ESPN Shutting Down ESPN3D Channel At Year's End

[Captnhowdy]

There are 3D TV's that do not require glasses at all. http://www.news.com.au/technology/w...on-sale-in-japan/story-e6frfro0-1225975346772

 

[WickedOrange]

As a market researcher, I cannot fathom the market sizing or usability testing that happened here. Either it was the crappiest work ever or it never happened. The following are what common sense would have said before any money was spent on research:

-people don't watch TV without changing channels and/or without also looking at their phone/tablet (neither of those things are comfortably done with the glasses)
-the share of people with 3Dtvs is incredibly small
-the share of people with highest end tv packages is incredibly small
-the share of content that lends itself to 3D is incredibly small, even for those cool with 3D
-those shares are wittled down tremendously by normal behavioral inertia (people want to do things the way they've happily done them forever)

So there's your baseline. How the heck does a business case get built? Did they project adoption out x years? Did a tv manufacturer actually back the whole thing?

their stupid phone idea was 100x more defensible than this, because they could at least say "x percent of men already follow sports via their phone" and "y% of phone usage by men is for sports purposes." 3D doesn't have any of that data to fall back on.

I'm pretty sure the tv makers were betting on porn.

3D Porn: producers losing interest

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January 27th, 2012 at 8:48 am - Author​

Simon
3D in theory sounds like it would make a lot of sense. After all people could enjoy the material in a more ‘realistic’ manner, right? Producers don’t seem to think so. One of the adult industries top executives spoke out at the recent AEE show saying that many organisations are less interested in creating 3D porn movies, with plans already being scaled back.
A report shows that Vivid Entertainment have changed their mind about releasing ‘Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody’ in 3D because of the costs in creating the 500 plus special effects. The company said that it just didn’t make financial sense.
Pink Visual president Allison Vivas also shared her concerns saying that a living room, where a 3D enabled TV would be installed, wouldn’t be the ideal place to view the material. She said “the things that can come at you” (in 3-D porn) “are the things that a male viewer does not want coming at them.” Maybe she has a point.

 

[upperdeck]

The stories say that 10% of the people in 2011 had 3d tv's. I see a few here but I personally know of one person who has a 3d tv. most people have multiple tv's and i doubt even people who own one usually have more than just one TV with 3d.

 

[Scooch]

I hear ya and feel free to tell me to shut up and drop it...but in product development terms, getting out in front doesn't mean skipping the research. I've gotta think this is was too big for someone to just decree and operationalize use (you could envision that for a show or web content but not for a network and entire technology). Somebody else must've bankrolled and signed off on the risk.

I'm a big, big fan of market research but it can't predict the future. You seem to think the "risk" was economically devastating. Sometimes you take a chance, lose some money, and you move on.

 

[GoSU96]

3d tv is what happens when dorks get to make decisions. i don't want to wear headgear to watch tv, i don't want to have to hold an ipad to watch tv, i don't want to hook up a computer to a tv to watch tv

i want to turn on a big tv on a table, have my hands free for doritos, and watch the stupid game in 2d without thinking

Luddite

 

[swish7]

I have a 3dtv led and a 3d Blu ray. The kids watch the 3d movies and love it. I've got to say Avatar in 3d was pretty friggin cool. Nemo was good but avatar was sick. And today's 3d glasses ain't your old cardboard ones with red and blue cellophane eye holes.

I've never watched 3d sports and don't hardly watch anything in 3d but must say some of the movies are pretty cool.

I have he same setup. I love it for movies.