Fox Sports Enters Multi-Year Deal With NextVR To Broadcast Sports In Virtual Reality

Fox Sports and NextVR have teamed up to bring future sporting events into the growing world of virtual reality.

The five-year partnership will allow fans to enjoy live, virtual reality coverage of popular sporting events, with Fox Sports owning all broadcast rights.

"Virtual reality is the next great frontier in immersive experiences for fans across a wide variety of sports," said Eric Shanks, President, COO and Executive Producer at Fox Sports. "It's a rapidly changing technology, and this deal with NextVR positions us to be on the front lines for years to come."

In line with the announcement, the company adds that it is now preparing for the broadcast of the upcoming Daytona 500 on Sunday, which will air on Fox at 1 p.m. EST.

According to the company, racing fans who will be watching the Daytona 500 event through virtual reality on Sunday will feel like they are at the race track with the other spectators of the popular sporting event. With the promise of bringing a totally immersive broadcast using the technology's high-definition virtual reality feature, fans can see themselves standing right at the starting line, at the infield and see how the team racing crews change tires up close and personal, or even at the finish line to celebrate victory with the winning racer.

"We have worked with Fox Sports for over a year to test live, virtual reality programming across several sports," says Brad Allen, executive chairman at NextVR.

He goes on to say that the partnership is proof that the company's technology features an exciting and futuristic option for experiencing popular sporting events through virtual reality.

Prior to the partnership, Fox Sports and NextVR have begun testing live virtual reality broadcasts in a number of sporting events in the past. These include the Auto Club 400 Nascar racing event in California held in 2015 and the United States Open Golf Championship in Washington of the same year.

In January, Fox Sports and NextVR showcased the virtual reality viewing of the Premier Boxing Champions event.

The virtual reality broadcast of the upcoming Daytona 500 can be accessed free from the NextVR portal. Fans can download the NextVR app on a phone that is compatible with Samsung Gear VR.

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