Eurosport is planning 50 hours of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in the Virtual Reality format.
A dedicated app will be available for iOS and Android phones, Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream and Windows Mixed Reality headsets
A wide range of sports will be available live in VR, including alpine skiing, curling, figure skating, ice hockey, short track, ski jumping, skeleton and snowboarding. There will also be on demand coverage and daily highlights packages.
Eurosport’s exclusive coverage prevents the public service broadcasters that have sub-licensed its content from offering their own VR apps. Nor will the app be free; Eurosport will charge €0.99 for the download.
The coverage is provided to Eurosport by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS).
The VR experience will be delivered by Intel True VR, which uses multiple cameras at the selected events to create a 360-degree virtual reality environment.
Ralph Rivera, Managing Director, Eurosport Digital, said: “Discovery has set out to transform the Olympic Winter Games viewing experience, so being able to offer viewers across Europe every minute of the Games and now every angle of some of the biggest events in live VR goes a long way to delivering this promise. We want to do this to engage more people, on more screens, with the Games than ever before, offering something new to attract younger audiences. In this way, we hope to make fans care even more about the sports they are passionate about.”
Fans will be able to fully personalise their viewing experience, selecting their preferred viewing point from up to six camera positions and immersing themselves with all the sights and sounds within a venue during the live sport.
