Photo: BMW
2022 will go down in history for several things, but football (read soccer) fans will remember it for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It was a competition like no other of its kind in history, held in December for the first time ever, with games subject to extremely lengthy extra times, and dominated by perhaps the strictest enforcement of video assistant referee (VAR) rules ever. It was also a lot of fun and won by Argentina.
As it usually happens in the aftermath of such an event, soccer fans must feel a bit depressed right now. The World Cup is, after all, the pinnacle of this sport and not easily replaced. True, other major events, like say the final stages of the UEFA Champions League, are close, but still far enough not to make any difference.
That’s why BMW’s latest announcement must come like a breath of fresh air for soccer-hungry fans, at least for the ones living in Germany and driving (or planning to) the new BMW 7 Series: they will soon have access to Bundesliga football content right inside their cars.
Bundesliga is what Germany’s top soccer league is called, and it sees great names of the sport like FC Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, or Eintracht Frankfurt fight for glory, money and fans. To give you an idea of how important this is for the locals, keep in mind some 1.17 million people tuned in to Bayern’s games alone in the 2019 – 2020 season.
Thanks to what it calls an international pilot app, BMW will now bring things like selected live content, highlight formats, and match data to 7 Series owners right inside the car. Not the full, live games, it seems, but enough info to keep fans in the loop with what’s going on.
The feature makes use of a new BMW Curved Display app that’ll be delivered over-the-air to the new BMW 7 Series at a yet undisclosed time, but probably in the near future. It will at first only be available for customers located in Germany, but the carmaker says other markets, including ones in Europe, America and Asia, are being considered for future rollout.
More importantly, future Bimmers, other than the 7 Series, might get the app as well, provided BMW is satisfied with how things play out until the pilot program ends at the end of March 2024.
As with any app that requires drivers to take their eyes off the road, this one too will mostly work only when the car is stationary. There are some app features though, like say audio streaming of various Bundesliga content, which will work even when the car is on the move.
The app requires an activated Personal eSIM, which will give drivers high-speed 5G access to the data they require. Other than that, BMW did not say whether it or Bundesliga reps will be charging anything for access to the app’s content.
That’s why BMW’s latest announcement must come like a breath of fresh air for soccer-hungry fans, at least for the ones living in Germany and driving (or planning to) the new BMW 7 Series: they will soon have access to Bundesliga football content right inside their cars.
Bundesliga is what Germany’s top soccer league is called, and it sees great names of the sport like FC Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, or Eintracht Frankfurt fight for glory, money and fans. To give you an idea of how important this is for the locals, keep in mind some 1.17 million people tuned in to Bayern’s games alone in the 2019 – 2020 season.
Thanks to what it calls an international pilot app, BMW will now bring things like selected live content, highlight formats, and match data to 7 Series owners right inside the car. Not the full, live games, it seems, but enough info to keep fans in the loop with what’s going on.
The feature makes use of a new BMW Curved Display app that’ll be delivered over-the-air to the new BMW 7 Series at a yet undisclosed time, but probably in the near future. It will at first only be available for customers located in Germany, but the carmaker says other markets, including ones in Europe, America and Asia, are being considered for future rollout.
More importantly, future Bimmers, other than the 7 Series, might get the app as well, provided BMW is satisfied with how things play out until the pilot program ends at the end of March 2024.
As with any app that requires drivers to take their eyes off the road, this one too will mostly work only when the car is stationary. There are some app features though, like say audio streaming of various Bundesliga content, which will work even when the car is on the move.
The app requires an activated Personal eSIM, which will give drivers high-speed 5G access to the data they require. Other than that, BMW did not say whether it or Bundesliga reps will be charging anything for access to the app’s content.
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