On Thursday, Facebook unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a free app for users of its Oculus Quest 2 headset, a device that starts at $299. For those who don't think Zoom meetings are a good enough substitute for the real thing, Facebook has another idea: a virtual reality app that lets you and your coworkers feel like you're sitting around a table in a conference room. Coordination and synchronization are critical in this sense.Facebook has launched its beta version of its virtual meeting rooms, called "Horizon Workrooms." The people in charge of the league, the team owners, the people of the association, the people in charge of youth football, ministers of the government, they were all in one room, talking about how to build Saudi football together. What really impresses me about Saudi football is that everyone took part in the meetings we had there. Every league needs a long-term vision, to show ambition, and to increase value. We need to create a system in which the teams receive proper training, adopt new technologies, and invest in their future. There is interest and it is not just because of one player. At the moment the league is also broadcast everywhere in the world - which is a great step forward. There is no element here of rebuilding a league in a saturated market. There is an audience, there is a tradition, the numbers of social media are very large, and there is an infrastructure to build on. It is one of the strongest leagues in the Middle East and we have seen the Saudi national team compete well in the World Cup and Al-Hilal succeed in the Club World Cup. "Saudi Arabia has very deep rooted football. Passive watching of games is no longer a thing." They talk to friends during the game, they have a tablet for data, they play or bet during the game. People watch the game with another screen in front of them. And I'm sure that It will also come to sports because today sports are on a TV screen, but not only. You are constantly comparing yourself to other people, you are constantly in conversation with friends, you make decisions. Today gaming is no longer a person sitting alone in front of the screen. You can play in front of hundreds of thousands on your Twitch channel, and you can watch gaming with a community around you. I think we need to understand that for the young people, consuming a sports event will be a bit like gaming. There are some companies in Hype that are doing fascinating work in this space. You can wrap yourself in the content, you can choose the data you want on the screen, you can choose different viewing angles, how you talk and with whom during the game. I, for example, like the idea of consuming sports content through VR (virtual reality). "One of the reasons I like Hype's work is that I discover a lot of inventions and creative people. Rupert Murdoch said that people come to cable for sports and movies, but there is always a search for the most appropriate model." In any case, their approach is very different from the approach of a media company which sees sports as a necessity for the future of the company. YouTube signed an agreement with the NFL to bring more content to YouTube TV, which is a new product and everything will be based on revenue sharing with the NFL. For example, Apple paid money to the MLS for the purpose of testing things related to their content model. In any case, every entry of theirs into the world of sports is for the purpose of testing the terrain. Content is the way to adopt these tools, but not all content is suitable. Facebook and Apple and other tech giants see themselves as providing tools, not as providing content. Sports are good at making people adopt new technologies and Facebook does not need that. "In the past it was thought that Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon and others would enter the world of broadcast rights with all their might, but I think they have a strong enough economic model even without broadcasting sports.
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