America’s National Hockey League today announced a new VR video experience, captured during last weekend’s NHL All-Star Game, which is now available via the NextVR app. The league is further promising more VR highlights to come from “select 2019 NHL marquee events.”

Available today via the NextVR app on every major VR platform, NHL is releasing a VR video highlight reel from the All-Star Game, an exhibition match up featuring top talent from the hockey league. The event was hosted last weekend in San Jose, CA, and marks roughly the halfway point of the NHL season.

NextVR is a leading producer of broadcast-focused VR video content, and shoots some of the top quality live-action content viewable in any VR headset, typically consisting of stereoscopic 180 degree footage up to 60 FPS. The company was on hand to capture highlights from the All-Star Game, and the footage is now available globally for free in a new NHL channel within the NextVR app.

And that new channel also heralds more NHL content to come from NextVR, the companies say. While specifics have yet to be revealed, “VR post game highlights from some of the NHL’s biggest events” is purportedly forthcoming. And though NHL’s VP of Business Development, Chris Golier, says that the VR content will make “[fans feel like they are at a live NHL game,” so far no plans have been announced to stream full NHL games in VR, live or on-demand.

And while NextVR produces some content which makes its way to the social-enabled Oculus Venues app, this particular NHL content is currently only available through the company’s own NextVR app which lacks any social functionality.

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The announcement with the NHL is good news for NextVR which has been in the VR space since the very beginning—and has repeatedly snagged opportunities to produce VR video content with top sports leagues—but has struggled to find real traction with its content. Earlier this month the company laid off a significant portion of its workforce, saying that it was “staffed for a pretty explosive growth curve” which didn’t pan out as expected.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • MosBen

    I haven’t used NextVR since I switched from a GearVR to my Rift. Is it ad supported? What is their business model?

    • airball

      They just cut 40% of their staff a couple weeks ago, so they should save some money from that.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Not really different on cv1 compared to gear vr Its a very unique app.Hope it takes off more and we get eventually a live vr channel like espn.

  • JesuSaveSouls

    One thing I would like to see is zoom in position tracking technology for these real time videos.Seen something on steam that let you move around and lean into real life pictures.

  • CarlosTSG

    The people in the VR content are so small they look like little hobbits. It just breaks the immersion of being at an event.