NEW ORLEANS – Even though 3DTV has hit a bunch of potholes along the way, ESPN doesn’t have any regrets about rolling out its new 3D network in the U.S. last year, well ahead of just about every other major TV programmer.
So says Bryan Burns, VP of Strategic Business Planning and Development for the sports programmer. Speaking during a TelcoTV session here last week, Burns said ESPN officials still believe strongly that consumers will welcome 3DTV technology into their homes over the next few years.
Making one of the conference’s keynote addresses, Burns harkened back to ESPN's earlier experience with HDTV, another advanced video technology that it embraced before most other TV programmers. He noted that some observers questioned ESPN's bold decision to plunge into HD nine years ago, when HDTV sets were in scarcely few American homes. Now, he noted, roughly 70% of U.S. TV households own at least one HD set. Further, he said, 51 million pay TV homes now have access to ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD, while the two ESPN HD networks have doubled their daily audience over the past two years.
"We love to go first when technology allows us to serve sports fans," Burns said, expressing faith that 3DTV will follow an adoption pattern similar to HDTV’s. He cited a forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers International predicting that 20% of U.S. homes will have 3D-capable sets by 2015. "We do this because we love to lead," Burns said. "New technology seeks out sports, and with 3D it's happening again."
(Ed note: It’s worth saying that other research shows consumers are more interested in Internet-connected, smart TVs over 3D sets.)
Indeed, Burns argued that the number of homes with 3D-capable TVs will actually rise faster than the number of HD homes did. He pointed out that the cost differential between an HD set and an HD set with the extra 3D capabilities is "modest" – just a couple of hundred of dollars and dropping. He also noted that the HD set-tops already deployed can carry ESPN 3D's signal without needing any extra equipment from the service provider.
The ESPN executive did acknowledge that 3DTV's early sales momentum has stalled somewhat after all of last year’s big the sales hype. Such major service providers as AT&T, for instance, have already questioned the value of the current HDTV service available.
Burns pointed out that at least some of 3DTV’s problems are happening at the retail level, not on the programming level. Discussing a recent visit to a major consumer electronics store, he said he felt thrilled to find more than 20 3D-capable TV models out on the floor. But he also felt discouraged that just one out of three 3DTV demos actually worked, which indicates a major hurdle for a "seeing is believing" technology to clear.
Looking at the bigger picture, Burns observed that 3D is just one piece of the "real digital transition" that the TV industry is undergoing. Citing multi-screen video as another major piece, he said ESPN is tackling that piece with its Watch ESPN app for PCs, mobile phones and tablets. He argued that this kind of authenticated approach "reinforces the power of the TV subscription."
Alan Breznick is a Toronto-based senior analyst at Heavy Reading, part of the Light Reading Communications Network at UBM TechWeb and was in New Orleans last week to cover the Telco TV conference for Cartt.ca.
