Cosm inks deal with ESPN to air sports in shared reality

Cosm

Cosm has signed a multiyear partnership with ESPN to produce and air NBA, NHL, U.S. Open tennis, college football, men’s/women’s college basketball, college baseball/softball and select UFC fights in its forthcoming shared reality venues.

This is the latest in a series of deals Cosm has secured in the past 13 months, beginning with a direct partnership with the NBA as well as pacts with the UFC, TNT Sports and NBC that comprise a rather extensive rights portfolio.

Cosm President/CEO Jeb Terry and ESPN VP/Sports Business Development/Innovation Kevin Lopes, who negotiated the deal, declined to comment on the agreement’s finances or structure.

Lopes, however, noted that he has been in contact with Cosm for two years and demoed the company’s immersive viewing technology at its Salt Lake City experience center. ESPN has a strong existing relationship with C360, the immersive video company Cosm acquired last January, and shares league partners in the NBA and UFC.

“[Cosm] is a vetted company that has a history of working with ESPN and the Walt Disney Company in a variety of ways. And so, when I was first introduced to them, we started talking pretty quickly on their vision for innovation,” Lopes said. “It’s a natural progression for ESPN to make sure that we provide our fans with a different variety of ways to experience content.”

Cosm is scheduled to open venues in L.A. at the end of Q2 and Dallas at the end of Q3. A third undisclosed location is set to be announced soon. The venues will be built around an 87-foot-diameter LED dome that combines 8K+ video and spatial audio to produce a viewing experience that simulates front-row seats, with the inclusion of hall spaces and food and beverage service. 

Using high-resolution cameras installed in venues, Cosm produces custom video feeds for the shared reality space and works with its partners to integrate broadcast elements like ads, score bugs and commentary. Exact ESPN programming for the venues will be determined collaboratively as Cosm organizes its events schedule, Lopes said.

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Terry said the venues’ capacities will range between 1,500 and 2,500 guests, with the sites opening this year around 2,000. Ticket costs are still being decided as well, with the goal of being “approachable,” Terry added, although prices will be vary based on the “scarcity of the event.”

“The core thesis is always, make sure we’re something net-new and additive to our ecosystem, whether you are a league, team or broadcaster,” he said.

The vision for the venues is a one-stop, immersive-viewing shop for as much sports and entertainment content as Cosm can wrap its arms around. The company also has an artist creator program that Terry anticipates providing supplemental programming to live sports.

“We look at each venue almost like its own TV channel, with the anchor of live sports, and then layering in shoulder and support programming to fill the rest of our day,” Terry said. “We want to have programming on all the time. You look at a day in the life -- Premier League match on Saturday morning, leading into a two-event slate of college football, leading into a UFC fight, leading into an after-party that evening. The promise is to always have something very compelling on.”