Live streaming of content has long been the domain of the leading social network operators including Facebook (FB), Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google and Twitter (TWTR) but that hasn’t stopped Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) from getting into the game.

Earlier this week the South Korean consumer electronics giant announced it inked partnerships with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, X-Games and Live Nation to stream virtual reality broadcasts of real time events via its new service VR Live Pass on the Gear VR headset.  The consumer electronics giant said the new streaming service will be available through the SamsungVR app later this month.  In a press release announcing the initiative the company said it is aiming to provide viewers with new ways to experience live entertainment without having to attend the actual event.

The push on the part of Samsung to breathe new life in to the burgeoning virtual reality headset market comes as it has been slow to take off in the U.S. While virtual reality is making its way into gaming, retail and other areas of the market, the costly price tag for VR headsets is stunting adoption among a large number of consumers. Samsung currently holds the title as the leading VR headset maker, with research firm SuperData finding in the first quarter it shipped 782,000 Gear VR headsets. Sales during the quarter were aided by a promotion in which Samsung threw in a VR headset for customers who preordered the Galaxy S8 smartphone.  The second-place VR headset vendor in the first three months of the year, at least according to SuperData, is Sony Corp. (SNE) with its PlayStation VR Headset. The research firm said Sony shipped 375,000 units while vendor Vive was in third place, shipping 95,000 units. Facebook-owned Oculus was in fourth place, shipping 64,000 units.

Despite the slow start in the U.S. there could be a big opportunity for the consumer electronics company that just last year was dealing with the costly and embarrassing recall of the Galaxy Note 7, which had a battery that was prone to catch on fire. According to International Data Corp. (IDC), by 2021 total headset device shipments are forecast to reach 99.4 million units, close to ten times more than the 10.1 million shipped last year, resulting in a compound annual growth of 58 percent over the five-year period. "2016 marked an important step for the AR and VR headset market with product finally arriving in end users' hands and on their heads," noted Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's Augmented and Virtual Reality team in a recent report. "While there was clear demand coming primarily from technology enthusiasts, what became readily apparent were the use cases for enterprise users across multiple verticals and for consumers with gaming and content consumption.”

Gaming has long been at the forefront of VR but live sporting events is also seen as an ideal venue for this advanced technology. Case in point: the Major League Baseball announced earlier this month it will launch a VR viewing experience dubbed At Bat VR for live baseball games starting June 1. It will be the first live-game sports event that is completely in virtual reality.  Last year the National Basketball Association launched a critically acclaimed virtual reality documentary covering the 2016 finals.  Retailers including eBay have been toying with the technology as is a host of media companies. VR headsets are even showing up on rides at theme parks across the country. As the price points for the headsets start to come down and more use cases start to crop up, expectations are high that it will becoming a booming business for Samsung and the other vendors.