When the Los Angeles Clippers announced their multi-year broadcast agreement with FOX Sports Prime Ticket, the team noted that it would conduct “in-market tests for new, innovative digital offerings on a trial basis to a targeted number of fans.”
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer elaborated on Wednesday while speaking at the NeuLion Sports Media & Technology conference, noting that the team could look to provide a camera or virtual reality-like view of the game from a player’s eyes.
“I want to watch a game as (Clippers point guard) Chris Paul, to see what he sees,” Ballmer said, according to Mobile Sports Report. “That would be a cool view of a game.
“I’m going to be highly, highly, HIGHLY disappointed” if the Chris-Paul view isn’t available in 3-4 years.”
Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, told the Orange County Register that “cool stuff” like that won’t be ready this year, as the broadcast agreement gives the team the flexibility to explore such innovative avenues.
But he reportedly envisioned using fantasy stats and real-time data superimposed on a player’s uniform or the X’s and O’s breakdown of a play in pop-out windows.
The Los Angeles Times had quoted an unnamed official who said Ballmer’s plan was to “erase the bridge between in-game and watching it at home” and for fans who watch digitally to feel like they are in the arena.
Just how much a fan can feel like that will be in the eye of the beholder as the Clippers experiment.