3D TV fails to attract viewers

Phir Orlins, ESPN producer, has captured and produced a number of shows in the 3D format to amuse and entertain the viewers but he has a slight problem, the number of 3D viewers is so less that he is unable to collect any statistics to measure the viewership and success of the 3D shows that he produces. The producer currently relies on social media to guess the feedback from the viewers.

Says Orlins, "The feedback on The Masters was fast and furious. You could go on Twitter at any moment, and there'd be comments coming in every minute about 3-D coverage. But then you go to some other events where it's pretty quiet."

Negligible viewership
A minute 115,000 homes in the US are watching 3-D TV at any given particular time and this number is as small as a hundredth of 20.2 million homes that were tuned in to watch 'NCIS', the highest rated show on television this week. In fact the number of 3D viewership in the US is so tiny and negligible that no significant data can be collected by The Nielson Co.

James Cameron's 'Avatar', one of the highest-grossing movies in the history of Hollywood, was seen as the pioneer of 3D revolution in the country that would lead to almost all viewers switching to 3D televisions and channels. In the race to tap this change in preferences of customers, nine 3D channels were introduced later on including ESPN.

However the expectations of 3D television producers were never met. Bryan Burns, Business Head ESPN 3D, said, "We've learned with every passing day that we were ahead of the curve further than we thought we were. We hit the on-ramp earlier than we realized at the time."

Reasons for failure of 3D
The number of 3D television sets which have made their way into American homes is far less than expected and that is cited as one of the major reason's behind 3D's television failure, even though it has garnered huge success in the field of movies being displayed in multiplexes where the 3D format is being largely welcomed by the cinegoers.

One of the major reasons behind the failure of 3D TV is the high cost of 3D capable televisions (on an average a 3D capable televisions costs $200 more than the basic ones) and high cost of technology that's required in producing 3D TV.

Tom Morrod, a TV technology analyst confirms, "There's very little direct consumer demand. They don't see a value with it. Consumers associate value right now with screen size and very few other features."

Also many people find the glasses required to view 3D uncomfortable. And then there are those who just don't like the concept of 3D. Many agree that there's still a long way to go before 3D TV can attract significant amount of viewers.