Virtual Reality The Content Conundrum

20,000 Foot View

At the start of 2016 the tech hype machine was going into overdrive over the potential for Virtual Reality to finally break through to the mainstream. January’s CES in Las Vegas featured the launch of Fox Studio’s The Martian Experience, their second VR project in conjunction with a major big screen production. At the same time Facebook’s Oculus Rift was busy generating media interest around the            launch of its first consumer VR headset. However what was lacking from the conversation was how to make VR an experience for the mainstream TV and film consumer. The            price point for the Rift headset, and bonus-feature positioning of The Martian Experience, effectively limit the technology’s appeal to tech and media enthusiasts only. What VR is waiting for is its mainstream cross-over moment, and the potential of VR to revolutionize scripted drama could just be the medium in which to achieve this.

Key Findings: 

• VR hardware            receives seventeen times the investment            VR content            billion compared to           
• VR has            twice before to break through            the mainstream
• Original scripted            has pivoted SVOD towards the            and offers a template for           
• VR is            to need VR optimized content            compel VR device sales among            consumers
• HTC now            VR content spending with its            Vive X Fund
• Content companies            to plan for VR going            or risk being left behind

Companies Mentioned: Facebook, Fox Innovation Lab, Google, HTC, MelodyVR, MIT, Oculus VR, PlayStation, Samsung, Sega, Skybound Entertainment, Sony, Valve, Wevr