National Geographic And YouTube Are Creating Three VR Video Projects

On December 11, the first of three virtual reality projects from YouTube and National Geographic will debut on the video platform. Called "The Okavango Experience," this VR series will take viewers through the Okavango Delta in Africa, following a NatGeo team across 1,500 miles over the course of four months. Each episode is designed to be short and easily consumed in VR.

"The Okavango Experience" is a four-part series, the first part of which will debut later this month. Each episode will be only around five minutes long and follow experts as they determine how to protect the region's rivers. Each new episode will drop weekly on Tuesday via National Geographic's YouTube channel.

Viewers will also be able to find the episodes via the Google Daydream VR mobile app and National Geographic's website. Once this series wraps up, the two companies will debut their other two VR projects, which will arrive some time next year.

The other two projects are described as virtual reality series, but no other information has been provided on them at this time. Viewers will get to enjoy them using a virtual reality headset, such as the Daydream View, on YouTube's VR platform.

YouTube is home to a growing library of virtual reality content, including a number of high-quality productions. National Geographic's Jenna Pirog indicated the company plans to work extensively with YouTube, saying, "We're looking forward to a long-term partnership with YouTube that will allow us to remain industry stewards for marrying immersive technology with impactful storytelling."