Fox Says Yes to 3D BCS Championship Game Broadcast to CES

By Ken Kerschbaumer

One of college sport’s biggest events, the BCS college football championship game on Jan. 8 in Miami, will get the 3D treatment as Fox Sports plans to produce a 3D version that will be transmitted to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Final production and distribution details are being finalized, but David Hill, Fox Sports chairman, made the announcement this week at the 3-D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.

Early last month, Hill began to hint at a future that involved 3D broadcasting. “Maybe if HD had not come along, the Internet might have taken over, but I don’t think HD is necessarily going to save television. I have always thought that HD is just a stepping stone to 3D,” Hill said. “3D will change everything, and it is not that far away from being reality.”

During his comments at the Summit, however, Hill made it clear that he doesn’t want a move to 3D to replicate the HD transition.

“I hope the TV industry doesn’t get conned again the way we did with HD,” Hill said. “And we got conned. It cost us a fortune to go to HD, but do we get a penny more from the advertisers? Do we get an extra rating point? No. Everybody benefited but the broadcasters.”

From Hill’s perspective, the consumer-electronics manufacturers, the ones who benefitted most from the HD transition, will need to open some wallets to bring 3D into living rooms.

“For 3D to become impactful in the homes of the world, the people that make money are going to have to subsidize it,” Hill said.

To learn more about what Fox has planned and also how other leagues and broadcasters are approaching 3D HD, click here and register for the SVG League Technology Summit on Dec. 16.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters