There is still considerable debate about how people will consume 3DTV and whether it is going to be an appointment-to-view experience or something we switch on and watch for hours on end, as we do with ordinary television, expecting all our favourite shows to be shown in 3D. We asked eventIS whether VOD is the natural early home for 3DTV. Harry Koiter, Vice President of Business Development for eventIS (the SeaChange International subsidiary) provides the answers.
Q: Is 3DTV likely to be an appointment-to-view kind of service that suits delivery as VOD?
A: VOD is better suited than linear broadcast for 3D as most of the top studios that already distribute on-demand are now producing 3D content in addition to HD. Also 3D content can be targeted to devices that actually support 3D. Linear programming is still very fragmented and mainly based around sports events, so filling a complete linear channel schedule with 3D content would be quite challenging for programmers. Next to that, VOD is much more in line with the increasingly personalized family living room experience. A potential drawback to 3D VOD could be the prohibitive cost of active 3D glasses, but this will be solved when passive 3D becomes mainstream.
Q: How much of the market for 3DTV is likely to be on-demand content?
A: The addressable market for 3D VOD content is going to be substantial. The key is that all of the major studios and television networks that provide the vast majority of the most popular movies and programmes for today’s widespread on-demand services are already beginning to produce 3D content, so in the long run there can be a big upside for service providers to attract subscribers to on-demand services more often with further variety.
Q: Could platform operators without VOD (i.e. satellite) deliver 3DTV as push-VOD or other kinds of download (perhaps even through broadband VOD delivery into PVRs)?
A: There is no reason why this would not work technically as 3D does not dramatically increase bandwidth and storage requirements. A potential business issue could arise if studios do not allow rights for downloading 3D premium content. Ultimately, one key requirement for efficiently downloading true-resolution 3D will be to move to MPEG-4 delivery.
via Videonet