NextVR, which broadcast a Democratic debate and the NBA opener in VR, gets $30M from Comcast, TWC, and others in round led by Formation 8
Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
This $30M round led by Formation 8 is the opening move of a five-year arc that ends with Apple buying the company outright: NextVR parlayed early marquee live VR broadcasts — a Democratic debate and the NBA season opener — into an $80M Series B in 2016 to expand internationally, then signed an five-year Live Nation deal to stream concerts in VR.
The investor list matters as much as the size: Comcast and Time Warner Cable taking equity positions signals cable distributors wanted a seat at live VR delivery, mirroring how rival startup Vrse/Within raised from Fox, WME, and Vice months later. The endgame for this cohort of well-funded VR broadcast startups was consolidation — Verizon absorbed Jaunt's assets while Apple picked up NextVR itself.
First-order effects
- Comcast and Time Warner Cable now hold stakes in a company whose live VR pipeline already runs through their potential subscriber base, giving them optionality on VR distribution without building capture technology themselves.
- Formation 8's lead gives NextVR fresh capital to scale beyond the two proof-of-concept broadcasts that made its name.
Second-order effects
- Media strategics reading this round respond in kind: Within's $12.56M raise backed by Fox, WME, and Vice shows entertainment incumbents hedging across multiple live/content VR bets rather than backing one winner.
- Live-event owners become the scarce resource — NextVR's subsequent Live Nation concert deal shows rights holders monetizing exclusive VR broadcast windows once funded platforms come calling.
Third-order effects
- Strategic-media-funded VR startups are structurally acquisition targets rather than standalone businesses: NextVR ends up inside Apple for a reported ~$100M, and Jaunt — which raised $100M from Disney and GV — sells its software assets to Verizon and pivots to AR, suggesting standalone live VR never reached independent economics.
- For cable operators like Comcast, the pattern points to owning stakes in content technology rather than building it, treating VR broadcast capability as portfolio insurance against shifts in how live events reach viewers.
The trend: Live VR broadcasting attracted strategic money from media and cable players through the mid-2010s, but the funded startups ultimately exited into larger acquirers or pivoted rather than standing alone.