Virtual Reality: Sky creates the Sky VR Studio to invest in a market estimated at €6bn in 2016

The British broadcaster Sky plc. has announced the creation of Sky VR Studio, a production studio dedicated to virtual reality, on 17/03/2016. The first content from the studio will be produced for Formula 1 with test videos filmed on the Barcelona circuit (ESP), which will be accessible via the video platform Facebook 360 as well with the Oculus and Samsung Gear VR platforms. Sky will launch its own virtual reality platform by the end of 2016.

Sky has entered into a market that TrendForce, the business intelligence company for the technology industry, saw rise to $6.7bn in 2016 (€6bn) with a potential rise of up to $70bn (€62.7bn) by 2020, on 12/04/2015. Sony has already invested in this market and will launch a virtual reality headset in October 2016, along with Facebook (Oculus VR launched in July 2014) and Samsung (Gear range of products).

The studio will begin by primarily producing sports content for boxing and cycling with Team Sky.

• Sky invested $350,000 (€253,800) in December 2013 in the US company Jaunt, which specialises the production of virtual reality content.