Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Fox is livestreaming Saturday’s Oklahoma, Ohio State football game in virtual reality

And you don’t even need a VR headset.

Louisiana Monroe v Oklahoma
Louisiana Monroe v Oklahoma
Getty Images

What could be better than watching a college football matchup between two of the nation’s best teams? How about watching it in virtual reality!

Okay, so that may not appeal to everyone who plans to tune in when the #3 Ohio State Buckeyes take on the #14 Oklahoma Sooners in Norman, Okla., Saturday night. But for those interested, Fox has you covered.

Fox Sports will stream the game live in virtual reality as part of a new deal with LiveLike, a VR streaming startup that built an app for Fox that lets users “sit” in different seats around the stadium during the game.

You can watch the game on a headset, like the Gear VR or Google cardboard, but you can also watch it straight from a smartphone, sans headset. A headset-less experience may not sound like true VR to industry enthusiasts, but it also removes a huge barrier for those who might want to check out VR for the first time but haven’t sprung for a headset.

Live sporting events are not new to VR, but Saturday is LiveLike’s public debut. The startup has streamed a few soccer matches in the past, including a Copa America match between Mexico and Venezuela in June, but those streams were only for small groups of fans as a test run.

LiveLike’s setup is much more TV-like than when another VR streaming startup, NextVR, streamed a Warriors’ game with Turner in October. In the Warriors’ stream, there was just one camera view, no replays or announcers, and you had to check the score the same way fans in the stands did: By looking at an in-stadium scoreboard.

LiveLike is taking a different approach. In addition to multiple camera views, you can keep Fox’s TV feed of the game, including announcer commentary, in the upper lefthand corner of the screen, and a small dashboard in front of you lets you pull up stats and highlights during the game.

A look at LiveLike’s VR soccer stream.
A look at LiveLike’s VR soccer stream.
Fox Sports

Unlike traditional VR videos that let you see 360-degree views of your surroundings, LiveLike only films 180-degree views, replacing the area “behind” you with what looks like an in-stadium suite that doubles as a menu to navigate around the app. I tested it this week, and was surprised to find that I didn’t miss the full 360-degree view at all. How often do you turn around while attending a game?

Fox says Saturday’s college football stream is one of a number of games it hopes to stream this year with LiveLike. (It also works with NextVR, according to Devin Poolman, senior VP of digital platforms for Fox Sports.)

“VR is general is an area where we think it’s important to be experimental,” Poolman said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to knock it out of the park right now in terms of huge audiences and a great execution. So we’re more focused on trying different things and learning.”

The learning begins at 7:30 pm ET Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel