Apple is partnering with Spectrum SportsNet to stream choose Los Angeles Lakers video games on to the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional throughout the 2025-2026 basketball season. The video games will likely be filmed within the Apple Immersive video format, the identical VR-friendly filming type the corporate used to seize the Metallica live performance movie it launched earlier this yr.
Past providing you with a cause to blow the mud off your $3,500 Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, watching the video games in-headset will showcase “views unattainable to seize in conventional broadcasts,” Apple claims. Reside video games will likely be restricted to headset house owners dwelling within the Lakers’ regional broadcast territory (Southern California, Hawaii and components of southern Nevada) and can probably require a subscription to view, however Apple says the complete replays and highlights can even be accessible in “choose international locations and areas from each the SportsNet and NBA apps.” There is no schedule of video games out there but, however Apple and Spectrum say they’re going to announce their last plans this fall, with the primary video games streaming early 2026.
Whereas the overall consensus on the Imaginative and prescient Professional is that it makes for an incredible media consumption gadget, sports activities programming that takes benefit of its distinctive options has been largely lacking. Apple makes it straightforward to look at issues like Friday Night time Baseball and Main League Soccer, however the NBA is the one mainstream sports activities league making an attempt to supply an expertise that is particular to the Imaginative and prescient Professional. Past enjoying reside video games, the NBA visionOS app can show real-time participant stats, stream a number of video games without delay in multiview and present you a tabletop view of video games, full with a 3D court docket and tiny gamers.
Now that Apple is reportedly prioritizing good glasses over a lighter and cheaper model of the Imaginative and prescient Professional, the very best factor the corporate can do is provide present house owners with new issues to look at. Not everybody loves the Lakers, but when it opens the door to extra reside sports activities sooner or later, that is solely factor.