From Last Word on Pro Basketball, by Derrick Helling
A partnership between the National Basketball Association and a leader in providing virtual reality content, NextVR, has reportedly taken the next step.
NBA Expanding Virtual Reality Offerings to Weekly Games
Starting in the upcoming 2016-17 regular season, the NBA will offer weekly games in virtual reality to NBA League Pass subscribers. The experience of the broadcast will be a hybrid of being in-arena and watching a traditional broadcast.
To get the in-arena feel, viewers will see in-arena entertainment during game breaks and have the option to watch the action through unmanned cameras. In order to provide components of a traditional broadcast, viewers will also get dedicated announcing, commentary, and graphics, along with behind-the-scenes footage from the arenas.
While the full schedule of games that will be broadcast in virtual reality has yet to be announced, the first game of the 2016-17 season available on this platform has been determined. On Thursday, October 27th, fans will be able to watch the Sacramento Kings open up the Golden 1 Center against the San Antonio Spurs in virtual reality.
Limitations of the Platform
While this announcement represents a huge step forward in this partnership and for the technology, the potential audience reach is still quite limited at this point.
The first broadcast of the season will be available to fans free of charge as part of a free trial of NBA League Pass, but subsequent broadcasts will be available to paid subscribers only. Obviously, the hope is that the first broadcast will create additional demand for League Pass subscriptions. That partially depends on potential subscribers having the right hardware, however.
The current software necessary to view the broadcasts requires the viewer to own the Samsung Gear headset and a compatible Samsung smartphone with a reliable Internet connection. If a potential subscriber doesn’t already own the necessary peripheries, they represent a significant financial investment in order to watch one game per week. That game may or may not include the individual’s favorite team, and as the season progresses, the games may become irrelevant as teams fall out of postseason contention.
The Future for NBA Virtual Technology Broadcasts
NextVR states that they are working to make their content more widely available, and the progression of this product will depend heavily upon that.
If NextVR, or a competing developer, is able to make access to NBA games in virtual reality available to the masses, the infrastructure could be quickly set in place to offer many more games in virtual reality.
There is also the possibility that some postseason games for the 2016-17 season could be included, but no announcements have been made to that effect yet.
Eventually, fans may be able to purchase a virtual “season ticket” from NBA teams and take in all 41 home games virtually from their homes. League Pass subscribers could eventually opt to watch a season’s worth of games in virtual reality.
The partnership and technology have not yet realized their full potential, but this announcement is a big step in the direction of changing how NBA fans watch games.
Main photo:
March 03, 2016: San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard (2) dunks the ball during the NBA game between the San Antonio Spurs and the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA. (Photograph by Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire) (Photo by Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images)
