The virtual reality scene is heating up in a big way, and US TV catch-up service Hulu wants in on the action. In a report published Friday, Hulu’s Tim Connoly told Cnet that the company will have an app ready for the Samsung Gear VR when the device goes on sale Stateside later this month.
In addition to the app, which will presumably allow the user to watch shows using Samsung’s VR headset, Cnet’s Joan E. Solsman reported Hulu is also looking into producing programming designed specifically for virtual reality viewing. Solsman also notes that “[t]he company is already dabbling in VR” and is working on a VR-specific short.
The Gear VR is a joint effort between Samsung and Oculus to produce a low-cost virtual reality headset. In lieu of a built-in display, you slip a Galaxy Note 4 into the $99 headset: In that sense, it’s a more sophisticated take on Google Cardboard, Google’s paperboard VR viewer for smartphones.
Hulu’s app might end up being one of many more VR apps to come from content providers. Sure enough, Netflix has a VR app of its own on the way, complete with a slightly campy cabin-living-room motif.
Whether the preponderance of apps to come will be a good thing or bad thing depends on execution: In the case of the Netflix app, IDG’s Hayden Dingman said “it points to a certain sort of “reinvent the wheel” mentality surrounding virtual reality,” with each app trying to “solve the same problems all over again.”
IDG News Service
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