Last week, Sony announced it is to roll out 3D technology to its TVs, laptops, DVD players and PlayStations by the end of next year. And Sky is also launching the UK's first 3D TV channel in 2010, following the achievement of a tipping point in take-up of its HD TV offerings.
This week's feature analyses whether 3D TV is about to become the next big thing in television and what we can learn from the HD experience from an advertising and broadcasting point of view.
Sky News is soon to become the broadcaster's 34th HD channel and there are now 1.31 million Sky+ set-top boxes capable of serving HD in homes throughout the UK, although there are actually nine million HD-ready TVs. Virgin also has an HD service through its V+ HD box and so does the BBC and ITV via Freesat.
Current 3D technology requires viewers to don special glasses, which I can't help feeling will hold back universal appeal of 3D viewing after the novelty has worn off. But lenticular screens that don't involve glasses-wearing are being developed and could make the new format fly.
Sadly, when Sky put its HD offering together it "forgot" about advertising and any HD ads so far have had to be attached to the broadcast content stream, because the stream that sends ad content isn't HD-enabled. So an ad campaign such as the Ford Mondeo activity that won one of Thinkbox/Media Week's TV Planning Awards last year was a hybrid affair by necessity.
It will take an investment of a few hundred thousand pounds to make the ad stream HD-compliant and I understand moves are afoot at Osterley to make this happen. In terms of 3D, there will be no oversights this time and 3D ad serving is very much built in to Sky's 2010 launch from the start.
Eighteen months ago, everyone was sceptical about whether HD would take off - but it is now becoming ubiquitous. If lenticular sets remove the need for silly glasses, I can see exciting 3D possibilities ahead for broadcasters, advertisers and viewers starting at the end of next year.
