World Cup coverage has put immersive live events back in front of fans, broadcasters and rights holders. IBC Accelerators Lead Muki Kulhan says immersive live events now give the industry a practical way to test spatial audio, remote presence, AR interaction and audience participation with real audiences.
The World Cup arrived with more ways to watch than the standard broadcast.
Cosm showed over 40 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches across its shared immersive venues in Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta, including the final. DAZN built World Cup viewing features around Multiview, FanZone, AI-powered highlights and interactive viewing in Italy, Spain and Japan. The BBC rolled out it own interactive technology, advanced graphics and immersive VR experiences around its coverage.
Sports rights holders have been here before. VR broadcasts, 360 video and metaverse-style fan experiences all had earlier moments of excitement, followed by a more difficult period of adoption, access and commercial proof.
Muki Kulhan, IBC Accelerators Lead and UK Ambassador for Women in Immersive Technologies Europe, says broadcasters are now coming back to immersive live events with a more practical mindset – and they’re more determined than ever to make them work.
Muki said:
“Broadcasters and entertainment companies aren’t approaching immersive media as a standalone technology trend. They’re also looking at these formats to grow audience engagement, how people connect with content, and how they build communities around the creative IP.”
Broadcasters Want Engagement, Not Demos
Kulhan has worked in immersive and interactive media for more than 20 years. She has seen the industry move through headset experiments, real-time 3D production, early VR broadcasts and metaverse projects.
Her view is that broadcasters are less interested in proving immersive technology can work as a category. They want formats that help audiences spend more time with content, feel closer to live events and take part in a shared experience:
“A decade ago, a lot of these conversations were driven by the technology itself. It was often those of us working in immersive media trying to convince people of the potential. Today, broadcasters are much more aware of the value of engagement and they’re actively looking for new ways to create it.”
Across the IBC Accelerator Programme, Kulhan is seeing immersive media sit alongside AI-driven content creation, connectivity, audience participation and new production workflows.
“Whether it’s IFeL: Immersive Festival Live or projects looking at AI-driven content creation and engagement, the focus is increasingly on the audience experience.”
How Can Remote Fans Feel Part of a Live Event?
One of IBC2026’s immersive-focused Accelerator projects is IFeL: Immersive Festival Live.
The project is exploring how spatial experiences could let audiences in multiple locations feel connected to the same live event. Although the project is focused on festivals and live music, its findings could apply to sport, entertainment, broadcast specials and other live formats.
Muki said:
“The focus is around creating immersiveness at scale and understanding how audiences experience these moments when they’re not physically in the venue.”
The project is also looking at two-way presence. A remote fan could feel connected to the event, while people at the venue may have some form of interaction with remote participants.
For live entertainment, this could be transformative for international fan bases and people who cannot attend because of accessibility, cost or travel barriers.
IBC is testing this with real partners and audiences. Muki said proof-of-concept tests are planned at the Montreux Jazz Festival, with work also being explored around The Voice of Holland in a controlled studio environment. The project includes major broadcasters and live-event partners, including the BBC, ITV, EBU and Montreux Media Ventures.
Presence Needs More Than Better Video
Traditional livestreams still struggle to recreate the feeling of being at a live event. Higher resolution, lower latency and better cameras can help, but Kulhan argues that production quality alone can’t carry the experience:
“You can have the best production workflows in the world, but if the content isn’t there and you’re not telling a story that makes people feel something, they’ll switch off or swipe away.”
IBC’s IFeL project is examining what keeps audiences engaged, builds a sense of connection and makes a live event feel shared rather than watched through a screen.
Spatial audio is an important aspect of the project.
Muki said:
“The immersive audio side of the project is particularly strong because it’s already delivering tangible benefits to the audience experience.”
Audio carries much of the atmosphere in a live event. Crowd noise, stage position, distance, movement and room acoustics all affect whether a viewer feels close to the performance or outside it.
Kulhan said IFeL is working with audio partners including Shure and King’s College London, with proof-of-concept work showing an immediate impact on how present people feel within an experience.
AR and Smart Glasses Enter Live Entertainment
Immersive live events and media are no longer tied only to headsets.
Kulhan said some experiences are still designed for HMDs, but more content now works across desktop, tablet, phone and connected TV. That creates a wider access route for broadcasters and event owners, especially when headset ownership remains limited.
Muki explained:
“Audiences can engage with these experiences wherever they are rather than needing a specialist setup.”
Kulhan said IFeL has explored technologies including Snap Spectacles and smart glasses, with a focus on how audiences could interact with different layers of a live experience:
“For a long time, people associated immersive media with putting on a headset and entering a completely separate environment. What’s interesting now is seeing experiences become more integrated into everyday behaviours and devices that are now considered ‘normal’.”
This device mixture is commercially important for broadcasters, and key to scaling immersive live events. A headset-only product can create a strong demo and still reach too few people, but a format that reaches phones, tablets, connected TVs, smart glasses and venue screens can support a larger rights conversation.
Live Tests Will Expose the Remaining Barriers
IFeL will run proof-of-concept work at the Montreux Jazz Festival and is also exploring a controlled studio trial with The Voice of Holland. The tests will examine how real audiences respond to spatial audio, multi-perspective video, AR and interactive participation.
The trials will also confront the commercial barriers that have limited immersive live media. Expensive headsets restrict access, while hardware and software still struggle to work together across platforms and repeatable production setups.
Kulhan opined:
“There still needs to be improvement around that marriage of hardware and software,” Kulhan said. “Things need to become more agnostic, with better APIs and more interoperable workflows, so experiences are not locked into one platform or one very bespoke setup.”
Rights holders, broadcasters and event organisers will need evidence that audiences stay engaged before committing further investment. A workflow that reaches people through devices they already own will be easier to repeat across festivals, broadcasts and other live events.
Images: IBC 2026, Cosm
