Harvey Norman, Channel Nine and TV vendors like Samsung, are set to take a big punt this week on the future of 3D TV technology despite their being little 3D content available for viewing other than sporting content put to air on temporary spectrum.
The much hyped 3D coverage of the upcoming State Of Origin NRL series and next month the FIFA World Cup will go to air via temporary test spectrum made available by the Federal Government. Future 3D spectrum will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Backing the State Of Origin Series is Harvey Norman Chief Executive, Katie Page, who also sits on the board of the NRL. Page who made a visit last year to Korean courtesy of Samsung is determined to position her retail store as the place to buy 3D TVs”.
The close relationship between Samsung and Harvey Norman has already upset several retailers with one major retailer telling ChannelNews that they have been denied access to stock because of Harvey Norman’s close relationship with the NRL and the benefits it will deliver for Samsung.
“3D is new and for Samsung to align themselves with Harvey Norman at the expense of other retailers like ourselves is a high risk, because when they want our support we will be working with other brands like Sony and Panasonic. We already know that Panasonic has a superior offering to Samsung so the second half will be interesting especially when these two brands start going to market,” the CEO of a major chain said this month.
This week, Nine will show the first of three State Of Origin games, with the $3 million in costs to cover the event being funded by Harvey Norman and Nine. They are also importing 3D production gear from the USA along with 17 people from 3ality Digital, a US company that specialises in 3D broadcasts and production.
During the past six weeks, Samsung is believed to have sold 3,000 3D TV packages at prices ranging from $2,995 to $4,995. They expect to sell double this during the seven week State Of Origin Series.
Kate Page said recently, “in Australia we reckon that 3D will be 20 percent of the market next year. We are begging the manufacturers to divert as much stock as they can to us. This is the most incredible thing since plasma”.
Of her trip to Korea as a guest of Samsung, Page told the Financial Review “Samsung rang me and said you have to come to Korean and watch this (3D) I was very ho hum because I had seen a lot of 3D movies in the past and hated them”.
Page believes that the unlock key to the success of 3D in Australia will be sport.
“Sport will drive this. It will introduce people to new games be it tennis, golf or league because it is so much more exciting watching it in 3D”. Page said.
“The content is coming. All the major sporting codes have factored in 3D including cricket and soccer. Avatar was the big mover and shaker …people saw it and said we want it”.
Not everyone is convinced that 3D will take off because of a few broadcasts on temporary spectrum. David Leckie the CEO of Seven claims that the price of a 3D TV now is expensive. He believes that the price of the TV glasses and a 3D Blu-ray player will drop significantly during the next 12 months.
The Economist Magazine in the UK wrote recently, although shooting an action film in three dimensions costs more because of the higher price of computer-generated imagery, shooting a tennis match or a comedy is no more expensive. It costs only a little more to build an active 3D set than a high-end HDTV set, says Woo Hyun Paik of LG Electronics. There is no need for a special set-top box. And consumers in focus groups say they are prepared to pay more for 3D. So what’s not to like?
A trickle of three-dimensional films appeared in 2009. This year Hollywood is releasing a rivulet of about 20 films to cinemas. Even if a TV network bought the rights to every modern 3D film released until the end of this year it would still end up with less than a month’s worth of prime-time viewing. Other content, including World Cup football games, has been promised, but there is not nearly enough to fill the channels that are popping up.
And 3D content can vary drastically in appearance. “Avatar”, a science-fiction film that has scooped up $2.7 billion in box-office sales, uses the additional depth provided by the third dimension in a refined, subtle way. Not so “My Bloody Valentine 3D”, which ramps it up for shock value. Televised sport, with its abrupt cuts from wide to tight shots, is a different visual experience again. Ad breaks may prove even more disorienting as they switch between two and three dimensions.
