Discovery VR

Discovery VR

Discovery VR

On Thursday, Discovery Communications, the parent company of the Discovery Channel, launched Discovery VR, an all-virtual-reality network of videos.

On Discovery VR's website you'll find 360° videos that can be viewed through a browser, on iOS or Android, or through Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR. Discovery VR says that support for the Oculus Rift is coming soon.

Currently the platform has three Mythbusters shark dive videos and clips from the network's shows Gold Rush and Survivorman. There are also four shows that are less brand-based. In one, skateboarders tackle San Francisco's windy Lombard Street, and in another, a pro surfer gives a five-minute surf lesson. Or, you can simply take a walk through a Pacific Coast beach or through California's iconic Muir Woods.

The videos average three to five minutes in length, and none serves up any advertising (at the moment).

Discovery Communication Inc.'s senior vice president of digital media, Conal Byrne, told the Associated Press that the company is still experimenting with how best to serve VR video. "It needs to be repeated that we're experimenting a lot," Byrne told the AP. "There are borders and boundaries that we're really going to try to push." The network added that it will be releasing new videos on the Discovery VR platform every week for “at least” the next 12 months.

With Oculus Rift's highly anticipated consumer debut on the horizon (the set is expected in early 2016), and with largely positive reviews of the latest versions of VR headsets like Samsung Gear VR, and HTC and Valve's Vive headset, creating media that isn't just about gaming is critical to seeing if these headsets will have mass-market appeal. Facebook's purchase of Oculus Rift suggests that VR systems could have some social media feature, but so far, no killer social media application has made itself clear just yet.

Discovery Communications is partially owned by Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica's parent company, Condé Nast.