ESPN is taking stock in Executive Vice President of Technology Chuck Pagano’s gut feeling that live 3-D HD broadcasts will drive market success and keep the broadcaster ahead of the curve.
    Earlier this year, the broadcaster announced that it would launch the ESPN 3D channel, showcasing a minimum of 85 live sporting events during its first year, beginning with the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match June 11 between South Africa and Mexico.
    In an interview with NAB E-daily, Pagano discussed the company’s launch strategy and why he believes the consumer market will be “captivated” by the new technology.

Pagano: Our plans for 3-D were motivated by wanting to serve our sports fans. They have a very high index of adapting to new technologies, faster than normal viewers. We made a decision based on our belief that people will be buying 3-D TV sets and there were around 100 different 3-D TV models shown at CES this year. Our first-year strategy is doing 85 events, rather than a channel, on our own 3-D network. The events will be sent to cable, satellite and telco distributors, with which we are in active discussions with on this project.

Pagano: We don’t know what the appetite for 3-D will be, but we know that there will be an appetite. My gut feeling is that this will be successful. I don’t have any quantitative studies to back this up, but there are going to be people buying these TV sets, regardless of whether we want it or not. I’ll bet you in three years every new TV set will have 3-D embedded into it. It is no different from HD in that sense.

Pagano: Last year I was surprised about how quickly 1080 progressive full HD was announced and pushed. That caught me off guard. I knew that last year they were showing 3-D behind the scenes. It is now one of the variables of the evolution within this business. The technology is changing fast. You have to be ready. This is more an evolution of the disruptive nature of what HD did to the TV space. This is an evolution of where HD is going. You are going to see lots of recorded content in 3-D, live material in 3-D. The common denominator is that everyone appears to be excited by the whole process. It will play an increasing role in the games space. I saw a 3-D baseball game at CES and it just blew me away. I thought it was a real baseball game for a minute.

Pagano: I don’t see the glass issue as an issue, especially for live events. That is why we are looking at events, rather than a 24-hour channel, I don’t think people are going to want to sit and watch every show in 3-D. We feel the event will drive the desire for people to wear these glasses and experiences these events. They will go back to 2-D television afterwards. The younger people who I talk to grew up in the video gaming world and they are conditioned to wearing glasses. I think where 3-D really takes off is when they are able to deploy direct-view monitors and screens. Some of the conversations I had at CES seemed to indicate you could see these in five years or so, but they were probably saying that about 3-D TVs last year. Who knows how quick it will be? I saw some behind the scenes prototypes of direc-view sets. They are intriguing and they are getting there. Philips had one a couple of years ago. I think there could be some real good developments in this area.