Three weeks ago, ESPN announced that it was shuttering its all-3D sports channel. And now the BBC, which has been experimenting with 3D for programming such as Queen Elizabeth II’s annual speech and Doctor Who, says that it’s going to put it on the back burner for the next three years:
Explaining the problem, Shillinglaw told RadioTimes.com: “I have never seen a very big appetite for 3D television in the UK.
“Watching 3D is quite a hassly experience in the home. You have got to find your glasses before switching on the TV. I think when people watch TV they concentrate in a different way. When people go to the cinema they go and are used to doing one thing – I think that’s one of the reasons that take up of 3D TV has been disappointing.”
At first blush, announcing that you’re going to take a three-year break from 3D sounds like it’s tantamount to giving up altogether. And it probably is, unless new technologies such as Dolby’s glasses-free 3D make the whole idea more palatable than it is today. Even then — with all due respect to Her Majesty — it seems like there’s an awful lot of video content, on the BBC and elsewhere, which simply wouldn’t benefit from an extra dimension.