With Cameron’s Avatar raking in over $1 Billion, and just about every big-budget film coming out in the next year getting the “3D treatment”, it only makes sense that three large companies would decide to partner up so that America would have that technology in their homes, 24/7.
It looks like that’s exactly the case here, as Sony, IMAX, and Discovery announced this morning that they will be developing a 24 hour channel that will broadcast in high-quality 3D. From the New York Times:
Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, TLC and other cable channels, will distribute the channel, which has a 2011 start date. It is expected to showcase a mix of 3-D content, including entertainment and sports. It will also show some of the natural history programming for which Discovery is well known.
Companies like Discovery, Imax, Sony and the Walt Disney Company, which controls ESPN, are trying to place themselves at the forefront of an emerging technology, much as media companies did in the HDTV arms race. 3-D televisions may not be mainstream for many years, but “every TV manufacturer is putting on a 3-D push,” Jason Oxman, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC.
Word also came through this morning that ESPN is planning the same deal in starting “ESPN 3D” in June 2010. The channel would show more than 85 live 3D events the first year, but will only operate in 3D during those events. The Discovery/IMAX/Sony channel will be a full 24-hour channel.
Given the amount of money and promotional backing invested here, this could very well be the future of home entertainment. Hard to believe that 3D was considered a “dead gimmick” for so many years. Next up: Smell-o-vision for the Food Network?
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