What do TV networks and programmers really want next for their viewers? Not just to be closer to the action, but perhaps to be
in the story itself.
That’s where virtual reality
comes in. A number of TV/entertainment companies -- including 20th Century Fox, Syfy, and Discovery Network -- don’t want to miss this next step. At this year’s CES, there’s lots of
talk about this.
Many will say new innovation with virtual reality -- or “augmented” reality --- will take entertainment producers and viewers to new places. What's better
than that?
The downside? Who wants to wear heavy, funky-looking eyeglass apparatus?
While some VR content is being currently produced, there needs to be some testing of consumers'
appetites for spending a couple of hundred dollars on more sophisticated virtual reality 3D glass equipment -- or, in the case of Samsung’s Gear VR, a $99 headset that uses Samsung phones as
screens.
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Life shouldn’t be so complicated. Google understand this. Google's recent no-frills Cardboard headset turns your smartphone into a VR viewer when you pop it into the contraption
for just around $25.
Experimenting with new consumer entertainment tricks and tools always comes as a let’s-throw-it-on-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks mode of thinking. Google is just
being efficient -- in theory.
For the 20th Century Fox movie “Wild,” you could put on Oculus Rift glasses and be in the middle of some 360-degree content on the Pacific Trail, with
Reese Witherspoon’s character talking to the ghost of Laura Dern’s character. Nice. Later in the year, Fox offered up other VR content for the movie “The Martian.”
But
-- is that it? What if I want to be in the passenger seat during a chase scene on NBC’s “The Blacklist”? What about on the operating table in “Grey’s Anatomy”? And,
of course, you can muse over being in the middle of any romantic interlude on a prime-time soap. Write your own fantasy -- or nightmare.
And how will TV advertisers get involved? Perhaps
an Allstate car insurance executive will appear after the chase car comes to a sudden halt. He’ll hand you a business card and say: “Hey, don’t worry. Stuff happens.”