On 13 April, the sports network signed a multi-year deal with IDRA, which is slated to stream drone races on ESPN 3. After each event, ESPN will also air a one-hour special on live network television. The drone operator must navigate their drone through the race’s course, and the winning drone is the one that completes the course the fastest. Following this will be the 2016 World Drone Racing Championships, which will air on ESPN3 in October.
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Get out of the way, Amazon delivery drones, the sport of drone racing piloted by racers using virtual reality (VR) headset-like devices will soon enter the mainstream on the United States sports broadcaster, ESPN.
The first instalment will be the US National Drone Racing Championships, to be hosted on Governor’s Island in NY at the beginning of August.
“To go from a first-ever, US national drone race to partnering with ESPN for global distribution in eight months is truly a sign of great things ahead”, Dr. Scot Refsland, Chairman of the IDRA, said in a news release.
Fans, too, can experience the exhilarating first-person view of a racing drone by watching with their own goggles, online, or on TV. But drone pilots typically prefer their goggles to receive standard definition video because the smaller amount of data means local wireless networks can better handle the video without any lag or delays in what the pilots see.
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IBD attended a drone racing event earlier this year to find out firsthand what the quadcopter sport is all about.
