With the last weekend of March Madness quickly approaching the NCAA announced a partnership with Samsung, to live stream the Final Four and National Championship in Virtual Reality, for the first time ever. This announcement comes on the heels of Fox partnering with NextVR, which gave fans the opportunity to watch the Big East Tournament in VR.
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The NCAA and their broadcast partner for the tournament, Turner Sports, along with one of their biggest corporate sponsors, Capital One, will give fans the chance to experience the last three tournament games in Virtual Reality. However, only viewers who have Samsung Gear VR devices from Oculus, will be able to enjoy this groundbreaking NCAA Tournament coverage.
The live VR experience for both of Saturday’s Final Four games as well as Monday’s Championship game will be available for free via the NCAA March Madness Live VR App. The free app is available for download in the Oculus store to be enjoyed on compatible Samsung devices, however the Virtual Reality coverage will be somewhat different than other VR experiences on this platform.
VOKE to provide real-time VR Experience on NCAA® #MarchMadness® Live™ VR app for #FinalFour & #NationalChampionship https://t.co/gew2Gc7Q8h
— Voke VR (@vokevr) March 29, 2016
Fans will be able to experience the game live as if they were sitting courtside, but the immersive coverage will be from a 180-degree perspective, unlike a more traditional 360-degree VR experience. The live game will be produced with help from VOKE VR. Along with the courtside views fans will be able to watch a virtual scoreboard during game coverage. Users will also be able to hear live audio from inside the arena, along with play-by-play and commentary from the TBS broadcast crew that will be covering the game for television audiences.
For fans who want to experience all that NCAA VR has to offer, there will be an option to view a full tournament bracket, along with highlights from every game. Also, after the tournament is over full Final Four VR game replays will be made available.
NCAA Tournament fans that do not yet have the proper VR technology can take in the final three games of the tournament via the same live 180-degree stream, in 2D on their desktops on March Madness Live. 360-degree highlights from throughout the tournament will be available on the March Madness Facebook Page as well.
Virtual Reality coverage for sports is becoming increasingly popular, as we have covered here on numerous occasions. The NCAA and Turner Sports partnership with Samsung is yet another small step towards the methodical mainstream adoption of VR.