Virtual reality broadcast technology company NextVR, through its partnership with the Fox Sports division of US network Fox, will provide coverage of the opening game of the 2016-17 German Bundesliga club football season in live virtual reality.
Coverage of defending champion Bayern Munich’s home game against Werder Bremen on Friday will be available in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Asia and select European countries. It will mark the first Bundesliga game to be broadcast live in virtual reality to an international audience.
Seven cameras will be used at Bayern’s Allianz Arena stadium to capture the footage. Viewers will be able to watch the match from the stands, on the sidelines, in the middle of the pitch and from behind the goal.
The match will be available for free in the Fox Sports portal on the NextVR platform, which requires a Gear VR headset.
NextVR and Fox Sports is being supported in the initiative through production and technical backing from the German Football League’s (DFL) production arm Sportcast and Sky Deutschland, the Bundesliga’s official pay-television broadcast partner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The Bundesliga opener is the fifth major event in 2016 in which Fox Sports has teamed with NextVR to offer live virtual reality content, including the Daytona 500, the showpiece race of the Nascar stock car racing series; a Premier Boxing Champions title fight; the Big East college basketball tournament and the U.S. Open golf championship.