Fox Sports signed a deal with Facebook to produce three Premier Boxing Champions events in virtual reality starting with Saturday’s Amilcar Vidal-Edward Ortiz fight. The live events will be available in Venues for Oculus Quest. Deal terms also call for VOD recaps that will be available via Facebook Watch. Fox will use LiveLike to handle VR production with up to five cameras, including one on a post on either side of the ring. “It’s even a better view than the announcers will have,” said Fox Sports Senior VP/Field & Technical Operations Michael Davies. The VR telecast will have similar graphics and replays as the traditional linear telecast, Davies said. “Our task is to make sure that if you are watching this event in VR, you’re not going to miss anything that you wouldn’t ordinarily see.” The growth of VR has underwhelmed sports media companies over the past decade. This marks Fox’s first foray into VR in years, but do not expect Fox Sports execs to become full-throated evangelists for virtual reality any time soon. Davies said, “We don’t know really what the market is for this. We’re not saying that we’re making a huge commitment yet. But what we’re doing with Facebook and boxing is a pretty good start to see if this works.”
