Sky Sticking with D

(11/07/2013) While there's plenty of bad news around for 3D-TV, with ESPN and the BBC saying that they will not be making any new 3D investments once their current projects are completed, BSkyB is staying loyal to the technology.

BSkyB's 3D director, , in a blog, reaffirms Sky's commitment to 3D arguing that progress while not quite what the industry had hoped was still being made. As of last week, more than half a million BSkyB TV customers had signed up to watch 3D, bringing to a close our strongest quarter of growth to date, Cassy says.

Certainly the ongoing economic downturn has meant that households are tightening their belts, and people have upgraded their TV sets to 3D at a slower rate than the industry first forecast, said Cassy in his note. Some potential viewers may have also delayed experiencing 3D, preferring to wait for new technologies, which mean they don't have to wear glasses.

Our experience of 3D TV has been far more positive despite these challenges, he said. First up, 3D has been a great way of helping our customers get move value from their Sky subscription by providing a unique, immersive 3D experience at home for no additional cost, he argued. This is because unlike some other providers of 3D programming, in the UK or US we are a platform operator as well as a content producer. This means that a significant proportion of the value of providing great TV in 3D lies in how it helps attract new customers to join Sky and in how it provides another reason for existing customers to stay with Sky.

This is true, and the fact that Sky's investment in 3D can be amortised over ordinary' HD broadcasting must help in the cost per hour' argument associated with production budgets.

Second, he quoted research that indicates Sky's 3D viewers are among the company's most satisfied customers, with sports, movies and natural history their favourite genres. That's why those areas big event TV are our focus moving forward, Cassy argued.

He said that Sky would continue to work with Hollywood on 3D movies and would continue to deliver high-quality 3D material to homes.

He added that in his conversations with the display industry he expected high-quality 3D displays to be widely available for viewing without glasses in 2-4 years time and at prices not dissimilar to today's HD and 3D sets.

copyrighted by liveProduction.tv The future of Sky 3D

Sky 3D has been the UKs only dedicated 3D television channel since its launch in 2010 and TechRadar caught up with Sky 3D head as Formula 1 was given the 3D treatment in a one-off experiment.

Cassy - a former journalist who previously headed up Sky Arts - talked extensively about the progress of 3D, the coming of UHD television and the growing role of on-demand.

Can you update us on how Sky 3D has progressed since its launch a few years ago?

Cassy: Were in very good shape really. We went on air in October 2010 and since then we have grown very well, if you look at where the launch of HD was at this stage in its life, were not far away. If you were to speculate at the number of homes that have 3D, the figure that often surfaces [400k] is about right.

And how many of those homes are actually watching 3D?

Cassy: Its driven by events as much as anything. Weve evolved our strategy to focus on the key events so, as an example, Sunday [had] F1 testing, then over to the North London derby and then Got to Dance - the Sky Ones reality show - thats three different big shows, all live and all in 3D.

And all different audiences as well, wed imagine.

Cassy: They are distinctive enough. Movies are one of the other key areas and weve had a series of landmark documentaries voiced by Sir David Attenborough like the Penguin King, Meerkats 3D and Galapagos 3D. The latter did very well for us in 3D and its one of the special treats.

Its value add for your audience as much as anything, isnt it?

Cassy: The thing is, at Sky we are very aware that people choose if they want to be one of our customers, and weve got to basically make sure we are always giving them value and 3D is one of a number of ways we can give them value. When we talk to them they love the 3D experience and they would like the chance to see something in a completely different way; Formula 1 is another illustration of this.

What does the addition of Formula 1 bring for the sport and for the technology?

Cassy: The Formula is very much a one-off, its a chance to do something we are all very excited to try. Formula 1 management have been great in enabling this to happen. Im interested to see it myself. What weve done in 3D is we have tried to pick out the big interesting events, like the Ryder Cup where we partnered with Cameron Pace, James Camerons company. We did a few days of coverage there and, not only is golf amazing in 3D, but the Europeans staged one of the greatest comebacks ever. We hope that [Formula 1 in 3D] will offer an interesting new way of watching.

copyrighted by liveProduction.tv One of the big trends in the last few years is 4K and Ultra HD. Sky was a pioneer of HD and 3D in the UK, can we expect to see that kind of step up to UHD?

Cassy: From our point of view, Sky always has been, and we hope always will be, at the front of TV innovation in the UK. If you look at what drives TV development, its better picture and better sound, so we went from silent and black-and-white, to sound and black-and-white, to colour, to digital, to HD and now 3D and so there will be future technologies. We have a watching brief on Ultra HD and 4K. Actually what we have been doing, the Attenborough shows have all been filmed in 4K - and in some cases 5K - so they have been captured and future-proofed in a sense, as far as we can. But were playing around with it.

And UHD obviously has some real benefits for 3D as w

LINK:	http://www.live-production.tv/news/3d-4k-arising/sky-sticking-3d.html...
	See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines