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ESPN 3D at the World Cup- Watch Sports Like Never Before

June 14, 2010

ESPN goes 3D

Hollywood, Calif. (RPRN) 06/14/10 — By Jacque Loewy –

ESPN officially launched their 3D cable and satellite channel on Friday after announcing in January plans to broadcast the World Cup tournament in 3D. Over the past few months the sports network has been building up hype for 3D even demoing its effectiveness at this year’s USC vs. Ohio State game.

However, ratings for the channel may come down to a simple case of supply vs. demand. ESPN 3D is scheduled to air 25 matches throughout the tournament including the final on July 11th. Whether or not there will be an audience to see it is a different story. US World Cup viewership has increased steadily. In 2002, 70 million Americans watched on ESPN and ABC. Viewership increased to 78 million in 2006. However, with so few households sporting 3D TV’s (fewer than 1 million according to CEA) and very few service providers namely Direct TV and Comcast set to stream 3D/HD for the World Cup the question arises whether or not ESPN has outperformed itself. When asked about ESPN’s

3D TV

intentions and expectations with 3D, the networks executive vice president for content John Skipper commented “3D for us is about leadership on technology and about learning how to produce. Viewership will follow.” At the moment ESPN has a monopoly on 3D broadcasting and plans to cover 85 sporting events this year including the MLB Home run Derby next month.

For now, the only way to effectively use a 3D TV to its full potential is to watch big sporting events on a 3D channel with 3D glasses. Is this too tedious of a process to follow in order to watch a game? With the final match scheduled for July 11th and expected to exceed the 715 million people who watched in 2006, only time will tell if 3D lives up to the success of HD released 7 years ago by ESPN.

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