports earlier this year to air a live broadcast of a Dutch soccer league match in VR, the company said that the coverage attracted huge interest from younger viewers between the ages of 8 and 18, with an unprecedented number engaging for the full 90 minutes.
The inclusion of VR will therefore appeal to a completely new generation that networks would otherwise struggle to attain due to the rise in cord-cutting, Beyond Sports Business Director Sander Schouten said in an interview.
"Younger millennials and Gen Z are going to consume sports in a completely different way," Schouten noted, stressing that "mobile VR could be their dominant method of consumption whereas for the older generation it has been a wide-screen TV."
Jason Jerald, co-founder and principal consultant at VR specialist at NextGen Interactions, agreed with this view, noting that most of the major broadcasters and sports networks are likely exploring the use of VR to target Gen Z and millennial audiences.
As a result of the early excitement around VR, young people and VR natives – or kids growing up with virtual reality – would naturally come to expect the use of this technology in sports, Jerald noted.
At the same time, there is still a lot of groundwork that needs to be done before VR will be able to conquer mass markets.
"VR is so easy to over-hype and over-project," Jerald noted, pointing out that the technology and markets have been unable to live up to the high expectations. And with the overall VR market not developing as quickly as some had expected, the future of where VR in sports is heading remains unclear.
"One of the big challenges in VR in sports is that sports [are] typically a spectator situation. What virtual reality offers is something much more interactive instead of just observational," he explained.
As the industry continues to develop that, it remains unclear whether consumers want to sit back or get involved.
"I don't think anyone knows the answer to that yet," Jerald concluded.