The proliferation of departments dedicated to producing 360 degree content within the mainstream media – both in television and the print press – has been something of a growing narative of virtual reality (VR). One of the earliest examples being last year’s takeover of RYOT by AOL on behalf of The Huffington Post. Indeed, last week on VRFocus guest columnist Dejan Gajsek wrote specifically about the rise of 360 in his feature “Why Immersive Journalism And Why Now?”.
One broadcaster interested in the possibilities of 360 degree technology – and viewership – is RT, the Moscow-based global TV news network of Russia. RT, which has previously broadcast 360 degree content and released its own RT 360 app back in 2015, is reporting that it has secured a significant number of licensing deals for 360 degree content following the recent MIPTV 2017 event, a dedicated market relating to the television industry.
RT, which hosted a VR session entitled Integration of 360 Video: Pioneering a New Method of Storytelling showing off its own film documentary Project Duterte to show how outlets could combine panoramic, or 360 degree parts into a traditional broadcast, announced it had licenced its 360 degree content specifically to twenty organisations from different countries around the world including the UK, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Making the content a significant part of its content distribution business on the day and a notable factor for the company going forward
“This year at MIPTV we have witnessed a real breakthrough in VR content licensing.” Commented Ed Chizhikov, the head of the aforementioned RT 360, which now has over 100 titles on its books. “For the first time we have concluded multiple VR content deals. It’s a clear sign that the market is becoming more established and that the demand for quality 360 content is growing. RT is uniquely positioned to deliver on this growing demand.”
VRFocus will bring you more information on these developments should more be revealed.