The BackPage Weekly | A look into the future: can VR change the viewing habits of sports audiences forever?

by Chris Paget and Ollie Raggett

While the existence of VR products are far from ground-breaking technology (having been successfully utilised across the games industry for a number of years), its potential within the sports industry has largely been limited to being a tool for one-off activations and fan-engagement initiatives. 

Back in March, we discussed in The BackPage #6 the huge success of the NBA App at the 2023 NBA All-Star Tech Summit to allow fans to scan their avatar into a live game and the potential for these types of products to appeal to a different type of sports-fan.  However, with further news coming of Apple’s hotly anticipated mixed-reality headset, we felt it was a good opportunity to use this week’s BackPage to examine the growing movement by tech-companies to embrace the potential of VR and the opportunities that it holds for sport to harness their potential – particularly in the area of broadcast/viewership.  In a highly saturated and competitive market (where both broadcasters and sports themselves are competing to attract eyeballs on their offering) VR potentially provides a very real possibility to differentiate from counter-parts, create new revenue streams for rightsholders and attract new audiences with bespoke and highly immersive offerings. 

🥽 The next step for VR

When released in June, Apple’s new headset will provide users with the opportunity to switch between augmented and virtual reality and activate VR technology within apps in the headset itself.  In this way, users will be able to interact simultaneously with real-world and AR features using eye direction, hand gesture and Siri voice commands to navigate between features.  Albeit still in its infancy, there is a clear sign that this kind of technology could provide a gateway for sports broadcast: utilising in-game/in-event features to heighten the experience of a consumer.  While the wider entertainment industry has increasingly seen metaverse activations (such as metaverse music concerts and activations such as the Roblox/ Super Bowl), sporting fixtures have seen a more gradual implementation since the first matches broadcast in the metaverse - AC Milan vs Fiorentina in May 2022.     

🥽 A snapshot of VR trends

Apple are far from the only tech-company making developments in VR – other leading names are also contributing to a growing trend across the industry.  In January, Meta announced a partnership with NBA to launch over 50 live NBA games on its VR platform Meta Quest (including five fully immersive 180-degree VR).  Meta Quest allows fans to access more content (e.g. highlights and archival footage) as well as playing additional mini-games and purchasing NBA-licensed apparel in the Meta Avatars Store.  VR provides an opportunity to provide a highly immersive and layered experience of the live sporting event while also easily inter-connecting with wider revenue generating initiatives.  One of the main criticisms of VR has been the way it becomes a singular/unitary experience; but using VR in this way allows a community experience where the user can interact with the arena (and other users) around them.  In addition, while traditional media rights remain very expensive (and are something that tech companies have broadly stayed away from) VR can potentially provide an opportunity to leverage live immersive sport content to users and simultaneously sell tech products.  We have already seen this model used highly successfully by telecoms companies in recent years and such opportunities could also present themselves for VR/tech companies and simultaneously allow sports rightsholders to create new media revenue streams. 

Similarly, in November 2022 , Sony acquired Beyond Sport with the aim to “challenge the status quo when it comes to sports data, data visualisation and sports content consumption…to fully utilise the combined potential and cater to the needs of the new generation of sports fans.“  Such activity shows a clear recognition of the untapped potential for VR to heighten the experience of a live sporting event and thereby attract a new type of sports fan that is uniquely placed to benefit from these developments in VR. 

🥽 Where next?

Customer/fan loyalty is a fundamental feature of the business models of sport (including sports teams themselves) as well as tech companies.  As such, the demand for Apple products is extremely high and their new headset is anticipated to generate the same level of interest.  In offering (among other things) a highly unique way to view sports, Apple are hopeful of capitalising on this to generate its own sales; while broadcasters are also recognising opportunities to utilise its power in their coverage and tailor their offering accordingly.  It remains to be seen whether the existing costs of such VR technology will prevent it cementing a place in the mainstream in the short-term.  However, there are clear signs that these types of developments are the first steps of VR becoming less a means to create high interest in a one-off activation but instead generate an important (and alternative) platform of the future for audiences to engage in live sporting and entertainment events in an entirely unique way.