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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Is 3D TV A Thing Of The Past?

I have frankly never been a fan of 3D, whether in the movies or TV.  Perhaps it is because I have never liked the glasses or found the effects to improve the story.  And why wear glasses if you don't need them.  (I hold that same judgment for Google Glass).  So it appears that I am not alone and for 3D TV, the end is near.  ESPN has announced that their channel, ESPN 3D will disappear by the end of this year.  "Viewer demand aside, adoption among cable providers was also mixed; Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS have all carried ESPN 3D at various points. AT&T, however, pulled the plug in 2011, claiming the high costs of carrying the channel were outweighed by low demand."  And so lets expect that other 3D channels, if there are any, are soon to end as well.  Not surprising since TV manufacturers have been also moving away from producing 3D TV sets.

Where 3D interest has declined, web streaming interest has skyrocketed.  Recent reports have cable operators putting requirements into their programming carriage agreements to limit the rise of streaming network services like Aereo, Intel Media, and a possibler Apple TV service.   Concerning too for TV manufacturers building connected TV sets to easily play web based programming.  3D may be dead, but the battle for streaming media is alive and well.