Virtual Reality is an intriguing market that many companies are currently working to develop products and services for, and while the bulk of content is currently geared towards gamers with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, Samsung’s Gear VR headset is aimed more at the average consumer (so long as they have a compatible Samsung Galaxy device) and contains a range of content including games, movies, and other video such as TV content from Hulu. As this is the month of March, college basketball will be reaching the ever-popular NCAA Final Four soon, and users of the Samsung Gear VR headset will be able to stream the Final Four games for a one of a kind experience.
Owners of Samsung’s VR headset who also happen to be fans of college basketball and will want to watch games that will be streamed in 180-degree video, will need to install the March Madness Live application from the Oculus store through their Gear VR headset. The app that’s available for this particular viewing experience is a VR version of the app that’s available through desktop computers, and is available to download for free, so users won’t be looking at having to shell out any money to watch all of the action from the Final Four games.
Beyond letting users view the games in 180-degree video, users will be able to watch the games as if they were sitting courtside, giving them some of the best seats in the house. Other features within the app include a virtual scoreboard that will constantly be displaying live statistics of the games, and there will be audio commentary from multiple people including Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery, and Tracy Wolfson while the game is being telecast on TBS. As far as when the games will be available to watch, April 2nd is when the semifinal games will air on TBS at 3PM E.T., while the championship game will air on the same channel on April 4th at 7PM E.T. For users who don’t own a Samsung Galaxy device and/or a Samsung Gear VR headset, the games can be still be viewed in 2D, 180-degree video through the stream on a desktop computer using the desktop version of the NCAA March Madness Live application.