ABC is giving “Dancing With the Stars” fans a chance to get up and close to the action: The broadcaster released an immersive 360-degree video of the opening number for this week’s episode of the show on its website as well as on Facebook and YouTube on Monday. The video is also being made available on virtual reality headsets via Littlstar’s VR app.
The dance number, which has professional performers dancing to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” is just the second time that ABC has done a VR take-out for one of its shows. In March, the broadcaster released a VR experience for “Quantico,” which was sponsored by Lexus.
But ABC owner Disney clearly has bigger ambitions for VR, and is experimenting across its different corporate entities with the new medium. Earlier this year, Disney released a Disneyland VR experience produced by Jaunt, the VR camera maker and production company that received some money from the Mouse as part of last September’s massive $65 million round of funding. And in March, Lucasfilm’s ILMxLab unveiled an ambitious “Star Wars” VR experience, with executives hinting at much bigger VR plans for the iconic movie franchise.
Disney’s collaboration with Littlstar for “Dancing With the Stars” is also no coincidence. The New York-based VR platform startup participated in Disney’s accelerator program last summer. ABC wants to experiment with additional VR content in the new future, with a representative telling Variety that it will release a “Nashville” VR video later this month.
