Broadcast
Broadcast format issues have limited the number of 3D channels. Could a new breed of VoD services for connected devices take off with viewers?
With the 3D market caught between the rock of original content and a hard place to watch it on, some see 3D streaming as a way out of the impasse.
There are approximately 55 3D channels and demo channels around the world, plus at least another 35 VoD services offering 3D movie content, according to Futuresource Consulting. It expects that to rise by 15-20 channels and/or 3D VoD services this year, many across connected devices.
Anthony Geffen, chief executive of Flying Monsters and Life of Plants 3D producer Atlantic Productions, says: “If you are looking to finance a 3D film, you will have a problem if you rely solely on VoD, but for projections and add-on revenue, you have to take it seriously. Particularly outside Europe and the US, where 3D is limited in terms of channels, 3D VoD services make real sense.”
IHS Screen Digest senior analyst Tom Morrod says: “3D VoD will probably be an important interchange as broadcast 3D is still problematic. There isn’t a broadcast format that preserves HD quality within the same stream, is backwards compatible and doesn’t take up significantly more bandwidth. VoD gets around this by not being confined to broadcast bandwidth. It has similar capacity issues to IP or broadcast VoD transmission, but these are easier to overcome without a new broadcast format being agreed or implemented.”
With pay-TV operators such as Virgin offering a fairly limited choice of on-demand 3D movies, the charge is being led by manufacturers of 3D technology, which have a vested interest in making more content available to drive hardware sales. Samsung and Sony launched 3D VoD apps on their flagship 3D TVs last year, both primarily filled with taster material such as pop videos, movie trailers and sports highlights. Samsung recently went a step further, signing a deal with NBC Universal and other, unnamed content partners for converted 3D versions of shows such as Battlestar Galactica.
Launching soon in the US is rental service 3DGO! from Canada’s Sensio Technologies. The app will work only with devices that support the company’s Hi-Fi 3D compression technology, which so far includes Vizio 3D TVs and TCL, the leading Chinese TV brand.
“There is no sustainable, commercial 3D TV model at the moment,” says Sensio executive vice-president and chief marketing officer Richard LaBerge. “There isn’t a large enough footprint of 3D TVs and channels are mostly subsidised, with the dilemma that there is not enough content to justify consumer spend. The real deal for the next three to four years is VoD.”
3DGO! will offer about 60 titles on launch, including studio catalogue titles, concerts, sport and other events, with the door open to UK producers.
“We are looking at any good 3D content but we will reject anything poorly converted,” says LaBerge. “We have a quality-control process and converted material has to be of extremely high quality for us to accept it.”
Plans include the addition of pay-per-view 3D sport and music events through a joint venture with French music producer Séquence (see box).
Mobile streaming
Meanwhile, 3D display manufacturer MasterImage 3D is readying its own content portal for launch in the second half of this year, offering streaming to mobile devices in conjunction, it says, with a major consumer electronics brand. National Geographic and Red Bull Media are lined up to supply the content.
“We are talking to the studios as well,” says display executive vice-president Roy Taylor. “We’d love to be more engaged in Europe. We are already working with Orange and we are reaching out to Sky.”
Taylor says MasterImage 3D is talking to big manufacturers about launching in the autumn. “They are actively pushing me to make connections in Europe about 3D content.”
MasterImage’s business is in auto-stereoscopic display technology for smartphones, tablets, in-car and in-flight systems. But the portal will work only with hardware that has integrated its technology.
“Ideally, we would only build and deliver screens, but 3D is so new, we have to be involved in the whole ecosystem and help to solve the commercialisation of mobile 3D devices,” Taylor says. “You can’t just offer consumers a movie and a game at purchase. They want a continued pipeline of content.”
He says the service could be expanded onto 3D TVs – however, “our launch strategy, as a mobile 3D product, is to help seed that business opportunity. We see glasses-free mobile devices as the vehicle to bring 3D content into the home.”
Another Canadian firm, Spatial View, launched one of the first 3D streaming stores, 3DeeCentral, last year. It has since largely divested its core business in manufacturing 3D auto-stereoscopic displays to concentrate on its library of 200 eclectic indie 3D titles, which include a concert by Peter Gabriel (below).
Spatial View continues to produce overlays for 3D handsets and laptops that can turn, for example, an iPhone 4 into a glasses-free 3D viewing device. “As a complement to these products, and to stimulate adoption of 3D in the market, we needed to provide content for people to buy,” says Spatial View chief operating officer Al Lopez.
Paul Berrow, chief executive of Log Media, believes the penetration of 3D-enabled smartphones and tablets will have “a profound effect on the appetite of the younger audience, and for good reason – it’s a great viewing experience. When you can choose between HD 2D or HD 3D to watch extreme sports, for example, the 3D experience on these devices is far better. The only thing really holding back the boom is the necessity to wear glasses.”
By most accounts, the 3D industry is in a slump and likely to remain there until a critical mass of displays reaches the market. But while the content market is tough, few think it is going to die out.
The installed base of 3D-capable households will grow significantly over the next five years as new TVs will come with 3D as standard, says Futuresource. Approximately 800,000 (3%) of UK households will own a 3D TV by the end of 2012, and by 2015, close to half of all households are expected to be 3D capable.
“Since the end of 2011, the industry has been in a chasm,” says LaBerge. “The dilemma is that there is not enough content to justify consumer spend. The fact that the first generation of 3D TVs used expensive shutter glasses did not help, and then there is the inconvenience of using 3D – for example, it can be complicated for the user to switch between 2D and 3D channels.
“However, the industry will begin to see improvement in the volume, quality and monetisation of content as the footprint of 3D TV sets grows in 2013.”
CASE STUDY
SENSIO/SÉQUENCE LIVE MUSIC DEAL
A series of live 3D events is to be broadcast from Paris in a joint venture between Montreal’s Sensio Technologies and French music production specialist Séquence SDP.
The live 3D concerts will be screened in Sensio’s network of around 900 cinemas worldwide, and will later be available via the 3DGO! VoD app.
Sensio apparently has the backing of a major record label but won’t divulge which one. Confirmation of the first concert artist is pending.
“We are following the same model as the successful live-to-cinema transmissions of performances from the Met Opera,” explains executive vice-president Richard LaBerge. “Unlike sport, where much of the value lies in watching live, concerts lend themselves to time delay and VoD, so you can generate more revenue from the same production.
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