Live NBA basketball games will be streamed to the Vision Pro mixed reality headset in Apple’s spellbinding Immersive Video format during the forthcoming season.
Apple has announced an agreement with cable company Spectrum to show LA Lakers games via the expensive mixed reality device, with the action shot through 3D cameras (Blackmagic Design’s URSA Cine Immersive Live cameras to be precise) on the sideline and underneath the baskets. This will give basketball fans the impression of being sat court side at the Lakers’ arena in downtown Los Angeles. Fans will be able to look around the arena as they would if they were sat next to LeBron James on the Lakers’ bench.
The streams will be available in up to 150Mbps and, over the course of a game, that’s a lot of data being gobbled down. However, given the incredible Immersive Video footage we’ve seen from Apple so far, it might just be worth upsetting your ISP for. Live games will be available in the US in the Lakers regional markets via SportsNet, while viewers elsewhere in the US, in the UK (as well as Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the UAE) will be able to watch full game replays in the NBA app..
“Vision Pro users will be able to feel the intensity of each game as if they were courtside, with perspectives that are impossible to capture in traditional broadcasts,” Apple says in a Newsroom post.
Thus far, Apple has only shown on demand content through it’s Vision Pro headset, but the live broadcasts of selected games could be ultimate use case for the Vision Pro. Currently Apple has a selection of Immersive Video content including some on-demand sports, concerts and nature documentaries. However, due to the technical complexities involved, live events have been remained somewhat of a holy grail.
This season’s Lakers game streams should hopefully be a proof of concept for wider availability of live events in the years to come. The schedule will be announced in the autumn and the first live game will be in early 2026.
