On Wednesday, ESPN announced a partnership with the International Drone Racing Association (IDRA) to stream drone races online and use the footage in edited TV segments.

The multiyear contract will kick off with IDRA’s US National Drone Racing Championships in New York City in August. The three-day event will be streamed live on ESPN3, and then footage will be edited down to a one-hour special to air on one of ESPN’s TV networks. In a joint press release, IDRA and the sports network said they would be streaming first-person-view footage from the racing drones, "offering jaw-dropping views of both lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.“

Drone operators in first-person-view drone races wear goggles that show them a stream from a camera on the front of the drone. The drone operator must navigate their drone through the race's course, and the winning drone is the one that completes the course the fastest.

ESPN will also carry the 2016 World Drone Racing Championships, which will be in Hawaii this October.

"Drone racing is currently seeing an unprecedented rise in popularity and is poised to become the next behemoth racing sport alongside NASCAR and Formula 1,” the press release said. While it remains to be seen whether drone racing can command the fandom of those latter sports, drone racing has seen a surge in interest in recent years. Ars UK’s Sebastian Anthony tried drone racing in January and found it pretty difficult, despite how easy it looks in the YouTube videos.