Apple Vision Pro users will be able to experience select NBA games in an immersive way for the 2025-26 season, Apple announced on Friday.
Some Los Angeles Lakers matches will be in Apple Immersive video, a format specifically for the headset. The company's release states, "Viewers will feel the intensity of each game as if they were courtside, with perspectives impossible to capture in traditional broadcasts. "
A schedule of Lakers matchups that can be watched immersively will come later this fall, and the first game will stream in early 2026. They'll be filmed with a camera called the URSA Cine Immersive Live camera from Blackmagic Design, which launched earlier this year to capture Apple Immersive videos.
The immersive games will be available through the upcoming Spectrum SportsNet App for fans in the team's regional broadcast territory: Southern California, Hawaii, and parts of southern Nevada, including Las Vegas. Users must run visionOS 26 or later to experience Apple Immersive video, and a subscription to Spectrum broadband or SportsNet is required to use the SportsNet app, according to the fine print.
On both the SportsNet and NBA apps, full game replays and highlights will be available to Vision Pro users in select regions and countries. Spectrum subscribers can also watch live and replay traditional game broadcasts with the Spectrum TV app, and if you have an NBA League Pass, you can do the same on the NBA app.
Last year, Apple dropped several immersive videos for the Vision Pro, including the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.
Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Bluesky.
