Media giants are experimenting in virtual reality
Post# of 96900
Posted On: 07/29/2016 2:37:28 PM
Media giants are experimenting in virtual reality and scrambling to invest in VR startups as the technology looks to become the next story-telling medium. (Nils Davey)
ELAINE LOW12:40 PM ET
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You're sitting courtside, close enough to that glossy NBA hardwood floor to high-five your favorite player. Look left, look right at the roaring crowd, and bask in the knowledge that your seat should normally cost thousands of dollars.
But you're not in a maxed-out arena. Instead, the experience is taking place in the sun-bathed lobby of NextVR's Laguna Beach, Calif., office, where you feel like you're watching a basketball game from inside your television.
This is the new wave of virtual reality. Not the clunky, pixelated virtual reality of yore, but one of live-streamed sports events, 360-degree news segments and interactive movie trailers in high definition that industry insiders say will deliver dazzling moments. So you can bet that old-school media heavies -- already beset by cord-cutting woes and the rise of streaming-entertainment leaders Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN) -- want in on the action, which Digi-Capital estimates could be a $30 billion market by 2020.
And despite no guarantees that virtual reality will have staying power as a new medium, the threat of losing more tech-savvy millennial viewers seems very real, giving Walt Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner (TWX) and others a serious case of FOMO -- a Fear Of Missing Out.
"It's kind of the perfect storm for VR to be rising at the time it is, because as you know, the media companies are all scrambling to figure out how do you get the millennials, the younger generation," NextVR Executive Chairman Brad Allen told IBD.
ELAINE LOW12:40 PM ET
FacebookTwitterLinkedInPrintShare Reprints
You're sitting courtside, close enough to that glossy NBA hardwood floor to high-five your favorite player. Look left, look right at the roaring crowd, and bask in the knowledge that your seat should normally cost thousands of dollars.
But you're not in a maxed-out arena. Instead, the experience is taking place in the sun-bathed lobby of NextVR's Laguna Beach, Calif., office, where you feel like you're watching a basketball game from inside your television.
This is the new wave of virtual reality. Not the clunky, pixelated virtual reality of yore, but one of live-streamed sports events, 360-degree news segments and interactive movie trailers in high definition that industry insiders say will deliver dazzling moments. So you can bet that old-school media heavies -- already beset by cord-cutting woes and the rise of streaming-entertainment leaders Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN) -- want in on the action, which Digi-Capital estimates could be a $30 billion market by 2020.
And despite no guarantees that virtual reality will have staying power as a new medium, the threat of losing more tech-savvy millennial viewers seems very real, giving Walt Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner (TWX) and others a serious case of FOMO -- a Fear Of Missing Out.
"It's kind of the perfect storm for VR to be rising at the time it is, because as you know, the media companies are all scrambling to figure out how do you get the millennials, the younger generation," NextVR Executive Chairman Brad Allen told IBD.
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