BCS on Fox going 3-D in theaters

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2008-12-02-bcs-3D_N.htm

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY

Via technology that's rattled around since the Eisenhower era, next month college football is coming to theaters. Fox will announce today plans to show 3-D coverage of the Bowl Championship Series live in theaters.

And Fox Sports Chairman David Hill says Fox hopes to let theatergoers use 3-D glasses to watch February's NASCAR Daytona 500.

Hill says sports in 3-D is "fabulous," and high-def TV "has just been a steppingstone" to get to 3-D. But even though TV sets already being sold are 3-D-ready, he says don't expect TV networks to lead the way.

"It's like that old Who song, Won't Get Fooled Again," Hill says. "Broadcasters had to pay through the nose to launch high def — we're still getting over the financial scars — and didn't get anything back in ratings or ad sales."

So while the BCS on the big screen might serve as an appetizer, he says networks aren't going to underwrite the infrastructure to let millions of couch potatoes see more fully dimensional views of fair catches: "Broadcasters won't do anything until we get everything paid for by the set manufacturers."

While Fox is the first to lead the public in on its experiment, it isn't alone in seeing 3-D as having a future in sports. The NBA, before invited guests such as advertisers, has carried an All-Star Game in 3-D. Thursday, the NFL Network's Oakland Raiders-San Diego Chargers game will be shown to invited viewers in theaters in Boston, Los Angeles and New York.

Even if Fox's 3-D BCS action looks good — remember, this network created the NHL's "glowing puck" in the 1990s — you wonder if many fans will want to wear goofy 3-D glasses. Not to worry, Hill says: "Tommy Hilfiger will make 3-D glasses, and there'll be special 'date' glasses."

And licensed ones, presumably, with official team logos.

Fox was recently outbid for future BCS TV rights by ESPN, which has a financial advantage over broadcast networks. In addition to the TV ad revenues that broadcasters enjoy, cablecaster ESPN also gets hefty fees from cable TV operators. But if more big-event events migrate to cable, says Fox's Hill, they face long-term problems.

"Multi-entertainment platforms" such as broadcast networks "continually refresh fan bases," he says, while ESPN offers only a sports-based "niche. And if you keep your event on a niche base, your audience will eventually die off."

Even if that's true though, the question is how long that might take. After all, everybody's viewers will eventually die.