Sky To Launch 3D Channel, Broadcast Sunday EPL Match In 3D

BSkyB Will Broadcast First Live 3D TV Sports Event With Sunday's EPL Match

BSkyB announced it will launch Sky 3D, Europe's first dedicated 3D TV channel, this April. The company also will become the first TV company in the world to broadcast a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience when it broadcasts Sunday's Manchester United-Arsenal EPL match in 3D. The match will air over the Sky 3D platform to selected pubs in the U.K. and Ireland and will mark the first-ever 3D EPL match broadcast (BSkyB). The AP's Rob Harris reported soccer fans will "have to wear special glasses to watch the 3-D televisions" at nine available venues "as they preview Sky's dedicated 3-D channel." Sky 3D "will be available to pub subscribers before being expanded to regular customers and will initially broadcast one Premier League match a week in the new format" (AP, 1/27). Sky Sports Dir Of Operations Darren Long said that filming in 3D "offers viewers a different experience from HD." Long: "Normal practice is to have a camera high in the stand, but with HD we move closer to the pitch. The camera moves less, too, to give the viewer time to appreciate the image. With golf, for example, we can show every small undulation on a green, so that you can, for instance, for the first time see why a player misses a putt that even in HD appears simple" (TIMESONLINE.co.uk, 1/27).