Fox Sports is doubling down on virtual reality: The sportscaster will broadcast this weekends matchup between Ohio State and Oklahoma live via its new virtual reality app, which will be available for iOS, Android, Gear VR and Oculus Rift.
The app will offer viewers the ability to either watch the action from a “virtual suite” in the stadium, or switch between multiple on-field perspectives. There will also be an option to watch the regular live stream within the VR, presumably to follow the action in a more directed way when you get tired of having to figure out where to look.
And here’s another first for live sports in virtual reality: The stream will only be accessible to viewers that can authenticate as pay TV subscribers. That’s right, TV Everywhere has reached its VR moment.
The live broadcast, which is scheduled to begin at 4:30pm PT, is being streamed in VR by LiveLike VR, a New York city-based live streaming startup. But Fox Sports doesn’t seem willing to put all its VR eggs in one basket: Earlier this year, the network struck a five-year deal with LiveLike competitor NextVR to stream virtual reality to sports fans.
