British broadcaster ITV, which owns the broadcast rights to the Cheltenham Racing Festival, has teamed up with virtual reality (VR) production company VR City and media company Goodstuff to offer a series of VR highlights of the festival to viewers.
The Cheltenham Festival lasts from 14th until 17th March, and this year’s event will be the first since ITV picked up the broadcast rights in January 2017. ITV says that it is aiming to offer viewers ‘the best seat in the house’ by offering VR footage of the festival.
Content will be captured by 360-degree cameras over the course of each day, showing the races and events as well as going backstage for unique behind-the-scenes knowledge of how the festival operates. This footage will then be edited together into daily highlight packages available for VR users to download and posted at 7pm each day on ITV’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
Ed Ross, Head of Marketing and Media at ITV said: “ITV are really excited about the opportunity of giving viewers a unique perspective onto one of the greatest sporting events in the UK. When it comes to thrills, anticipation and atmosphere, nothing comes close to the Cheltenham Festival, so we wanted to give viewers who couldn’t be there the opportunity to be there with us, right at the heart of the action.”
While Laura Moorcraft, Business Director at Goodstuff added: “As a leader in entertainment, we feel ITV are particularly well-positioned to utilise VR as a way of giving viewers an entirely new perspective of the content at their disposal, and Cheltenham Festival leapt out as the perfect opportunity to utilise the technology. The sport is renowned for its thrill and excitement, so it’s great that we can bring this to people through their mobile phones.”
Cheltenham joins a range of sporting events that are utilising VR and 360-degree technology to engage fans, including the Ski Cross World Cup and Ice Hockey.
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