NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 13: D'Angelo Harrison #11 of the St. John's Red Storm in action against LaDontae Henton #23 of the Providence Friars during the quarterfinals of the Big East Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 2014 in New York City. Providence defeated St. John's 79-74. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 13: D'Angelo Harrison #11 of the St. John's Red Storm in action against LaDontae Henton #23 of the Providence Friars during the quarterfinals of the Big East Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 2014 in New York City. Providence defeated St. John's 79-74. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
FOX Sports, NextVR Bring First Men’s College Basketball Tournament to Virtual Reality
Continuing its recently launched relationship, FOX Sports and NextVR, the leader in live-action virtual reality broadcast technology, will broadcast the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games of the 2016 BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament live to hoops fans world-wide in virtual reality from Madison Square Garden. The virtual reality broadcasts begin March 10; all games will be broadcast live on FS1 with the March 12 championship game on FOX (5:30 P.M. ET).
This marks the first time a college basketball tournament will be broadcast live to a global audience in virtual reality. In total, seven games and more than 15 hours of live virtual reality coverage will be streamed over three days.
Basketball fans who experience FOX Sports virtual reality coverage of the 2016 BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Tournament will feel as if they are watching the game amongst the fans in courtside seats. The immersive, high-definition views will bring fans to center court, near the sideline player huddles and under the basket for an experience unlike any other in sports. The live virtual stream will include audio and graphics highlighting player stats, scores and game updates.
“Our pipeline for premiere sports content keeps building and we’re excited to deliver virtual reality programing with broad appeal to college sports fans, well-known early adopters of technology,” said Brad Allen, NextVR Chairman.
The first-of-its-kind relationship between NextVR and FOX Sports will broadcast a range of top sporting events in virtual reality where FOX Sports holds the broadcast rights. In February, NextVR and FOX Sports launched the joint effort by bringing the Daytona 500 to virtual reality, just weeks after broadcasting a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) fight together. In 2015, FOX Sports, through its FOX Lab initiative, and NextVR also tested the U.S. Open from Chambers Bay.
“Fans want to be a part of the action and virtual reality takes the fan experience to the next level,” said Eric Shanks, FOX Sports President, COO & Executive Producer. “Our relationship with NextVR comes at a time as the demand to enjoy these amazing ‘like being there’ experiences expands.”
For more information of FOX Sports’ coverage of 2016 college basketball tournaments, please visit: http://foxs.pt/1QOEhls.
NextVR’s future virtual reality programming with FOX Sports will be announced soon.
