Three Years Later, 3D TV Still Vying to Become Industry Success Story

That’s up about 4 percent from the 3.78 million 3D TVs shipped in 2011, DisplaySearch said. With total North American LCD TV units shipped in 2012 falling about 0.3 percent from a year earlier, that means 3D TVs as a share of the total LCD TV sets shipped managed to climb to 9.1 percent from 8.7 percent a year earlier, it said. But for industry watchers, a worrisome DisplaySearch statistic is that 3D TVs as a share of total LCD TV shipments in North America declined to 7.3 percent in 2013’s Q1. That’s down from their 9.1 percent share in Q1 a year earlier and is their lowest share since 7.1 percent in Q1 of 2011. In Q1 2010, the first quarter in which DisplaySearch began tracking 3D TV shipments, 3D TVs comprised only 4.8 percent of the total LCD TVs shipped in North America, DisplaySearch said. That’s the lowest share in any quarter DisplaySearch has on record. According to DisplaySearch, TV makers shipped 576,900 3D TV sets in North America in Q1 this year, 23 percent fewer than they shipped in Q1 a year earlier. Total LCD TV shipments in North America fell 4.5 percent in Q1 this year to 7.9 million sets, DisplaySearch said.

Of the “big drop” recorded in Q1 3D TV share and unit shipments, Paul Gagnon, DisplaySearch director of North American TV research, surmises that “3D as a feature is not very desirable to U.S. consumers.” Still, TV makers feel “compelled” or “challenged” as a “competitive measure” to include the 3D feature on mid-range and high-end models 40 inches and larger, Gagnon said: “Therefore, the rise or fall of the 3D mix in North America is tied to the mix of sizes and models. Most manufacturers’ mix of 3D in North America declined in Q1, so the bulk of new incoming models were probably entry-level sets that did not feature 3D.” An unknown variable in all the 3D TV statistics is how many consumers who buy a 3D TV set actively use the 3D feature or are even aware it’s available to them, especially now that manufacturers have all but stopped promoting it.

The sluggish growth in 3D TV set shipments is doing little to rejuvenate excitement in any new 3D TV content offerings. 3D TV delivery has been “a challenging industry so far,” said an executive with 3net, the 3D TV channel jointly owned by Imax, Discovery and Sony, at the last NAB Show (CD April 9 p8). However, the executive, Robert Lister, chief legal and business development officer at Imax, expressed faith that investments like 3net would ultimately pay off if glasses-free 3D TVs became successful.

Even ESPN, which has been one of the few passionate promoters of 3D TV programming in college football, extreme sports, tennis and Masters golf since 3D TV began its push into the home three years ago, has declined recently to discuss ESPN’s 3D schedule for college football games this fall. Nor would ESPN executives field our requests for interviews about ESPN 3D viewership trends on the third anniversary of the network’s June 11, 2010, launch. “Our mission is to serve fans and provide them with content however they wish to receive it,” ESPN spokeswoman Amanda DeCastro said in a statement that sidestepped our questions about ESPN 3D demand or viewership trends. “ESPN 3D is a prime example of the innovation that continues to drive our company,” DeCastro said. “As with much of what we have done in past, with 3D we forged ahead because we believed it would be a great experience for fans. It’s not our MO to wait for a business model to emerge, then play catch-up. We're still in the early days but nobody in sports knows more about 3D than ESPN and fans tell us they believe it enhances their viewing.” Still, ESPN executives last fall acknowledged in hindsight that they wish they had waited two years for 3D TV set sales to develop before launching ESPN 3D (CD Oct 25 p11). However, they have confidently stood by their assurances that ESPN 3D would ultimately succeed. DeCastro said ESPN has no plans to commemorate ESPN 3D’s third anniversary on Tuesday.

ESPN 3D is available to more than 75 million U.S. homes through carriage agreements with AT&T U-verse, Bright House Networks, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Google Fiber, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS, DeCastro said, without saying how many of those homes actively view the channel. Except for AT&T U-verse and Time Warner Cable, none of those companies responded to our queries about how well ESPN 3D was doing.

Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff declined comment on ESPN 3D demand or viewership trends. AT&T U-verse spokeswoman Susan Newsham said ESPN 3D is scheduled to return to the U-verse “channel lineup” under a long-term distribution agreement announced mid-January for carriage of some 70 Disney-owned programming services on U-verse (CD Jan 16 p14). But despite being five months into that agreement, “we don’t have a timeframe or any other details to provide” on the return of ESPN 3D to U-verse, Newsham said. Two years ago, AT&T U-verse famously and abruptly dropped ESPN 3D from its programming lineup, citing a price tag that was too high for the low demand (CD Aug 3/11 p16).